Well it’s official. Love him or hate him, Donald Trump will be the new President of the United States come January 2017. The last one standing in a race against seventeen other republican candidates and then shocking much of the nation by defeating Hillary Clinton, there’s no arguing he’s certainly made the 2016 presidential election a fascinating one…
And if you paid close enough attention, it turns out there is quite a bit to be learned from “The Donald”. In this blog, we will identify four things digital marketers can learn from Donald Trump about Digital Customer Feedback.
1. Engage your audience across all touchpoints
Throughout the election, I think we can all agree that Donald Trump has demonstrated his indisputable ability to sway, aggravate and amuse his audience – all at the same time. And what’s interesting is that he doesn’t limit his voice to rallies, debates or other public events. He also engages his audience through social platforms such as Twitter. He was certainly an avid “tweeter” during the elections, sharing bold statements that definitely got people talking.
Lessons to be learned:
Adapt to the online journey. For a customer feedback programme to be well-rounded, it is vital to consider all relevant touchpoints in the online journey. While many companies focus on traditional channels, such as contact centres and post-contact surveys, it is also very important to realise that online channels are a key line of communication with your customers. In a previous blog, we have outlined how to make the most of online touchpoints in your customer experience strategy.
With online feedback, there are several touchpoints along the customer journey that serve as good moments to initiate feedback requests. We have found that two of the most effective are Task Completion Feedback forms and Exit Feedback forms. You can read more about how to use these here.
2. Tap into emotions
When it comes to modern politics, persuasion is everything and Trump happens to be very strong in this. Throughout his campaign his tactic has been to play off the emotions of Americans who are “angry with Washington” and fearful for their future. And with all that’s going on in the world including the refugee crisis, the loom of environmental crises and nuclear warheads, he’s got quite a bit of material to work with. So what does he do? He taps into the emotions of these people and leverages these feelings.
Lesson to be learned:
Get to know your customers on a more sentimental level. To measure feedback there are several popular metrics we can use including Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Effort Score (CES), Goal Completion Rate (GCR) and much more. However what we miss with these metrics is the element of human sentiment. In other words, the thoughts and feelings of our customers. Why is this important? Open-ended texts provide your customers the opportunity to express how they’ve experience your website. It gives you the “why” factor that most quantitative data can’t give you. You can read more about this topic in my blog about reducing online churn using text analytics.
3. Embrace your failures and get back on your feet
Sheer persistence is the difference between success and failure.
-Donald Trump
Diligence and dedication are two things Donald Trump has mastered. Despite the fact that Trump has filed for bankruptcy for more than one company on multiple occasions in the past, he has somehow managed to maintain his sterling reputation as successful businessman.
Bottom line: Trump doesn’t like losing.
Lesson to be learned:
Take the good with the bad. Being able to embrace (and leverage) your failures AND successes is an important part of business. Collecting and analysing online customer feedback gives you insight into how your customers experience your website. This insight helps you identify both your weak points and strong points. For example, perhaps you are seeing a lot of comments from customers regarding bugs or slow-loading pages on your website. Here is your opportunity to improve those parts of your website and provide your customers with a smooth and effortless customer journey. On the other hand, you shouldn’t ignore the more positive feedback either. This can be just as valuable as it shows you what pleases and excites your customers, especially those that keep coming back.
4. Start a movement
Looking back at the primaries, Trump clearly started up his own movement. He sought out people who didn’t normally vote and got them engaged. And what did that do for him? Wonders. His new “herd” of voters got him the support he needed which resulted in huge turnouts at the polls on election day.
Lesson to be learned: Want to learn more about Mopinion’s all-in-1 user feedback platform? Don’t be shy and take our software for a spin! Do you prefer it a bit more personal? Just book a demo. One of our feedback pro’s will guide you through the software and answer any questions you may have.
Start your own “feedback movement” for your company. Namely, don’t let feedback items drift off into cyberspace. There are many companies that fall victim to the “silo effect” so be sure to share these customer feedback insights internally and take action! Not only is this beneficial to your and your team, but also to your customers.
Earlier in this blog, we briefly discussed NPS. The goal of monitoring these scores is to create more Promoters, which is essentially the core of any customer loyalty strategy. Online customers want to feel that they are being taken seriously, so if they take their time to fill in a feedback form, it’s likely they’ll want to have some sort of follow-up or confirmation that their voice has been heard! When this is done right, you’ll be well on your way towards having more loyal customers and an improved customer experience.
Are you ready to make your digital customer feedback great again?
Ready to see Mopinion in action?