Feedback is so crucial to your small biz success—I call it “oxygen for business.” Without it, how do you know that you’re offering the right things, at the right price, to solve your customer’s real problems?

When it comes to getting feedback, the web has a distinct disadvantage to offline because of the lack of context—online, it is hard to figure out a good time to jump in and ask for feedback.

What do most businesses do? They either:

  1. Don’t bother with feedback. (Bad idea.)
  2. Slap up one of those “WOULDN’T YOU LIKE TO GIVE US FEEDBACK RIGHT NOW ALTHOUGH I’M SURE YOU ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING.” (Uh, yeah, I was in the middle of something.)
  3. Put up a contest: Give us feedback and win a CAR. Don’t you want a shiny new CAR? (Maybe I do, but I’m only in it for the car, I could care less about you.)


Don’t do any of those things. Instead, get yourself back on track by following these tips:

  1. First, stop thinking that you have to incentivize feedback. Those big contests draw lots of responses, but not from your ideal customers—they’re people who want that car. Your best customers would be happy to help, if you ask. So stop incentivizing. (A freebie or small coupon/discount is totally okay, though, as a token of appreciation.)
  2. Get clear and specific on the feedback you want. State your goal in this format: “I am seeking feedback on (name of business thing) because I want (name of thing you want to achieve).” Examples: 
    • ​I am seeking feedback on our blog because I want more readers to visit the blog and find it useful. 
    • I am seeking feedback on our website’s product page because I want to increase our conversion rate by 5 percent.
  3. Now, carefully solicit the right kind of people for feedback. I strongly encourage you to be very exclusive on getting people for feedback—if you send out broadcast messages, you’ll get a generic response. Go for one-on-one emails and connect to individual people for feedback. You’ll want a variety of people—for example, if you want to improve your blog, you’ll want active customers and infrequent customers, as well as input from both web-savvy and tech-novice clients.
  4. Ask better questions. Most surveys ask really generic, unhelpful questions. The best questions are open-ended and give the customer some direction on where to go; avoid simple “yes/no” questions and be aware that if you ask anything about money, most people aren’t sure “how much they would spend” or “what they would buy.” Good examples include:
  • How often do you read our blog? What other blogs do you read when you’re looking for information?
  • We’re planning on a new product widget next year. What would our new widget have to include to entice you to switch from your current widget?

  • Would you send our website to a friend or business colleague as a referral? Why or why not?


I’m not going to lie: Getting feedback from customers can be a pain in the backside. But, it is crucial to your business future, and once you build a strong relationship with your customers, the feedback will start to flow. Now the question is: Will you listen?
 


Own Your Ass[ets] is a five-part workshop series that teaches small business owners how to take control of the assets that will make their businesses relevant on the Internet.

3 Things Every Small Business Needs to Be Relevant in Local Search
Make Your Blog Content Easy to Create, Find and Share
Improve Your Small Business Photography in 3 Simple Steps
Put Social Media Marketing to Work For Your Small Business 
Live Website Critiques: Improve Sales and Customer Engagement (Tickets)