Every business needs customers to keep running and having loyal ones is inexpensive compared to getting new ones. To make sure that you do not lose these loyal customers, you must always remember that they are the king. In other words, your customers’ opinion matters a lot.
From being completely satisfied with your products or services to thinking that they need a complete overhaul, your customers’ opinions can be very diverse. It is your duty as a business owner to find creative ways to gather this diverse opinion in form of feedback and use it to inform your next decisions to please your customers.
One of the creative ways to get this feedback is using print marketing. Since print materials can be read by your customers at their convenience, it has a great advantage to your business compared to digital advertising which can easily close especially when it interrupts what the viewer is reading.
Why you need to collect customer feedback;
- Understand customer buying preferences
- Discover opportunities for new products and services
- Know the value of your services
- Discover areas that need to be improved
- Learn your customers’ communication preference
Ways you can collect feedback with printed items
Easy to Return design Surveys: Surveys are a very important piece that is used to identify trends and get a big-picture of how your customers think. Ask questions on the survey to understand what they need as well as their expectations. You can print the survey, send it to your customers or attach it to their purchases and give them the chance to reply online. A fine design print will lure them to read and also motivate them to reply. Remember, the survey is about your customers not about you.
Employee Shout-outs: Here’s another effective method to get your customer feedbacks using printed items. Design a special form with card design called employee shout-out form and attach them to every purchase. This form is designed to let the customer or client compliment the employee who served them for a job well done. Although this type of feedback might appear to be one sided, however, the quality of feedback you’ll receive will let you know how satisfied your customers are with your services.
Customer Feedback form: Here’s another way to collect information regarding what goes on in the mind of your customers. Let your customers know you care about their thoughts and needs by allowing them to communicate using printed feedback forms. You can slide this into their shopping bags or set of counter/tables every time they visit your shop. By getting this from you, they’ll know you care and hence build their loyalty to your business.
Use Signages: Permanent signage is another way you can easily prompt your customers to give you feedback. Print signages and post them at strategic points at your business premises where customers can see them. You could paste them at your waiting area, loading dock, billing office, and over time, this will serve as a very effective way to collect information in the long term.
Complaint Box: Let your customers know that you care about their grievances using a complaint box at your shop or office. Make available printed forms with category headers or prompts to guide them in dropping a constructive complaint. This is one way to resolve situations before they explode.
Blown-in cards: If you do publish periodicals, magazines, or newsletters, attaching feedback forms to them will also be a good way to collect data from your readers. Personalize the information on these cards using the data from their subscription and also, make sure to provide postage prepaid so they can easily return the forms. If you don’t own a magazine or printed newsletters, you can also team up with someone who has and use their platform to publish your feedback forms. Remember, it’s always important to put a type of reward on this feedback especially when you’ll also be sending them to customers you don’t have an existing relationship.
Thank You cards: Feedback shouldn’t always be about you or your business. It’s important to appreciate your customers rather than just demand information from them. Use thank you cards to thank your customers for patronizing your business. Send them custom postcards or greeting cards to thank them for completing a survey. Doing this does not only show appreciation but paves a way for you to build customer loyalty, boost their personal journey and also create an opportunity to reward those who completed your survey by making them unique offers.
Thank you cards also create the avenue for you to encourage your customers to refer people to your products and services. You could just design handout cards or flyers bearing the title “Tell a Friend” or something similar and then incentivize it. For example, you say that if they get a friend to sign up using their referral, both of them will get a 10% discount on their next purchase.
In summary, always remember that people love it when asked to share their opinion, so be very creative in the questions you ask. Do ask leading questions that will confirm your preconceptions, don’t ask questions that have a hidden agenda to make sales, and don’t ask questions that will be difficult for your customers to answer. And most importantly, make sure that your prints are very neat and professional. Using Printsouq is a guaranteed way to create fine prints that will not only help you to make more sales but also show true professionalism and build stronger relationships with your customers.