It seems that companies are recognizing the importance of collecting customer feedback. By helping them to make informed business decisions and understand their customer base, the idea has moved a long way up the business agenda in recent years.

The trend is growing – research amongst business professionals showed that 95 per cent of firms have a procedure in place to collect customer feedback, be it through surveys or other channels such as call centres – a figure that has risen significantly over recent years.

However, the same sample of respondents revealed that, although business is at last taking note of customers’ opinions, less than a third actually use this data for any informed decision-making to improve their business. Once collected, it seems that the insight goes to waste, left to fester in dusty databases. This indicates not only a significant waste of time and effort spent on undertaking valuable studies, but also superfluous investment in collecting the feedback and providing the tools for such research.

The missing link between collecting data and using it, however, remains a mystery to the majority of companies. In order to obtain real value from data collection the obvious next step is to make use of the findings to make informed business decisions.

For this to happen, a significant, company-wide cultural change needs to take place. The shift needs to be in mentality and approach to the research, as well as its subsequent deployment and value. Companies need to understand that without engendering this mentality, getting the most out of customer insight and developing a sophisticated and closely-targeted marketing campaign is near impossible.

Despite being significant, these changes are still refreshingly simple to make. Research uncovered that 84 per cent of organisations do not keep their data in a centrally managed location, instead opting to leave the precious insight in disorganized files scattered across the corporate network. The status of this data – left unshared and unused – is an indication in itself that companies are frequently sitting on a goldmine of untapped information that could hold the key to a successful relationship with both customers and prospects.

In order to use customer insight to its full potential, feedback needs to be shared across the board from a single point. If each department works independently, using its own intelligence, the firm as a whole isn’t squeezing the most value out of its data. When different aspects of an organisation co-operate and feed off the information, the results can only get better. Collectively, the feedback can be combined to create valuable customer insight for all departments and their individual agendas.

By maximizing the overall picture of the customer by maintaining intelligence across the board, it actually becomes possible to obtain the much sought-after 360-degree view of the customer. This reveals more about behaviour and therefore gives the company increased ability to predict their habits and their needs. This, in turn, leads to improved CRM and marketing campaigns.

So how can companies unlock the value of the information held in their feedback and react to it? Or, having established a negative trend, how can businesses go about changing this? An approach known as Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) can help process customer feedback and convert it into something that can be used in all aspects of customer relations. Through an automated process, the tools used to carry it out draw upon input from all contact channels that the company has with the customer – whether informal or formal, traditional or innovative. This way, customers really can be viewed from every angle.

Upon collecting the insight, EFM keeps the data in a centrally managed space, allowing access for any possible function. By keeping this data available to all employees, companies can react quickly to the feedback and use it to make informed decisions.

'But what are the real benefits of this?' companies wonder. Through knowing the customer, their habits and what they tend to like or dislike, firms can take a far more focused approach to a marketing campaign. By weeding out the unnecessary targets, not only a company avoids annoying the recipient with irrelevant spam until the mere sight of the brand makes them squirm, but a company reaches those who might actually be interested in what they have to say. The more a company shows that it understands what people want, the less the customer will churn. Every company hankers after direct marketing that can actually make the recipient stand up and take notice because it seems tailored to them.

Further to benefiting customer relations, the other big benefit of EFM has to be the cost-effectiveness of taking such an approach. Instead of making thousands of calls, letters, or an abundance of 'dead' communication through other touchpoints, a minimum amount can be spent on contacting just those who want to know – saving both the time and the money.

While companies are clearly becoming more customer-savvy, there are still significant steps to be taken. Big benefits can be reaped by adopting EFM. Recognizing the value of actionable customer feedback will aid customer retention by enabling organisations to make better informed decisions and obtain a more complete understanding of customer relationships.

To learn more about enterprise feedback management, click here.