How can you use market research tools and software to gather customer feedback?

2 Collect customer feedback

The next step to use market research tools and software to gather customer feedback is to collect the feedback from your customers. Depending on the tools and software you chose, you might have different ways to collect customer feedback, such as sending surveys via email, SMS, or web links, embedding feedback forms or widgets on your website or app, launching chatbots on your social media platforms or messaging apps, monitoring online mentions and reviews of your brand, products, or services, and more. When collecting customer feedback, you need to make sure that you ask relevant, clear, and concise questions that address your research objectives, avoid leading or biased questions that influence the answers, and offer incentives or rewards to motivate customers to participate and provide honest and useful feedback.

3 Analyze customer feedback

The third step to use market research tools and software to gather customer feedback is to analyze the feedback you collected. Most of the tools and software you used to collect customer feedback will also provide you with tools and features to analyze the feedback, such as dashboards, charts, graphs, tables, reports, summaries, and more. These tools and features will help you to organize, visualize, and interpret the feedback data, and identify patterns, trends, insights, and opportunities. For example, you might use a dashboard to see the overall results of your survey, such as the response rate, the average satisfaction score, the most common issues or complaints, and the most requested features or improvements. You might use a chart or a graph to compare the feedback from different segments of customers, such as age, gender, location, or purchase history. You might use a table or a report to drill down into the details of each question, answer, or comment, and see the frequency, distribution, and correlation of the feedback.

4 Act on customer feedback

The final step to use market research tools and software to gather customer feedback is to act on the feedback you analyzed. The feedback you collected and analyzed will help you to understand your customers better, and to improve your products, services, and processes to meet their needs and expectations. You need to use the feedback to make informed and strategic decisions for your supplier sourcing, such as choosing the best suppliers, negotiating the best prices and terms, ensuring the quality and consistency of the supplies, and maintaining good relationships with the suppliers. You also need to use the feedback to communicate with your customers, and to show them that you value their opinions and suggestions, and that you are willing to act on them. You can do this by thanking them for their feedback, updating them on the changes or improvements you made based on their feedback, asking them for further feedback or referrals, and rewarding them for their loyalty and support.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?