It doesn’t take an expert to know that the point of your eCommerce website is to bring in traffic and convert those visitors into customers. However, sometimes it takes a bit of veteran’s wisdom to appreciate that sales are only part of the equation. What truly successful ecommerce salesmen know is that you also want a high level of feedback over time. This ensures better SEO and a better idea of who your customers are. Both lead to improved sales.
One easy way to illicit high quality feedback from your customers is through surveys. While you’ll want to take some time to formulate the questions that will be most helpful to you, once you create the survey, you can use it over and over again. Offer it to a customer whenever they make a purchase. If you can’t get enough people to take it, consider offering an incentive for doing so—perhaps, 10% off their next purchase if they fill it out.
Another method that works even better than a survey is allowing customers to leave reviews of the products they purchased. Often customers will also comment on your eCommerce website as a whole too.
The thing about reviews, though, is that they can easily backfire. Amazon.com became a worldwide leader in retail in large part because they won people over by letting them leave reviews on anything they purchased. However, you still want to make sure it’s worth the risk. Are you 100% confident in your products and services? Consider using order management software to ensure that all purchases get processed in a timely fashion too.
One of the easiest ways to gain feedback on your eCommerce website is through social media. This is a huge advantage compared to those who tried running websites as recently as even five years ago. Here, too, though, you’re incurring a certain amount of risk. If you ask your customers for feedback, you’ll be receiving it in a public forum. So you better be confident it will be positive. Furthermore, your interest has to be more than lip service. Customers who take the time to tweet you or comment on a post will expect that you’ll actually act on what they say. Otherwise, your tactic has done more harm than good.
If you run an eCommerce website and would like to improve it or maintain your current level of success, don’t neglect to ask your actual customers. The above methods will ensure you get feedback when you need it.
Sources:
http://ecommercerules.com/three-ways-use-surveys-increase-ecommerce-sales/