One of the most important aspects of marketing and advertising in business is collecting customer data and analyzing it. These are the give best forms of customer data you can collect, and they will help you along the way to perfecting your product or service.

Provide Surveys

Offer your customers the chance to speak their mind by leaving out survey cards or emailing them after doing business. Be sure to allow the customers to rate different aspects of your business via scales, and keep the survey as short as possible to maximize the potential of your customers returning completed forms to you. Another method for generating survey responses is to offer a deal or discount in exchange for the survey. Not only is this quid pro quo appealing to the customer right at the moment, but you can also turn the experience into a type of advertising to stimulate sales.

Read Real Reviews About Your Business

One of the best ways to get an idea of what your customers like and don’t like about your product or service is to check into real reviews by customers. There are many companies you can hire to integrate customer review services into your business model. For example, you can read real customer reviews on OpenTell.com, powered by Mindshare Technologies, and on similar websites that develop and manage customer reviews. Reviews are great metrics for customer data; don’t let them go to waste. And, as always, you can try to integrate promotions into the review process to stimulate responses and generate sales buzz.

Website Feedback Boxes

If your business has a website, place feedback boxes throughout the site so that customers can leave their thoughts while on the go. They might be on a page that doesn’t exactly provide what they’re looking for; the chances are high that they’d be willing to tell you about it. Leave feedback boxes in visible, yet non-intrusive areas so that they can tell you exactly what they think about their experience online. Website functionality is crucial to contemporary businesses, so don’t overlook this opportunity for feedback.

Analytics Activity

If you’re not already doing so, link an analytics tool to your website. This way you can see exactly what times people shop with your business the most, what people are buying the most of, where your users are located, and much more. This information is vital to crafting and modifying your marketing and business plans, and just about necessary for maintaining a flexible and adaptive website.

Usability Testing

Lastly, don’t underestimate the power of allowing customers to try out or test your product with the intent of gaining their feedback in the end. You can entice customers to test your products even more by allowing them to keep them after the fact. Be sure to ask questions about their experience such as what they did or didn’t like about the product or service, what caught their eye about it, what confused them, and how the product or service compares to others in the market.

Overall, make sure you’re using at least some form of collection of customer data. It’s incredibly important to keep your ear to the ground and listen to what customers are saying about your business. Knowledge is power, and customer data reveals what changes could benefit your business.