Driving business growth through effective customer feedback, with Darlene Campagna

Comments? Suggestions? Text the show here! Is your business missing out on valuable customer feedback? Without it, you won’t know what they want or even feel about your business.You’ll be operating in the dark, making decisions based on assumptions rather than data. If you’re also not taking the time to do any customer research, you won’t get to know their needs and pain points. This could lead to missed opportunities that will eventually eat into your finances. So how do you start doing customer research? How do you gather customer feedback?What questions should you ask to get useful insights?and how do you use this data to help you make better strategic plans and decisions?In this episode, Darlene Campagna and I talk about the pivotal role of customer research and feedback in growing a financially healthy and sustainable business. She shared why you should encourage customer engagement because it can positively impact your sales,  marketing, finance, and lead to operational improvements.Darlene is the Customer Acceleration Consultant and Owner of Direct Opinions. Before that, she spent 11 years working for a national IT consulting company that took its Cleveland operation from approximately $2 million in annual sales to over $27 million in just six years. We discuss: (timestamps)02:42 Why businesses ignore customer research when making strategic plans 04:47 What it takes to do customer research05:29 The time and effort required for effective customer research 11:58 Maintaining a quality contact list for customer outreach 14:17 Customers segmentation based on customer satisfaction and experiences16:29 Response rates for customer feedback initiatives17:50 In-person focus groups versus panel research methods20:01 The differences between focus groups and panel research 22:52 Customer response quality via phone versus email surveys 24:19 Batching question and response processes  in email surveys27:20 Phone outreach challenges in the modern era29:14 Examples of operational improvements driven by customer insights 35:22 Factors that affect a customer's willingness to provide feedback 37:40 Identifying key stakeholders responsible for customer research initiatives.40:59 The value of customer feedback when selling your company44:59 Actionable steps to start customer feedback programs effectivelyResources:Darlene Campagna,  Customer Acceleration Consultant and Owner, Direct Opinionshttps://www.directopinions.com/LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/darlene-campagna-5162515/LinkedIn | Direct Opinions:https://www.linkedin.com/company/direct-opinions/about/Twitter:https://twitter.com/DirectOpinionsKathy Svetina, Fractional CFO:https://www.newcastlefinance.us/Blog post | Driving Business Growth Through Effective Customer Feedbackhttps://www.newcastlefinance.us/listen/driving-business-growth-through-effective-customer-feedback/Is your growth causing financial headaches? Sales up, but profits lagging? Financial practices stuck in entry level mode?Don't worry, it's not you—it's your financial setup.Introducing NextGen Finance Blueprint by NewCastle Finance. This CFO-led roadmap: • Brings fuzzy finances into focus • Gives you a clear money picture • Creates a step-by-step action planReady to level up? Visit newcastle.finance/blueprint