A simple customer feedback system you can install today for a window into your customers’ wants, wishes, and needs – plus how to use this feedback.
We want to build profitable cash-flow businesses. We want to do this in a smart way.
In a recent post I argued that the first (critical) step is getting closer to the customer.
[bctt tweet=”Find glaring customer problems. Your marketing will become much, much easier.”]
You will avoid merchandise or product misfires. You will increase the conversion rates of all your sales pages and ads.
Things are easier and scalable with a standard operating procedure (SOP). In this post, I want to give you a simple customer feedback collection SOP.
You can automate it on your site and use it to figure out what customer problems you might be able to solve.
It’s the SOP I have been using at Nerd Marketing to turn it into the top non-porn site on the Internet.
Step #1: Upgrade Your Opt-In Success Pages
Most of your cold traffic doesn’t convert.
And if you are smart, you are trying to get the traffic that does not convert to opt-in to your email list.
(Need help with this? My Conversion Playbook gives you a step-by-step process for getting non-buyers to buy.)
But most of you send your recent opt-ins to a generic “Hey, thanks for your email!” success page.
You are missing out on a big marketing opportunity.
At Nerd, I use my success page to collect user feedback:
Using Gravity Forms for WordPress, I ask the following questions on this page:
- What free product about e-commerce or marketing would you like me to create just for you? Here I’m thinking through content development. I want to know what kinds of lead magnets might resonate with my audience. Which templates / posts / checklists would you guys love? Using answers to this question I developed things like my Customer Retention mindmap, email templates for win-back campaigns, and a can’t-lose email bounce-back template. I can give these away for free, hoping for some viral sharing. Or I can use them as “content upgrades” to encourage more opt-ins to my list.
- What’s your biggest fear or frustration with regards to running a shop? Or marketing? Bam. This question goes right at the customer problem. What is my crowd starving for? What keeps them up at night? I don’t just want the answer. I want the exact language that you use to describe it because I mirror that language in my marketing. At Nerd, my audience craves certainty. In a world of limitless marketing tactics, you want to know the one or two things that work.
- What is your ideal, perfect outcome (and how do you think you’ll get it)? Here I ask about dreams and aspirations. I want to know what motivates my readers. With any luck, I can provide it. (Your responses to this question, by the way, led me to start drilling down on the idea of a lifestyle business.)
Following these three questions, I ask some basic profiling information.
The person struggling to start a new e-commerce shop has specific customer problems and ideal outcomes compared with the person who runs marketing at a $20 million SAAS company.
By asking the segmentation information, you can tie your feedback to your segment. You may want to target one segment and blow off another.
Step #2: Record This Information
Once you ask this information, you have to record and categorize it.
Several alternatives exist here. At the most basic level, you could have form submissions emailed to you.
You could then use Gmail labels to categorize and review it.
Using Zapier, you could pipe the responses into a Google Sheet. It’s all in one place where you can process it later.
You also could pipe these responses into your helpdesk software. Here your customer support team would tag it. I do a bit of this.
At Nerd, I go a little more advanced. I have Gravity Forms stamp the information into my email software, Drip. This turns Drip into a nice little CRM.
In it, I have all my profiling and customer feedback all tied to individual subscribers.
Take this subscriber. I see that her biggest issue is “How do I get up to speed on all aspects of marketing?”
What free product does she want? “I want to learn everything.” And she’s on WooCommerce.
Step #3: Use the Information!
[bctt tweet=”Once you have the customer feedback, use it!”]
I review my customer feedback weekly. I get it in my inbox, and I stamp it into Drip.
Take the user above. Using her feedback, I could develop some basic “getting started” content.
Checklists for outfitting WooCommerce. And a basic product that explains how to improve the effectiveness of your launch.
It’s vital to tie your feedback to the specific subscribers who submit it. Why? Three reasons:
- If you do this, you can go into your Gmail / email software / spreadsheet and assess the relative sizes of your user segments. For Nerd, how many are on Shopify vs. WooCommerce? How many are startups vs. veterans?
- You can email your subscriber segments whenever you launch relevant content or products.
- You can pull this information to personalize the user experience on your website. More and more email service providers are allowing for this. With Drip, a few simple libraries allow this. I can make Nerd look very different for a visitor running a Shopify site vs. one running WooCommerce. I could completely customize the testimonials, the offers, and the content I present on the homepage.
Put these three together, and you are in marketing nirvana. You can dial up your top segments.
You can create or merchandise a product that solves their most glaring problem. And you can contact them directly with an “I build this specifically for you.”
“Hey lady, I know you are struggling with your first-time WooCommerce launch. I just completed my “Can’t Fail WooCommerce Launch Playbook” which is available for $99. It comes with all the app recommendations, email templates, and SOPs you need to build a successful retailer. Let me know what you think!”
I did exactly this with my Conversion Playbook.
I identified the customer problem — overwhelm. Stress. The desire for certainty in a solution to poor conversion rates.
My language reflects this:
SAAS, E-commerce, Info Products — It Doesn’t Matter
Now, Nerd is an information products business, but the SOP above works for any online business.
In e-commerce, this SOP would help inform your merchandise selection. It would determine your sales copy, your Facebook ads, and your product descriptions.
In SAAS, this SOP would help you with customer success. It would help you develop new features.
It would also help you with the sales copy and messaging across all your marketing.
[bctt tweet=”Remember: identify your customer problems and your marketing becomes much, much easier.”]
Start there if you want to grow. Install your own version of this SOP today to make everything easier tomorrow.
PS: Want to see how I use sales copy? I try to put my top learnings in the products section of my website. One of my more popular courses is called the Conversion Playbook.
It’s helped hundreds of e-commerce entrepreneurs increase their conversion rate 30% in 30 days.