One of the basic principles of running a successful business (online or off) is knowing what your customers want.  The better you are able to meet your customers needs, the happier your customers will be.  However, it will be rather hard to meet those needs if you don’t know what they are in the first place.  The obvious question is how do you determine your customers needs.  Well, one simple way is to ask them.  What’s more, if you have a website then you have numerous avenues available to you to talk to your customers.  Each of them should be utilized to help you better determine your customers wants and needs.  Here, then, is a short lists of what you can do to talk to your customers online:

1. Create a feedback button and form
   This is perhaps the easiest way to get feedback from your customers.  Simply add an easy to read and see button which says “Feedback” on your site and have it link to a feedback form.  If you want you can ask particular questions, or merely have a text-form where your customers can share their ideas and thoughts about your site.

2. Create a special forum for customer feedback
   While a forum is harder to run than a feedback section, it has numerous advantages.  For instance, it lends itself to group conversation amongst your customers.  This discussion can help your customers to think of and share ideas that they might not come up with if someone else didn’t get the ball rolling.  Also, it allows for you to directly engage your customers in the issues that most directly affect them.  You can ask them to clarify their ideas and see what they think about potential solutions.  Note, by the way, that you don’t necessary have to create a forum revolving solely around customer feedback.  You can simply add a section to your existing forum for customer feedback.

3. Use your newsletter to encourage feedbackIf you send out a newsletter then dedicate an issue (or a section of an issue) to asking your customers to send in their feedback.  You may be surprised how may customers are willing to offer you valuable advice if you simply ask for it.

4. Use your blog to engage your customersA blog can be an excellent vehicle for eliciting customer feedback.  For starters, you can simply ask for their feedback.  You can then use their feedback as the subject of future posts and note the comments and responses to the ideas mentioned.  Furthermore, a blog can also be a testing ground for new products or services.  Talk about what products or services you are thinking of offering and note the response.

There are, of course, other means of discovering what your customers want (online polls, web stats, etc.).  I have merely listed those means which provide the most direct interaction with ones customers.  Direct contact with your customers is crucial for success and as such you should constantly strive to find new and better ways to get there direct feedback. 

powered by performancing firefox