A business owner will try to make all ends meet to achieve their goals and run a successful business. But, how will they evaluate the performance of their efforts and their baby; THE PRODUCT/SERVICE.

Before answering this question, we’ll like to ask you, “When was the last time you purchased without looking at the customer ratings?” or “Ordered food from a 3-star rating restaurant?” or “Booked a hotel without looking at the traveller ratings?”.

Surprised how these validations are a so common in your everyday decisions? Before we move forward, let's understand

What is Feedback?‍

Feedback is a response within a system that influences the continued activity or productivity of that system. To iterate better, it is a performance measure of your efforts and the product/service. Customer review is an integral part of brand growth. It helps the brand to listen to their customers, understand the results of their actions, and the experience or the memories those actions would have left behind. Now the eternal question is:‍

Why is Customer Feedback Important for Brands?

Collecting consumer insights helps the businesses in:

1. Increasing Customer Engagement: More engagement means more clarity of consumer requirements and behaviour, helping the business gain customer trust thus, increased Customer Retention and loyalty.

2. Product improvement: As a child is perfect for a parent, your product/service will always be perfect for you. But this is not enough to make sales. Collecting buyer’s opinions can help you find those hidden flaws and understand what the consumer wants. After all, the product is made for them and should stand up to their expectations to cater more sales.

3. Brand Promotion: Consumer ratings and reviews act like a freeway of marketing the product through validation, testimonials, and referrals.

The above factors play a crucial role in a customer's post-purchase journey. But before we dwell further, it is necessary to understand, How brands collect feedback from customers?

1. Initiate SMS surveys: After emails, SMS is the second most preferred way to collect buyer reviews. The consumer gets an SMS with a link on the registered number post-purchase.
   But the click-open rate of promotional SMS is less than 1%, making it ineffective.
2. A follow-up email: This is the most common way of collecting post-purchase feedback.
   But when was the last time you clicked on those emails?
   Analyses state that Email collection is only 13%, and the bounce rate is 35%.
3. Adding customer feedback surveys to the WIFI network: Staying online is a game today. To leverage the thirst people have for social media existence, brands add feedback survey forms to their WIFI network. Want to go online? First, provide us with a review. This technique might work in Western countries but in India.
   In India, mobile data is cheaper, and network availability is high.
   Thus, people tend not to use free wi-fi as much as in European countries.
4. Creating feedback forms: Another common practice to fetch client insights is using paper feedback forms. Remember the last time you had lunch at a new place while the waiter came back with a feedback card along with your cheque? Did you fill it? Or was it just a fun activity for your kids?
   Data is lost when using paper cards, and results captured through this technique are usually not apt. Moreover, wastage of paper is another drawback, criticized by a lot of clients.

While all these methods might seem familiar and convenient, some other options can be more effective and result-oriented.

Opting for customer engagement platforms like Karnival Suite provides the brands with strategies to engage customer opinions and surveys by sharing smart receipts at the Point of Sale (POS). We are familiar with your urge to understand how this can help you, so let's explore. How would smart receipts add value to the feedback collection process?

The answer is simple, "Strike the iron when it is hot!"

• Ask for feedback at the right time: While capturing valuable responses asking the right questions at the right time is very important. Smart receipts give you a chance to ask the questions just post-purchase and fetch the most candid and honest results. Pantaloons saw a jump of 300% in accurate feedback collection
• Value-Added Customer Experience: Smart receipts help the brands in enhancing the customer experience. They not only help in seeking valuable consumer responses but also broadcast your action on it.
• Real-time data: Store-level NPS and feedback are simple, visual, online, and satisfying. It captures almost real-time data and ensures an approximately 90% response rate.
• Authentic data: It helps to improve the collection of validated customer phone numbers, email IDs, and persona details.

Does this tickle your GREY MATTER?

If yes, you are right!

Brands can improve their feedback collection process to capture better consumer behaviour and requirements. Adapting to this will help in better feedback analysis and will generate more sales and better results.