Customer Feedback Analysis: How to Use Customer Complaints to Boost Sales

Customer Feedback Analysis: How to Use Customer Complaints to Boost Sales
Table of Contents

Do you want to know how successful businesses turn customer complaints into sales? The secret is customer feedback analysis.

By analysing feedback about why customers have bad experiences, businesses can identify areas that need improvement. This allows them to fix issues and improve customer satisfaction. In turn, this can lead to increased sales and a better reputation.

In this article, we will discuss why customer complaints are good for your business, and show you how to gather and analyse customer feedback. We’ll also explore ten common causes of customer dissatisfaction and the best way to fix them!

There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get started!

Why customer complaints are good for business

It’s natural for businesses to want to sweep customer complaints under the rug and hope they will go away. However, it’s important to remember that each complaint is a customer who has gone out of their way to let you know how your business can improve.

Customer complaints are good for businesses in two ways:

First, customer complaints allow you to identify and fix problems - whether that’s a problem with your product, people, or processes - and by acting to address these issues you can prevent further complaints in the future.

Second, customer complaints allow you to learn more about your customer’s wants, needs, and frustrations. Dissatisfied customers aren’t usually looking to cause trouble; they’re just struggling and need support or want to be heard.

Customer feedback analysis allows you to hear customer complaints in their own words so that your business can fix any problems and turn dissatisfaction into advocacy.

Don’t try and avoid negative feedback.

Most customers won’t complain when something goes wrong; research shows that only 1 in 26 unhappy customers complain. The others will simply leave and never return.

Instead, treasure every customer complaint, because it represents an opportunity to improve your business and increase sales!

Gathering customer feedback and negative reviews

Collecting customer feedback can be done in several ways, but it’s important to ensure that you’re getting qualitative feedback from all areas of your customer base. This means focusing on customers who have had a bad experience, as well as those who have had a good experience.

One way to gather customer feedback is through surveys. However, managing your surveys can be time-consuming and expensive, so you may want to consider using a customer feedback platform or social media monitoring tools instead.

Customer feedback software allows businesses to automate feedback data collection and get actionable insights in real-time. Feedback software is also more cost-effective than basic customer surveys because it can be easily configured to get insights across all of the touchpoints you care about.

Another way that customer feedback analysis is done is through social media listening, on channels such as Twitter and Facebook - don’t underestimate how much information you can learn from customers who use these platforms!

Customer experience is a big part of any business’ success. Using customer feedback software allows businesses to learn more about what customers are saying across all touchpoints - both good and bad. This information can be used to improve customer service, marketing, and product development.

When it comes to complaints, don’t ignore them - use them to your advantage!

Many businesses make the mistake of thinking that customer feedback is only valuable when it’s positive. However, negative customer feedback can be more beneficial for businesses because it provides an opportunity to learn and improve.

When businesses understand why customers are unhappy, they can take steps to address issues, prevent unsatisfied customers from leaving, improve loyalty, and drive business growth.

Screenshot of a Customer Feedback Analysis Dashboard

How to analyse customer feedback data

Once you’ve gathered customer feedback, the next step is to analyse it. However, analysing customer feedback manually can be a daunting task. Don’t be put off. You can automate customer feedback analysis quickly and easily - no expensive and complicated machine learning and artificial intelligence tools required!

Here are three steps that will help you get started:

First, read through all of the customer feedback and identify any common themes or problems. This can be done manually, but it’s much easier to use a customer feedback analysis tool that will automatically categorise feedback and identify these patterns for you.

Second, compare customer feedback across touchpoints. This will allow you to get an overview of customer satisfaction for each channel and identify areas where customers are struggling or having problems. For example, if your customer feedback frequently mentions poor product quality but few people complain about customer service, it may be time to focus on improving the manufacturing process.

Third, use customer feedback to improve your customer experience. This may seem obvious, but many businesses don’t do anything with the valuable customer feedback they receive! Feedback that is never acted upon isn’t helpful to anyone, so use customer feedback data to identify areas for improvement and develop customer experience strategies.

The benefits of customer feedback analysis are clear - by understanding what customers want and need, businesses can improve customer satisfaction and increase sales.

3 ways that customer feedback analysis can help your business

The first way customer feedback analysis can help your business is by identifying the root causes of customer dissatisfaction. By understanding why your customers are unhappy, you can develop a plan to fix the problem and improve their experience.

For example, if many customers complain about poor customer service, you might need to hire more staff or provide additional training for your current employees.

The second way customer feedback analysis can help your business is by identifying areas that need improvement. By analysing customer feedback, you can see which aspects of your business are causing the most problems and make changes to improve them.

For example, if your customer feedback analysis shows that customers are unhappy with the value for money of your product or service, you can set out to improve it by cutting costs elsewhere. If customers are unhappy with the speed of your service, you might need to hire more staff or invest in new technology.

customer feedback technology in a coffee shop

The third and final way customer feedback analysis can help your business is by identifying customer needs and preferences. By grouping customer complaints along with positive reviews, you can better understand what your customers like and don’t like about your product or service. This information can be used to improve your marketing strategy, customer service, and the customer experience in general.

By using customer feedback analysis to identify your customer’s needs and preferences, you can improve their experience and turn customer complaints into sales.

Ten common reasons for customer complaints

Your customers have put their faith in you, and when they are not happy, it can have a negative impact on your hard-earned reputation. It can also affect your relationships with your customers, encourage them to take their business elsewhere, and eventually cost you money.

Customers are not always unhappy for the reason you may think they are. There could be multiple reasons for their dissatisfaction. Here we have listed the most common ones.

Poor Customer Service

Customer service can have a huge impact on customer satisfaction. Low customer service often leads to customer complaints, which is why it’s so important for customer service to be top-notch.

How to fix poor customer service

Businesses should work to improve customer satisfaction by offering customer-friendly internal processes, ensuring customer complaints are handled quickly and efficiently, listening closely to customer feedback, and more.

Poor Quality or Defective Products

When businesses send out products that are of poor quality or have defects, it reflects poorly on customer satisfaction. Customers expect a certain level of quality from the products that they buy, and if those expectations aren’t met customer service is likely to be poor too.

How to fix issues with bad quality or defective products

There are several different ways to fix customer frustrations with your product. One way is to offer a warranty or guarantee so that if there’s anything wrong with the product, you can replace it.

Another way to avoid dissatisfaction with your products is by listening closely to customer feedback and incorporating customer suggestions into future product iterations.

You can also try to make the return process easy and customer-friendly. This will encourage customers to return products that they’re not happy with instead of just abandoning them.

Additionally, businesses should be proactive about fixing defects when they’re reported by customers. Doing so will show customers that you value their satisfaction enough to act quickly.

Incorrect or Poorly Executed Promotions

If a business runs a promotion that is poorly executed or makes incorrect promises, customer satisfaction is likely to be impacted.

How to fix incorrect promotions

To avoid complaints about promotions, it’s important to ensure that you understand customer expectations before running a promotion. Businesses should also be sure that they can fulfill any promised customer benefits.

Businesses should also strive to fulfill customer expectations, especially if the customer has provided feedback about what they expect from your promotions.

Being Ignored or Not Taken Seriously

If a customer feels like they aren’t being listened to, or if their concerns are taken lightly by your business, they will be dissatisfied with their customer experience.

How to fix customers feeling that they are being ignored or not taken seriously

Having good training for customer service representatives is essential for ensuring that they take customer feedback seriously and address customer concerns promptly.

It’s also important to have systems in place that allow customers to easily provide feedback about their experiences. This will help you identify any areas where your customers feel like they’re not being taken seriously.

Businesses can also try to show customers that they’re listening by thanking them for their feedback and implementing their suggestions whenever possible.

Delays and Slow Service

Businesses that can’t meet customer expectations for speed often experience customer frustration. No customer wants to wait too long for customer service, out-of-stock items, or anything else.

How to fix issues with delays and slow service

When it comes to fixing complaints about slow service, communication is key. Businesses should keep their customers up-to-date on the progress of customer requests and be clear about how long it will take to meet customer expectations.

High Prices or Low Perceived Value

Customers’ feelings of price affordability are highly subjective, so when they believe a product or service is overpriced in comparison to the value it delivers, satisfaction levels are likely to be poor.

How to fix customers feeling that the price is too high or the value too low

If a customer feels like the price of your products and services are too high, you should first find out why.

If customer perceptions are based on inaccurate information, businesses can try to educate customers about the value they receive from their products and services. Businesses can also incentivise purchases with offers that highlight the benefits of buying their products over similar ones at lower prices or with inferior quality/features.

Unclear or Confusing Policies

When customer service policies are unclear, customers often feel frustrated. This is because they have to spend time trying to figure out what the policy says and how it applies to their situation.

How to fix customers feeling that policies are unclear or confusing

Policy clarity can be improved by making sure that all of your policies are easy to find and using clear, concise language. You should also make sure that you train customer service representatives on how to explain your policies to customers.

Another way to improve customer satisfaction with your policies is to let them know that you’re willing to make exceptions if the customer has a reasonable explanation for why they need an exception.

Not Feeling Valued as a Customer

Customers want to feel valued, so if they don’t believe that you’re doing your best to keep them as a customer, they’ll leave. This may be due to a perception that the customer they’re being ignored, that their loyalty is not appreciated, or that other options are more customer-friendly.

How to make customers feel valued

There are several things you can do to make sure your customers feel valued. First, you should express your appreciation for their business. You can also show customer appreciation by providing excellent customer service and going above and beyond to solve customer problems.

Another way to make customers feel valued is to reward them for their loyalty by offering special treatment or discounts from time to time.

Poorly Executed Changes

When businesses make changes without considering how they will affect customers, it often leads to customer frustration. This is because the changes may not be what the customer wanted or they may have been implemented in a way that made them difficult to use.

How to make changes without frustrating customers

Clear, consistent communication and providing notice are essential if you wish to make changes without frustrating your customers. If possible, you can also give customers a chance to provide feedback on proposed changes.

Finally, make sure that the changes you make are beneficial to your customers and your business. Do not make changes just for the sake of change - this will only frustrate your customers and cost you business.

Lack of Personalisation

One of the reasons customers leave businesses is because they feel like they’re not being treated as individuals. This can be due to a lack of personalisation, such as when businesses use generic customer service scripts or send the same offer to all their customers, or when loyalty isn’t recognised.

How to personalise customer interactions

There are several ways you can personalise customer interactions, including customer segmentation and customer relationship management tools. Another way to do this is by using marketing tools like automated emails, targeted promotions, or loyalty programmes that allow you to reward customers based on their interests.

Key takeaway

If you want to expand your business, you may need to examine the feedback you’re receiving more closely. By learning from complaints and implementing changes that improve your business processes or products/services based on customer needs or expectations, you can turn customer complaints into customer loyalty and sales.

What are your thoughts? Do you have more ideas or examples of how to improve customer satisfaction through feedback analysis? Feel free to leave a comment below!

Tom Sutton

Tom Sutton

Co-founder, TRACX

Tom is the co-founder of TRACX, a no-code marketing platform that allows local business owners to collect customer feedback and create engaging marketing campaigns. With over 17 years of experience in entrepreneurship, product development, and marketing for businesses large and small, Tom is currently responsible for developing product and marketing strategies for TRACX.

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