Qualitative customer feedback is often overlooked and quantitative analysis given more importance, whereas businesses ought to use both to increase customer retention levels. Qualitative feedback helps understand the needs of the customers at a deeper level.

In this piece, we’ll take a quick look at what qualitative customer feedback is, why it matters so much, and how businesses of all scales can use it to garner higher profits and deliver greater value to their customers.

Understanding Qualitative Customer Feedback

Qualitative customer feedback is a way to measure the voice of the customer by asking them questions. The term “qualitative” indicates that the quality of data obtained takes precedence over the quantity. Qualitative customer feedback is used to measure complex phenomena. Customers are required to fill in their experiences and feedback in forms and surveys and share how they found a certain product or service.

There are various ways to gather qualitative feedback information. This includes social media, interviews, and online reviews. Businesses should, time and again, monitor conversations on social media. Customers often take to social media to express their opinions and thoughts, which can offer unique insights for brands.

Open-ended questions are often of great importance in surveys to gather customer feedback in detail, since customers are free to share what’s on their mind without specific directions or focuses.

Small discussion groups can also be created where customers can offer their insights and share their experiences about the brand and the needed optimizations. These help companies make improvements in their products and services.

Why Collect Qualitative Customer Feedback?

Qualitative customer feedback is a great way to establish a personal relationship between a brand and its customers. This is done by personalizing the products according to the needs of the customers. 

It also helps capture customer satisfaction levels, which might otherwise be difficult with quantitative feedback.

It also helps understand what it is that the customer really wants. Customers feel their opinions really matter and are factored in when optimizing their favorite products. This helps to increase brand equity and loyalty.

Qualitative customer feedback provides businesses with the experiences, opinions, and preferences of customers. This can help businesses to make improvements in their services and products. 

Qualitative and Quantitative: The Best of Both Worlds

In the era of data-driven decision-making, many businesses often overlook the importance of qualitative customer feedback. Brands should ideally combine both quantitative and qualitative feedback for the best results. What makes qualitative customer feedback so distinctive is that it is subjective in nature, meaning that it conceals significant actionable insights.

It is important for businesses to be transparent about how customer feedback will be used. They should assure that the feedback would be used to improve products and services, thus encouraging customers to freely speak their mind. This once again strengthens the customer-brand relationship.

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If you’re a freelancer, your client is the person who gives you projects. Whether you’re a virtual assistant or a developer, those who contract or subcontract work to you are your clients.

Clients are critical to a freelancer’s business. They have specific needs, and it is your responsibility to find out what your clients’ needs are.

Types of Customers

External: These are individuals who pay for your product or services and who are outside of your business.
Internal: These are colleagues; for freelancers, it would be a business that uses your services on an ongoing basis. They could be a small business that subcontracts work to you.
Regulatory: Any government agency that has specific standards. It is up to you to make sure you abide by those standards.

Sources for Voice of the Customer Feedback

Internal and External Data: Existing data, like product returns, or any company information; perhaps industry experts, competitors or any other data.
Research Methods: Conduct interviews, surveys or focus groups.
Listening to Others: Any customer feedback or observations.

For freelancers, gathering voice of the customer feedback from clients may be a bit more casual, but just as important. While a regular business follows a protocol to gather feedback, and uses set sources to obtain what that business (aka your customer) expects from you, freelancers need to pay close attention to those colleagues and individuals who send work. Treat all your customers like gold, because they are. They are the reason you have a business.

Want to learn more about the VOC tool in Six Sigma? For more information on our courses or services, please visit 6sigma.com.

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It’s a fact that organic food doesn’t last like non-organic, and tends to be quite expensive at times. Whole Foods started off when the organic food market was much smaller and has ridden the wave of increasing demand ever since. They took advantage of a naturally-occurring monopoly and have dramatically increased their market presence for maximum profitablity. Today, we cover how the grocery store chain took the country by storm by offering unique, healthy products. And all with a dash of Six Sigma.

Minimal Interference and Flexible Management

Whole Foods is a customer-driven organization. Using Design for Six Sigma, they rely on feedback to help shape their business processes. As such, the customer’s voice is a primary metric for improvement, but just as important is the process data itself. The axis of their corporate structure is a single golden rule: minimal interference. Store managers, like Six Sigma practitioners, are change agents. The company ensures minimal corporate meddling, allowing managers to make changes for the good of their store. The needs of a busy urban branch do not reflect the needs of a small-town store. As such, both should be managed appropriately, according to their needs. Management flexibility of this kind grants them the freedom to source local produce as well as to operate under different hours.

The Customer Matters

As a customer-facing, retail-oriented corporation, Whole Foods relies on strong customer relationships. By collecting customer feedback at the store level, they can shed light on problems affecting quality, efficiency, and productivity.  Whole Foods stores provide a Customer Comments Wall for those wanting to offer feedback, encouraging customers to have their say. This level of customer engagement is highly beneficial, not just for the valuable feedback it provides, but also for the strong store-customer relationship it fosters. In short, it shows Whole Foods care about those frequenting their stores and purchasing their goods.

Each comments wall allows customers to leave both positive and negative comments. While it may seem simplistic, this approach helps to foster transparency, openness, and honesty between store and customer. Customers value and respond to this, as Whole Foods have shown. Providing a place to leave feedback lays the groundwork for a continuous improvement culture. One that drives improvement for the sake the customer, without end. Never forget. Any feedback, critical or otherwise, is extremely valuable. Even the smallest comment can help you make dramatic changes on the path toward Six Sigma.

Happy Employees = Happy Customers

Moreover, this openness also benefits Whole Food’s staff. All employees want to feel like they matter. They’re people, after all, not mindless automatons. They want to feel that their voices are heard and that they play an active role in the success of the company. Remember, the happier your employees, the happier your customers. If you can’t keep the first happy, the second will feel it.

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