While surveys and reviews are great ways to get a feel for consumer mood, they aren’t the be-all and end-all. The majority of unhappy consumers do not speak up.
Leaders need to address customers’ “silent signals”—those who are dissatisfied but choose not to express their displeasure—in light of consistently low customer feedback survey completion rates.
The loss of clients is just the beginning of the far-reaching consequences that might result from ignoring these subtle cues. After just one negative encounter, one-third of consumers will abandon a beloved brand.
The old ways of gathering client feedback aren’t cutting it anymore
The majority of companies get their consumers’ opinions through surveys, reviews on social media, and other kinds of customer listening, such as analysis of support calls.
This conventional Voice of the Customer (VoC) feedback, while significant, only scratches the surface. The bulk of dissatisfied customers lurk just below the surface, and many of them will just disappear without a trace, which is something that most companies fail to notice.
The 2020 Achieving Customer Amazement study found that out of every four customers that complain, 96 choose to remain silent. Businesses will gain new insights about their customers and how to listen to them if they take into account the opinions of this silent majority.
Strategies for extracting hidden feedback from customers
Companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft excel at reading subtle cues from users’ actions and behavior, and they utilize complex algorithms to continuously improve their products and services in response to these signals.
They can spot small but essential signs across the customer journey by gathering and analyzing huge volumes of consumer data with techniques like AI-driven analytics, sentiment analysis, and machine learning.
These organizations can predict client wants and preferences and often solve potential unhappiness by spotting patterns and correlations that humans might overlook. These patterns and correlations can range from reduced acquisition to changes in purchasing behavior or decreased engagement.
However, listening to silent criticism does not necessitate becoming an Amazon or Google. Companies of all sizes can gain a better grasp of their customers’ wants and requirements and respond more intelligently to them if they adopt a data- and tech-driven strategy to comprehend what their consumers aren’t saying.
Get a better ear for what people have to say by using these eight tactics.
1. Companies can improve their data analytics capabilities by making better use of modern technology to gather, process, analyze, and understand information on client interactions and transactions. Pay close attention to operational, behavioral, and transactional data.
2. Use social listening to your advantage by keeping tabs on any mentions of your company, goods, or services made across various platforms. You can find unspoken signs of discontent by looking at things like repeated complaints or even little shifts in brand opinion, which can reveal unspoken signs of discontent.
3. Monitor the way customers use digital services. Every time a user interacts with a website, they are telling a story with their clicks, taps, and page views. We should closely monitor the journey’s velocity and progress for any variations that may indicate disengagement or friction.
4. Put “in product” feedback loops into place: Incorporate technologies within your products, services, and support environments to systematically gather and analyze customer behaviors and actions, such as usage data, interaction points, and journey advancement.
5. The use of AI and predictive analytics can aid in the early detection of problems and possibilities. You may predict client demands, possible dangers, and ways to reduce unhappiness and turnover by comparing past data with present actions.
6. Data analytics certainly provide useful information, but when combined with human insight and expert-led intuition, it becomes possible to spot changes in consumer mood or emotional cues that algorithms could miss.
7. Recognize the importance of always listening to your consumers, whether they speak out or not. Invest in your organization’s capacity to listen to and understand complicated consumer behaviors and patterns in order to remain ahead of their evolving expectations and wants.
8. Do something; just listening isn’t cutting it. Do something when you notice things like disengagement, more cancellations, or less utilization. Such problems don’t go away on their own; rather, you require insights to comprehend the situation and choose the appropriate course of action.
It is of the utmost importance to comprehend and react to these unspoken messages. It fosters more innovation and consumer loyalty, aids in preventing churn, and improves customer-centricity. It also informs continual improvement.
