The power of customer feedback

 

I read recently about a company called Slack. They set up less than 3 years ago, now have 750,000 customers and their value is $2 billion. Having just set up a new business, I’d love to see growth like that so looked at how they had done it. What marketing campaigns worked for them?

They haven’t had any “normal” marketing campaigns. They took 6 months to develop their product (an internal communication platform). Then they asked contacts in other companies to try it out (for free) and give them feedback.

They made changes as the feedback was that the product wasn’t great when large teams used it. Then they kept on asking larger and larger teams to trial it for free. 9 months after they started the company they issued a Press article inviting people to try it. 8,000 signed up on Day 1 and 15,000 within 2 weeks. Most of the publicity was users tweeting about it so it was all free!

Ever since, all their product development starts with customer feedback. They make it easy for people to give them feedback. They answer every e-mail and, when something isn’t working, they make it a priority to fix it.

One thing they found was that it’s small changes that make a big difference. As they are quick to change, they show customers that they are listening and responding.

They now get 18,000 tweets and e-mails a month. They know that 2,000 comments on one change means that’s a priority for them. They also put possible solutions online. Customers feedback on which is the right one.

Slack is a great example of how being customer focused can drive business success. Making it easy to do business, promoting and using customer feedback are their secrets.

Maybe customer feedback could transform your business?

 

Keep in touch for regular advice and practical examples about customer experience.

Get in touch to see how we can help your business.

Ask an expert if you have a specific question about customer experience.