Until the end of the 20th Century there was a customer satisfaction theory that stated: “If someone is happy with your product, they will tell three people. If they are unhappy, they will tell fifteen”.

Well, this can be quite a problem for many businesses as they wouldn’t know why the customer is unhappy and they also wouldn’t know whom the customer has told about their unhappiness.
The rise of social media channels on the internet has changed all of that. Customers can now post online how their experience was for them and due to this, marketers are racing to develop relationships with their customer base online as happy customers are repeat customers.

Below are five ways how social media can help you collect quality customer feedback:

1: IT PROVIDES YOU WITH VALUABLE REAL TIME FEEDBACK
Monitor your social media platforms. Customers rarely wait months before complaining about something. If they’re satisfied, they’ll let you know right away. This real time feedback allows to address problem issues immediately and to plan future business strategies.

2: IT ALLOWS HANDLING OF NEGATIVE FEEDBACK
Problems can be addressed before they spread. The dissatisfied customer appreciates the quick and personal attention to their problem. If it can be solved to the customer’s satisfaction, that customer is likely to tell others about their positive experience.

3: USE SURVEYS AND POLLS
Using your social media platforms is an excellent way to conduct customer surveys and gauge consumer opinion about your products. This is also an inexpensive way to help with your future product planning activities.

4: CONSIDER USING TOOLS
Realizing the complexity of tracking customers online and finding what they’re saying about a specific brand/company online, many tools have been created to help monitor your customer feedback not only on your social media platforms, but across the entire Internet. Two of the most popular ones are Mention and Hootsuite.

5: USE YOUR SOCIAL ANALYTICS
All social media platforms provide analytic tools that allow you to gain more insight into who is reaching out to you, and how they are reacting. You can get information on three important areas:

• How many people are talking about you? What kind of reach do your messages have?
• Are you building meaningful relationships with your audience? What kind of messages do they like?
• Who is talking about your brand, and where are they?
• What can you do with this information?

Collecting quality customer feedback from your social media activities is imperative if you want to stay ahead of your competitors.