3 Ways Customer Feedback Can Supercharge Your Online Retail Strategy
January 26, 2012 By Ariel FinkelsteinI'm often asked by online retailers how using an online feedback solution is going to help them increase conversions and sales. On the surface, the question is quite reasonable. They know that providing the products and services their target audience wants, along with competitive pricing and a great user experience, is a winning strategy in e-commerce. What will listening to their customers really add to what they already know about growing their business?
Based on Kampyle's experience working with tens of thousands of online retailers, it's determined that customer feedback impacts your business in three transformational ways:
1. You gain competitive and actionable insight that drives increased conversions and revenues. When designing and strategizing your site, the best usability experts are your customers. Without their feedback you might think you know what they want, but you could be way off. The success of your website’s funnels from search to checkout all depend on a high conversion rate. Getting conversion rate optimization right is like shooting in the dark when lacking real insight from your customers.
For example, Hotels Combined, an international hotel comparison site, noticed on its Google Analytics account that one of its search features was hardly being used. It assumed the feature didn’t provide real value and removed it. Hotels Combined immediately began receiving feedback from a small but high-value group of users stating that this feature was one of the main reasons they liked using the site and they wanted it back. Without this incredible feedback, the online travel site would have no doubt alienated those important users (and their wallets), all the while thinking it had done the right thing.
Takeaway No. 1: Listening to customers isn't only about making them feel like you truly care (although this is very important of course). Rather, customer feedback is all about gaining a competitive advantage with real insight into what influenced your customers’ overall experience and satisfaction level. Improved customer experiences directly impact and improve conversion rates, which in turn increases revenue.




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