How important is customer feedback for the improvement of a product?

Elena Cirera
68 replies

Replies

Justin Mason
The focal point is "How important is #CustomerFeedback in regards to improving a product. I think the way the question is asked implies a product needs improving. What if the product is the same, vanilla Ice cream can & will still be sold. So HOW do we get feedback? What prompts post sale engagement? As a Young consumer, I give more negative feedback than, positive. In fact the word Feedback holds a negative connotation in my opinion. Having a new brand, or a known brand makes the difference in the answer. I feel the most essential thing to customer feedback is having a measured collective. The feedback on said product, service, or notion helps if you have a big study to get a good gauge of the feedback itself. This is my first post! #RenoKid
Kamila Klavíková
I can't imagine making a product without customer feedback. Without it we wouldn't find many problen, even though we use our product daily a lot. Also, we can find more about them, what they do, need and struggle with. It makes us see the problems from different angle. It leads to a much better solution for everyone.
Maria
I find it very important! It can help us to clarify points that seemed to be clear to us, to professionals, but users are observing from an another corner... Any impression and suggestion can help and boost improvements of an project... ^_^
Misha Krunic
I would say it's crucial. It's basically guaranteed that your customers will find out something about your product that you haven't been aware of. I think that launching my latest project (BotMeNot) in beta and asking users to provide feedback has given me so many ideas on what I can work on. The bottom line is, you're making your product not for yourself, but for your customers.
Elena Cirera
@price2spy There are so many products in the market that were made for different use, but customers have found many other uses for those products. It is always good to find the customers' benefits, in return, they will give your profit.
Dominic Manning
We at Caravel have built whole products based on the direction we were given and feedback by both customers and prospects. It's crucial to keep a pulse on the "Voice of Customer" - something your company is probably already doing, just see who owns this and ask to get those insights. So, whether it's improving the product or building one altogether, feedback is essential - just make sure you're not listening to the loudest customers (aka the tyranny of one)! Hope that helps, but happy to expound if you want.
Maxwell Folley
The first step is to identify what needs improved on the product and what is resonating. Customer feedback is very important to get an understanding of this – what is frustrating to customers, what is loved, and what is desired. You can also look at product analytics to determine feature adoption and funnel progression to determine what's sticky and where users drop off but it's not going to get you the context behind the data or the "why". With anything that is prioritized, it's important that you're solving a critical need for the end user and that it's validated by the customer. Without customer feedback and a good understanding of the "why" a lot of assumptions are made and you can end up spending a lot of time and energy on features that go unused. Additionally, as others have pointed out, establishing the feedback loop with customer makes them feel heard and can improve satisfaction, loyalty, and retention when you deliver on their feedback. A lot of the world's top customer and product-centric companies not only have great systems for collecting and prioritizing customer feedback for product improvement but have also built strong cultures and processes that make the customer a stakeholder in all company decisions.
Manoj Ranaweera
It depends on your level of experience and stubbornness to see through your plans. Blindly following customer feedback can get you into a lot of trouble.
Mohsen Kamrani
It's everything to me. I'm happy to be like a boat where the wind is customer. Whatever direction the wind is stronger I go that way. Obviously I'm doing a certain thing and e.g. I won't start selling nappies in my SaaS but I have absolutely no conservation regarding where the business should go as long as there is strong demand. Plus we keep building and always give new ways to the customer so that way we follow our long term plans too.
Gor Aleksanyan
I guess when you asked for an opinion on a product or experience, your customers feel valued and treated almost as a part of the creative team. By asking your customers to provide feedback you make them believe that their opinion is truly valued.
Rushikesh Kavathekar
#CUSTOMER IS KING Customer feedback is fundamental for any Product. PM/CEO should listen to their customers "ASK". But, I have seen even a good PM miss these points. In a journey of creating innovative products and disruptive ideas, companies forgot to consider this basic fundamental. I am building products for INDIA and I believe there are two types of PM's exist, first is learned through Top schools and the second is learning through experience. yesterday, I had a meeting with a founder, running an e-commerce business, and he had some 1K downloads, but the reviews and bounce rate was pathetic, I asked him, how much time, he spends while talking with customers, he says hardly an hour in a month. Now, that's the reason, why is not able to understand the customer pain and needs, he himself is not talking with customers, how he can expect from any of his teammates. Now, I take a local uber ride, to my home, that person has decorated his car, so well, he has Carvaan(radio), fan, chess, and Sudoku as well. Curiously, I asked him, why he has spent so much on his car decor, he said it's because customers get bored while traveling, thus I want to keep them engaged and provide them great customer experience. #customer feedback most Important
Corey Crossfield
It's entirely dependent on your feedback loop. It's highly valuable if your gauging feedback for product development purposes but don't fall in the trap of listening too much. It's a fine line because if you build what your user's want your meeting their needs but need to keep the business needs as a first priority.
GamerSeo
100% agree, the most important thing is to understand what customers expect.
Inovies
Even though getting feedback from customers is little tricky. But this is one of the best authentic method for product improvement.
Bogomil Shopov - Бого
I really hope you are kidding by asking a question like that or you want some upvotes:) It's the same as asking how important is the air to the human begins :)
Sophia Emma
When you initially introduce a new product, brand or service to market, you probably have an idea about customer needs. Market research that you conduct before introduction gives you an idea if potential customers would be willing to buy it and also they can give you some tips on how you could improve it. However, only after your customers use your product or service you can learn about all the advantages, flaws, and experiences. On top of that, their needs and expectations evolve with time.
nilova.pande@qinaps.com
That's probably the single most important thing in developing and deciding the roadmap of the product other than competition analysis and some vivid imagination
Alex Harris
Probably the most important thing. However, customers are great for problem definition. Not so much for creating solutions. Therefore take suggestions with a pinch of salt and more importantly try to understand the need that is driving them in the first place.
Hemant Warier
It is the most important actually. Because we need to develop the product as per the customer needs.
Hussain Effendi
Hey Elena! From what I have seen and experienced, I feel that customer feedback is of utmost importance when building or improving your product. Why do we build products or startups in the first place? Isn't it because we want to provide a solution for a problem that the masses face, correct? Hence I feel that feedback from the users that are actually using your product is very essential when making decisions and would definitely need to play a major role in your product life cycle and evolution.