Chapters:

1. Sources of customer feedback
2. Ways to analyze customer feedback data
3. Take action on your customer feedback analysis
4. Integrate customer feedback analysis into your business strategy

The information you need to grow your business already exists. It’s out there in the world — you just need to find and harness it. Your customers are already talking about your brand whether you want them to or not, and within those conversations they’re leaving valuable insights.

But to reap the benefits of customer feedback, you have to know where to collect it, how to analyze it, and what to do with it, so you can keep your customers coming back again and again. 

Sources of customer feedback

Before you can start your customer feedback analysis, you must first collect it. Customer feedback comes in many different forms. It’s important to know where to look for it to avoid missing important information about how customers feel about your business.

Reviews

Reviews offer a goldmine of information about your target audience. Within customer reviews, you’ll find genuine, unfiltered opinions shared by customers who have firsthand experience with your product.

When you analyze your reviews, you can find recurring pain points or common issues your customers are facing. These pain points serve as opportunities for improvement. Look at reviews for other similar products on the market, too, to learn what customers like and dislike about them. You can use this information to strategize improvements to your product offering based on demand. 

But how do you get customers to actually leave reviews? Make it easy and convenient for customers to leave reviews — provide clear instructions and user-friendly review platforms. You can also streamline the review process by minimizing steps and eliminating unnecessary barriers, such as requiring account creation. 

Prompt customers to leave a review while their experience is fresh in their minds so you can increase the likelihood of receiving feedback — like by sending them follow-up emails right after a customer makes a purchase. Make it convenient by including a link to your website and/or review platforms.

You can even take it one step further by including a star-rating scale within the body of the email where they can rate their customer service experience or your product with one click.

Review platforms like Yelp, Google, Tripadvisor, and industry-specific sites provide a wealth of info for your customer feedback analysis. If you want people to leave more reviews on these sites, use the direct link to your company’s page on that platform in your review request communications. Then monitor these platforms regularly to collect feedback.

Satisfaction surveys

Satisfaction surveys are an opportunity to gather detailed and specific feedback from customers. You can design the survey to ask specific questions that dig deep into customers’ experiences and expectations, allowing you to uncover valuable insights on what needs to be improved.

With a satisfaction survey, you can get more specific and targeted feedback than you can with reviews. You can ask customers’ opinions about the quality of your products, the level of customer service they received, and your brand in general. If you find commonalities in their answers on a certain topic, you can make a plan to escalate the feedback and implement changes.

For example, if your survey answers consistently show that customers aren’t happy with the quality of your product, work with your product, QA, and other teams to identify where you can improve.

To encourage customers to participate in satisfaction surveys, keep them concise. Lengthy surveys can discourage participation. Rather than asking a lot of questions, focus on a few key questions that provide the most actionable insights. 

Clearly communicate the purpose and benefits of the survey to customers. Explain how their feedback will contribute to improving products, services, or the overall customer experience and highlight that their opinions will be considered for future enhancements. If it’s within your budget, consider offering incentives or rewards to customers who complete the survey.

Use multiple channels to deliver timely surveys, so you can cater to customer preferences. Offer options such as email, SMS, website pop-ups, or mobile app notifications. For example, after their product has been delivered, send them a mobile app notification asking them to complete a survey to rate their satisfaction with your company and product.

Social media comments and messages 

Social media platforms provide your customers with a space to share their experiences, opinions, and feedback. Businesses can leverage social media comments and messages to gather customer feedback and gain valuable insights. You can use both user-generated content (UGC) — posts created by customers, including reviews, photos, videos, and testimonials related to your brand’s products or services — and responses to your own brand posts. 

Monitor the comments and interactions on UGC posts to uncover authentic customer feedback. Look for recurring themes, sentiments, and specific pain points mentioned by customers. For example, if many folks are consistently saying your clothing products tend to run small, you can bring that to your product team and work with them on a resolution like Vertbaudet did with a maternity line.

Or consider adding a sizing chart and size info to your product descriptions to help customers understand your brands’ particular measurements.  

Also, look at your own product posts and direct messages for customer feedback and, as with UGC content, search for commonalities in the commentary. 

Customer support interactions 

Customer support interactions are a valuable opportunity to gather customer feedback. These interactions, whether through phone calls, live chat, email, or support tickets, offer a direct line of communication to customers who may have questions, concerns, or suggestions. Consider implementing a workflow for logging customer feedback during these interactions so you can capture and analyze valuable insights more effectively.

Your workflow could be as simple as asking agents to document feedback in your CRM. Or you could employ a specific feedback tool that they would use during each interaction. Ask agents to include key details when documenting feedback, such as the customer’s name, contact information, date of interaction, nature of the issue or suggestion, and any additional context to give a comprehensive view of the feedback.

Regularly review and analyze the logged feedback to extract meaningful consumer insights. Look for common themes, recurring issues, or emerging trends that can inform product enhancements, identify training opportunities for support teams, or drive process improvements. 

Online forums and communities

Online platforms like Reddit and Quora allow individuals to engage in discussions, seek advice, and share their experiences with other consumers. You can tap into these online communities to gather feedback and information to improve your products and overall customer experience. 

Start by establishing a regular cadence — such as monthly or quarterly — to collect data from online forums and communities. Set aside time to search for discussions, threads, or posts related to your brand, products, or industry. You can filter through the platforms to look for mentions of your brand, products, or services. 

Document any insights you get from these platforms so you can analyze the sentiment expressed in the discussions. Use these insights to gauge customer satisfaction levels and identify areas of concern. Look for recurring themes or common issues mentioned by multiple users. This analysis can provide insights into product strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for product enhancement.

Ways to analyze customer feedback data

There’s a few key ways to analyze feedback to get the most valuable insights. Use these tactics to get a more holistic view of your customers’ perceptions and feelings toward your brand and product. 

Key themes and trends

Categorizing and grouping customer feedback into distinct topics or clusters that share common characteristics helps you make sense of vast amounts of unstructured data, such as customer reviews, open-ended survey responses, and social media comments. 

Recognizing themes and trends in your customer feedback analysis can inform product development and enhancement strategies. By aligning product features with customer needs and desires, you’re better equipped to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

There’s several tools and techniques to use when you want to identify key themes and trends in customer feedback. 

• Text mining: Text-mining tools analyze unstructured text data to identify patterns and extract relevant information. Natural language processing (NLP) techniques are commonly used in text mining to identify sentiment, keywords, and themes from customer feedback

• Topic modeling: Topic modeling is an NLP technique that groups similar words or phrases into clusters, representing specific topics within the data. Algorithms like Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) are used for topic modeling to uncover hidden themes

• Cluster analysis: Cluster analysis is a statistical technique used to group similar data points based on their characteristics. In customer feedback analysis, cluster analysis can be applied to groups of customers with similar feedback, enabling businesses to identify distinct customer segments

After you’ve gathered the information and categorized it, start by prioritizing themes and issues based on their frequency, impact on customer experience, and alignment with business goals. Addressing high-priority items first ensures an efficient use of resources.

Sentiment analysis

Sentiment analysis, also known as opinion mining, is the process of using data to determine the sentiment or emotion expressed in all types of customer feedback. This analysis categorizes the text as positive, negative, or neutral, providing valuable insights into customer perceptions and feelings toward a product, brand, or service. 

Sentiment analysis helps identify specific pain points and issues that customers may be facing. Businesses can use this information to prioritize improvements and address critical concerns.

To conduct this analysis, brands use automated tools that review text with NLP algorithms. Certain tools (like Bazaarvoice’s Insights & Reports ) offer specific and actionable recommendations to strengthen marketing efforts. Insights & Reports provides a holistic view of consumers’ sentiment across retail channels. With the use of automated tools, businesses can monitor customer sentiment in real time, enabling rapid responses to negative sentiment and the timely identification of emerging trends or issues.

Interpreting sentiment-analysis results involves understanding the distribution of sentiment (positive, negative, neutral) and the context in which it occurs using four key steps. 

• Segmentation: Segment the data based on relevant factors, such as product categories, customer demographics, or time periods. This allows for more granular analysis and enables targeted improvements

• Contextual analysis: Consider the context in which sentiments are expressed. Sometimes, customer feedback may appear negative but include constructive criticism that can drive positive changes

• Comparisons: Compare sentiment analysis results over different time periods or against competitors to identify trends or changes in customer perception

• Actionable insights: Translate sentiment analysis results into actionable insights. Use the information to drive product enhancements, adjust marketing strategies, and prioritize customer experience improvements

Sentiment analysis gives you valuable customer feedback insights that allow you to make data-driven decisions to strengthen your product offerings.

Quantitative analysis

This customer feedback analysis approach involves the use of metrics, key performance indicators (KPIs), and numerical data. It involves converting qualitative feedback into quantifiable data for analysis, so businesses can measure and track customer satisfaction, identify trends, and make data-backed decisions. 

Quantitative metrics allow you to compare your performance over time. This process aids in setting performance targets and monitoring progress toward achieving them. It also reduces your reliance on assumptions and intuition. It enables you to make informed choices based on concrete, data-driven evidence.

Tracking quantitative feedback effectively requires four steps.

1. Establish baseline metrics: Begin by establishing baseline metrics for customer satisfaction and other key performance indicators. These metrics serve as reference points for comparison in the future
2. Collect data regularly: Continuously collect quantitative data from customer surveys, feedback forms, and other sources. This data can include ratings, scores, and numerical responses
3. Use visualization tools: Utilize data visualization tools like charts and graphs to represent quantitative data visually. This makes it easier to spot trends and patterns over time
4. Set up tracking mechanisms: Implement tracking mechanisms to capture changes in customer sentiment and satisfaction over specific periods, such as monthly or quarterly

Create an ongoing plan to analyze the quantitative data to identify trends and changes in customer feedback. Look for improvements or declines in key metrics and investigate underlying factors.

Take action on your customer feedback analysis

Acting on customer feedback is crucial for driving product improvements, enhancing customer satisfaction, and fostering loyalty — it’s why you collect it in the first place! When a brand responds to a review, be it positive or negative, both past and future shoppers pay attention.

Prioritize feedback

When customers share urgent concerns or complaints, quick action shows that their feedback is valued and taken seriously — 91% of shoppers say a brand should respond to social media posts the same day that they’re posted.

Failing to address critical issues promptly can lead to customer frustration, negative word-of-mouth, and potentially lost business. Start by creating categories for feedback based on severity and impact.

• Urgent or critical: Identify feedback that requires immediate attention, such as product defects, service outages, or safety concerns. Escalate these issues to relevant departments for immediate resolution

• High priority: Address feedback that has a significant impact on the customer experience or a considerable number of customers. These issues should be tackled promptly to prevent widespread dissatisfaction

• Medium priority: Feedback that indicates areas for improvement but may not have an immediate, severe impact can be categorized as medium priority. Plan for timely action on these issues

• Low priority: Feedback that represents minor improvements or isolated incidents can be classified as low priority. Address these issues when higher-priority concerns have already been addressed

Prioritizing your feedback lets you know if you need to escalate it to other people or departments. 

Escalate feedback

Escalating feedback becomes necessary when addressing certain issues that require cross-functional collaboration or input from specialized departments. 

• Technical issues: When customers report complex technical issues or software bugs that need involvement from the technical or development team for resolution

• Product suggestions: Feedback suggesting significant product enhancements or new features that require input from the product management team

• Legal or compliance matters: Feedback involving legal or compliance concerns that need involvement from the legal department

• High-value customers: When feedback comes from high-value or key customers, it may warrant special attention and escalation to senior management or dedicated customer relationship managers

Create a plan for escalating feedback that includes which situations need to be escalated and the proper workflow for escalating feedback. For example, if you have urgent/critical feedback, give a time frame (e.g., one to two hours) on when it needs to be escalated to a senior team member in the relevant department.

Define the channel folks should use to escalate feedback, too, whether via email, a messaging system, or a call. 

Monitor feedback-driven improvements

When feedback results in improvements or changes to your product offering, monitor these changes so you can evaluate the impact. Monitoring feedback-driven improvements helps you understand the effectiveness of your actions, assess customer sentiment post-improvement, and make data-driven decisions for further enhancements.

Establish a customer feedback loop so you can continuously improve. You can encourage customers to share feedback on the changes made. You can even follow up with customers by sending them post-implementation surveys or customer interviews to gather additional insights.

Examples of brands leveraging customer feedback analysis

Success stories can offer insights and inspiration if you’re trying to leverage feedback for your own brand. Here’s two examples of brands that used customer feedback analysis to drive results. 

Fresh uses reviews and ratings to increase engagement and revenue

Fresh, a beauty and skincare brand, faced the challenge of increasing brand awareness, building trust, and driving customer engagement to boost product sales. To address this, Fresh partnered with Bazaarvoice and used our Ratings & Reviews and Retail Syndication tools. Collecting and sharing authentic reviews across its website and partner sites helped Fresh create an inviting shopping experience that resonated with potential customers.

UGC allowed customers to gain insights into product efficacy and quality, compensating for the inability to test products physically. As a result, Fresh witnessed a remarkable 10.7% conversion rate for those engaging with UGC and experienced an astounding 7,702% increase in review volume.

This impactful feedback loop led to an overall revenue increase of $1.48 million, illustrating the power of leveraging customer feedback to drive engagement and revenue growth.

Électro Dépôt makes customer feedback central to its marketing strategy

Électro Dépôt, an online electronics retailer, successfully integrated customer feedback into its marketing strategy with the help of Bazaarvoice. To address its challenges of raising brand awareness and identifying products that fell short of premium quality standards, it established a community of engaged customers who actively shared product reviews and interacted through questions and answers.

By analyzing customer feedback, Électro Dépôt identified product strengths and areas for improvement, empowering it to provide an authentic and informative shopping experience.

The inclusion of customer reviews on product pages helped Électro Dépôt double conversion rates for reviewed products while maintaining an impressive average product satisfaction score of 4.1 out of 5.

Integrate customer feedback analysis into your business strategy

In today’s competitive marketplace, you need all of the tools in your tool belt to help you understand your customers and meet their demands. As we explore various ways to collect, analyze, and leverage customer feedback analysis, one thing is clear: data-driven decisions fueled by authentic customer insights can lead to transformative growth.

And with Bazaarvoice, you have access to unmatched solutions like Ratings & Reviews and Insights & Reports to empower your business. With our tools, you can increase your number of reviews and ratings, gain actionable intelligence, and drive profound customer engagement.

To learn more, join Caroline Macmillan, E-commerce Product Content Merchandiser at Arc’teryx, as she outlines Arc’teryx’s strategic approach to responding to customer feedback, like Q&A and reviews, in our on-demand masterclass Arc’teryx’s review strategy: Acquiring and responding to customer feedback.

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The community surrounding your brand is like a best friend who always provides honest feedback, even when you don’t want it. And input from your community can be one of the most effective ways to make meaningful product improvements. By leveraging feedback, you can continuously build better products while strengthening customer relationships.

3 ways to improve products through customer feedback

Customer feedback can empower lean marketing teams to make customer-centric decisions, refine strategies, build brand loyalty, and foster innovation.

Let’s look at three strategies for harnessing customer feedback to improve your products.

1. Gauge community sentiment with social listening

With 74% of consumers using social media to guide their purchasing decisions, it’s crucial for brands to have a presence on these platforms. Don’t just observe from the sidelines – actively engage with the community to discover what people are saying about your products.

It’s normal to be totally attached to your brand, so viewing your products from an objective perspective can be hard to do. Building a strong community means taking others’ opinions seriously. Social listening provides a platform for unbiased feedback and the wake-up call you might need. Plus, customers who’ve had their voices heard are more inclined to recommend your business to others, which can significantly contribute to organic growth and expanding your customer base.

As Tony Tran writes for Hootsuite, “Your customers are telling you what they want from your brand. If you care about them, you need to take a look at the insights you might gain from social listening.”

Social listening may seem overwhelming at first, especially when sifting through negative comments. However, don’t be discouraged. Over half of global marketers use social listening to understand changing customer preferences and gain valuable insights from customer feedback.

Social listening tips for businesses

When social listening, be sure to:

• Cast a wide net, and don’t focus all your attention on one social network. Expand your reach by maintaining an active presence on multiple social media platforms. This ensures that feedback from all segments of your audience is represented and provides a more comprehensive view of their opinions on your products. Different age groups and lifestyles use platforms like TikTok and Facebook, so having a presence on both allows you to hear from a broader range of demographics

• Take action and engage with your audience every chance you get. Listening is one thing, but validating your customer’s feedback through engagement fosters a stronger relationship. A 2021 SproutSocial-sponsored report found that 70% of consumers develop a stronger bond with a brand through social media interaction. That bond will lead to more valuable feedback and loyalty

• Learn from what your competitors are doing. You can apply social listening to what your competitors are doing on social media, too. Regularly check out how they interact with their audience and gauge how differently your community behaves compared to your competition This will give you a good idea of whether your social efforts are working or could use some tweaking

Whatever the best approach for your brand, keeping an ear to the ground and taking social feedback seriously will help you deliver more value to your customers.

2. Gain customer feedback insights through at-home focus groups

At-home focus groups are a fantastic way to generate excitement while also gathering in-depth customer feedback from your customers.

An at-home focus group involves participants receiving product samples in the mail. Once they’ve experienced the product and formulated an opinion, they have the chance to volunteer their thoughts. These focus groups make a lasting impact because:

1. The customers get to keep the product sample — everyone loves free stuff!
2. Sharing feedback makes them feel seen and heard by the brand
3. They get a chance to try new products risk-free

While customer feedback on social networks can be all over the place, at-home focus groups allow you to really dig deep into your product’s positives — and flaws. Whether you survey these customers or organize a conference call with participants, you can guide the conversation to where it’s most helpful. And what’s more, receiving product samples motivates people to give quality feedback, with 45 reviews generated for every 50 product samples sent out.

Another key driver here is the interest that product sampling sparks. Consumers appreciate the generosity and feel that your brand takes their opinions seriously. This helps maintain loyalty with existing customers and creates memorable experiences for those just starting their journey with your brand.

3. Inform product improvements through negative reviews

It’s totally normal to be ecstatic about glowing reviews, but you should actually spend more time analyzing negative customer feedback. These less-than-favorable reviews will help you identify product flaws that went unnoticed during development and testing.

There’s typically no shortage of negative feedback to draw from, either. Consumers, on average, are 21% more likely to leave a review after a negative experience than a positive one. So the best move is to turn this sea of negativity into lasting improvements to your products.

If not, ignoring negative feedback can damage your brand’s reputation. Take Nintendo, for example. They’ve famously soured their standing among long-time supporters by seemingly disregarding — and in some cases even removing — products and features that customers have been vocal about wanting. Nintendo has decades of brand identity and billions in revenue to fall back on, though — most businesses aren’t so lucky.

So, while it might make sense that your main priority should be hoarding 5-star reviews so other customers see them, the opposite can be true. Constant praise won’t help you identify your shortcomings. Do you want to win 100 new customers via positive reviews or fundamentally improve your product to gain 1000s of repeat customers?

As Neil Patel says, “treat every kind of feedback you receive as a gift. It’s a free piece of information that you can use to improve and grow your business.” Basically, instead of being offended by negative feedback, think of it as a free, constant, and substantial source of insight into how you can improve. Many businesses pay top dollar for that type of guidance.

Brands that use customer feedback build loyalty

Remember, your customers are more than a source of revenue. Leveraging their feedback is crucial for product improvement because it provides valuable insights into your customers’ needs, preferences, and pain points. 

You can identify areas of improvement and make informed decisions about product enhancements by using social listening to gauge community sentiment, at-home focus groups to gain deeper insights, and negative reviews to inform key product improvements.

This iterative feedback loop helps align your products with customer expectations, enhances user experience, fosters customer loyalty, and ultimately leads to better and more customer-centric products.

Learn how to build relationships with your customers to discover what they care about in our e-book below.

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In recent years, we’ve seen that ‘convenience’ and ‘product benefits’ have replaced ‘brand name’ more and more as a driving decision factor. In fact, in our most recent survey — research of consumer packaged goods (CPG) in North America — we found that less than a tenth (only 8%) of respondents listed ‘brand name’ as an important attribute for new CPG purchases, so we were curious when doing the survey how shoppers were choosing their CPG products, and why. 

CPG research key takeaways

The research of nearly 12,500 members of our Influenster community across North America explores the latest habits, attitudes, and sentiments for CPG products including food, beverages, baby products, pet products, household products, makeup, and skin care products.

What did we find?

1. Social responsibility: consumers are paying attention 

We’ve seen a noticeable increase in consumers taking the environment into consideration when purchasing products across a variety of industries. We’ve seen glimpses of this in apparel, DIY & home, and we even just put together a whole piece on sustainability’s part in retail success. Clearly it’s an emerging trend. 

And sustainability is a key factor when it comes to what CPG brands consumers will buy too. Here, though, it goes beyond just environmental issues and encompasses social and ethical issues as well. Of those we surveyed:

• 77% said it’s very/somewhat important for them that CPG brands source their products responsibly and ethically

• 76% said it’s very/somewhat important for them to see that CPG brands are taking initiatives to reduce their carbon footprint and embrace sustainability

• 75% said that it’s very/somewhat important for them that the packaging of the product is eco-friendly or recyclable

• 68% of respondents say that it’s very/somewhat important to them that the ingredients in the cleaning products they buy are natural and/or eco-friendly

As the above stats show, the majority of respondents state that being sustainable, recyclable and ethically-sourced are all key drivers when it comes to purchasing CPG products, which proves the environmentally-minded attitude of today’s consumers.

2. Ingredient labels are influencing purchase decisions

It’s not just what the product is, though, it’s what’s in the product that’s driving consumer purchasing decisions nowadays too. For example, 74% of our CPG research respondents who are parents said that it’s very/somewhat important to them that the ingredients in their baby food & drinks are natural and/or organic, while 81% said that it’s very/somewhat important to them that the ingredients in their baby body care products are ‘clean’ and/or ‘paraben free.’

Ingredient labels are, perhaps unsurprisingly, especially considered when it comes to purchasing food products:

• 56% said that it’s very/somewhat important to them that the ingredients they use for cooking and baking are organic

• 48% said that it’s very/somewhat important to them that the ingredients they use for cooking and baking are gluten-free

• 44% of consumers say that it’s very/somewhat important to them that the ingredients they use for cooking and baking are plant based

This partly ties in to the environmental attitude of today’s consumers, as plant-based and organic tend to be greener, but on top of that it shows that consumers really care about their own health as much as the planet’s health.

In fact, 67% of the surveyed consumers want to see recipes from brands for cooking or baking that show alternatives, such as gluten free and organic products. This tells us that consumers are research dietary needs and health benefits when it comes to purchasing CPG products.

Consumers also care as much about their external health as they do their inner health, as the following table shows. We asked our members what they look for when it comes to choosing skin/hair care products & cosmetics, and here’s what they said:

The responses from our community members clearly show that the majority look to avoid products like parabens and sulphates, which have long been considered to be harmful for the skin/hair.

3. Are consumers still shopping?

Yes, they are. But what are they buying, and when?

• Consumers are more likely to purchase snacks & drinks – daily
• Consumers are more likely to purchase frozen food – weekly
• Consumers are more likely to purchase canned food, household products, pet products, skin/hair care products and cosmetics – monthly

A full breakdown of how frequently consumers are buying specific products looks like this:

There’s no surprises here really. Low-cost products intended for instant consumption, like snacks, tend to be bought daily. Whereas your pricier products, and those with longer shelf lives like cosmetics, are bought monthly. But the real question is where are consumers purchasing these products?

4. In-store vs online

Somewhat surprising, given the change in consumer buying habits, but in-store shopping is still the go-to when it comes to purchasing CPG products. While shoppers still research online, a huge 82% of the surveyed respondents said they prefer buying CPG products in-store at retailers (Target, Walmart), while 49% prefer buying online via retailers (Target, Walmart) and another 58% prefer buying online from Amazon. 

The results are slightly different when it comes to groceries specifically. 72% of those surveyed prefer buying groceries in-store at local grocery stores (Kroger, Stop & Shop) and 59% buy in-store at retailers (Target, Walmart), while only 30% of consumers prefer buying at retailers online. 

The results swing much more toward in-store groceries, likely because people like to see/hold the produce they’re buying, and not to mention they were one of the few types of store kept open during lockdowns.

Speaking of in-store purchasing, 66% of consumers are more likely to try a new product from shopping in-store (vs. only 34% who said online) which leads on to the final main takeaway from the survey.

5. What influences a consumer’s decision to try a NEW product?

We already know that reviews matter (particularly the recency of reviews.) Our own research has told us this. But do they matter when it comes to purchasing CPG goods? Yes, they do. When researching a new CPG product, the top three drivers for purchase are product reviews (82%) followed by family & friend recommendations (51%) then ‘best types of products’ lists (50%).

But when asked to select only one driver, the vast majority (64%) said they read customer reviews, as the following table shows:

Reviews on social media specifically also play a large part, with 83% of respondents saying they’re very/somewhat likely to purchase a new product advertised on social media with photos and reviews from other shoppers. Another 82% would share their honest opinion about a new product by writing a review and posting on social media. 

Turn CPG market research into actionable results

As our CPG market research shows, there’s multiple attitudes and habits that consumers take into account when it comes to making CPG purchasing decisions. And clearly ‘brand name’ isn’t one of them. But if you’re wondering how your retail brand can win over these consumers, the trends are easy to spot. 

Make sure your brand is socially responsible, your products are friendly to both people and the planet (and clearly labelled so), and that you utilize customer ratings and reviews for other potential consumers to use, and you’ll have consumers won over in no time at all.

For more research, marketing strategies, and ways to stand out on the digital shelf, see our CPG industry page.

A customer satisfaction survey measures how happy or unhappy a consumer is with your brand. Plus, it’s a valuable tool to help you gain insight and information about your products and the people who buy them. 

Measuring customer satisfaction helps you create meaningful customer experiences and deepen your connection with shoppers. Most consumers feel connected to brands if they think the brand understands their needs and wants. When they feel a connection, 57% of consumers will spend more with those brands and 76% will keep purchasing from them, according to Sprout Social. 

Above all else, though, customer satisfaction surveys are also another method of collecting user-generated content (UGC), especially ratings and reviews. Brands and retailers can leverage this UGC to build authenticity, boost sales, and attract loyal shoppers. 

Below, you’ll learn:

• Ways customer satisfaction surveys can generate UGC
• Designing surveys to collect the most valuable information
• How you can leverage the survey responses. 

How customer satisfaction surveys generate UGC

When shoppers fill out a customer satisfaction survey, you’ll find out exactly what they think about the experiences you offer. Aka, what you’re doing well and what you can do better. 

These responses can be incorporated into your UGC strategy. You can post anonymous quotes from the surveys on social media or your website. You can also use the survey as an opportunity to ask shoppers to leave a review for a recent purchase in exchange for an incentive like loyalty points or coupons. 

Consumers view reviews and other UGC as authentic and trustworthy, and 78% of shoppers trust online consumer reviews, according to our 2020 Shopper Experience Index. Nearly 40% of consumers rely on product reviews most to make quick and informed shopping decisions. 

What questions to ask on a customer satisfaction survey to collect UGC 

Customer satisfaction surveys give you the best information when you ask the right questions. Here’s some examples of the right questions to ask: 

• Binary scale questions offer a choice between two answers, such as yes or no, or a thumbs up or thumbs down. Survey example questions include, “did the product meet your needs?” or “was your experience satisfying?” These types of surveys are simple, but they have some limitations. For one, you’re not able to drill down into the reasons behind why someone answered the way they did. 

• Multiple-choice questions provide at least three mutually exclusive choices and let customers choose one or multiple answers. These surveys let you ask details about the shopper, such as their occupation or why they were shopping for a specific product. 

• Scale questions ask how satisfied a customer is with a product or experience, or how likely they are to shop again. Respondents are given a scale, such as, “between one and five”, or, “strongly disagree to strongly agree”, to rank their opinions. 

• Semantic differential scales are similar to binary scale questions. The survey features two statements, and consumers can pick a point on a scale between the two that best describes their experience. 

• Open-ended questions let you collect detailed information about a customer’s experience and satisfaction levels, details like the how and the why of their sentiments. These questions can be used with other kinds of questions, like multiple choice, to gather more information. 

You can mix and match the question types within a survey. No matter what types of questions you decide to ask, keep in mind that survey fatigue is real. So, keep your customer satisfaction surveys short and concise. Ten to 20 questions is ideal, and ask only the questions that are relevant to your UGC goal. 

Best practices for designing customer satisfaction surveys for UGC 

Once you’ve decided on what questions to ask, consider the timing of the customer satisfaction surveys. Sending too many surveys will turn consumers off. Instead, send surveys soon after shoppers have interacted with your brand in some way—such as by contacting customer service or making a purchase. The experience will be fresh on consumers’ minds and they’ll provide accurate feedback.  

To encourage consumers to respond to the survey, offer something in return. A discount or free gift will incentivize them to provide honest, detailed feedback. Incentives are also a great way to encourage shoppers to leave a consumer review. 

Consumer satisfaction surveys also shouldn’t be a one-off thing. Ask for feedback regularly to build meaningful relationships with shoppers. This approach shows that their opinions are valued and that you care about delivering top-notch experiences. This will also keep fresh UGC flowing in. 

Follow up with survey respondents, too. For example, ask for more information related to a response to get a full sense of their opinions. And, be sure to address any negative feedback that comes through the survey to build trust. Keeping the survey experience positive will entice consumers to complete future surveys and continue sharing feedback with you. 

How to leverage survey feedback 

Customer satisfaction surveys provide a wealth of actionable data that you can use to improve shopper experiences. Surveys reveal a lot about shoppers, including what they’re thinking before making a purchase, why they chose your product, and any pain points along the way. It provides an opportunity to uncover any negative experiences or recurring problems that shoppers encounter. 

Measuring customer satisfaction helps you understand your customer better, so you can better meet their needs. This leads to higher brand loyalty, retention, and increased sales. Leveraging customer satisfaction surveys to generate consumer reviews extends these benefits. When shoppers engage with reviews on best-in-class sites, brands can see a 138% boost in sales conversions. Our Ratings and Reviews tools can help you get started.

Through customer satisfaction surveys, you’ll also uncover shopping trends, like what people are buying when, how consumers use your products, and any products that need improvement. The feedback might also reveal new uses for existing products or inspire ideas for new items. 

Customer satisfaction surveys and consumer reviews give shoppers a voice—and, they appreciate opportunities to share their thoughts with you. Learning and responding to consumers’ needs offers so many benefits for brands, including higher sales, loyal shoppers, and trusting relationships with consumers.

This blog post is part of a series on picking a trustworthy ratings and reviews provider. Read more about the importance of authenticity in the selection process here.

We have worked hard since our inception to ensure that we have the best-in-class security in place in order to protect ourselves, our clients, and their consumers from cyber attacks. As part of our trust and privacy blog series, we interviewed Anji Greene, our Director of Security and Privacy. Here’s what she had to say: 

Can you talk through Bazaarvoice’s security processes?

“We see security and privacy as an ongoing journey. We are continually striving to improve our software development processes and internal infrastructure controls so that our products and services exceed our customer’s security and privacy expectations.

Bazaarvoice systems and services are hosted in the cloud.  We control access to our cloud environments through the use of virtual private cloud (VPC) routing, firewall rules, and role-based access controls. Our privileged users require multi-factor authentication and proxies for direct system access.   

During the product planning and throughout the software development lifecycle, security and privacy architecture is being reviewed.  We use threat modeling to understand the specific security and privacy risks associated with a product or feature. Generally speaking, threat modeling is a brainstorming session between security, privacy, engineering, and the product manager of an application or service. Understanding the threat landscape helps to identify the security controls needed during development and testing.

Our engineers go through security awareness and secure coding training and we have regular brown bag sessions to help teach engineers on best practices such as Infrastructure as Code,  patch management, privacy by design, and applying proper network access controls to your services.“

What specific policies does Bazaarvoice have surrounding security, protecting consumer privacy?

“Our team is focused on ensuring that the services we provide for our clients support full transparency to the consumer.  If we need to collect personal information, the consumer is made aware and has the ability to opt out. We offer privacy tools that are available for our clients to support privacy requests from their consumers. For example, if a client has 50 requests from consumers to remove personal information from their systems, the client can securely leverage the Bazaarvoice Privacy API to automate those requests and remove the personal information from all of our systems as well.

We’re currently in the process of aligning all of our security and privacy policies and procedures to the ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 framework.  The ISO implementation project has given us an opportunity to take a fresh look at existing processes, improve and simplify where needed, and really improve security and privacy awareness throughout the organization. Achieving this certification is a common request from our clients. ISO 27001 is one way that Bazaarvoice can demonstrate to our clients that we are following information security and privacy best practices.”

How do we help our clients if they experience a security breach?

“As a provider, Bazaarvoice collects user-generated content on brands and retailers websites. In the event that our clients experience a security breach related to these services, there are a couple of scenarios where Bazaarvoice can help.

Our web services (API and Display) are protected by a web application firewall (WAF). A WAF analyzes incoming application requests and blocks attacks from bots or other threats.   Since Bazaarvoice services are running on our client’s website, that protection is available to our client’s on the content that Bazaarvoice displays and collects. Those logs can be made available to clients as well if needed.

Another scenario that comes to mind is a form of Denial-of-Service protection. A pattern that we have seen before where an attacker attempts to overflow client submission forms through reviews, comments, or any type of content. Bazaarvoice has various layers of control to thwart these DOS attempts on our submission services such as fraud detection, rate limiting, and WAF protection. When our controls identify these malicious attacks, it is often necessary to work directly with the client throughout the incident.”

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Want to learn more about how we keep our clients and their customers’ best interests in mind? Connect with us here.