Customer feedback can be a blessing to any business. Feedback lets you know what you’re doing right and what you might need to improve. Most of all, feedback helps you to better understand your customers so you can cater your sales and marketing to them specifically.

But it can be difficult to get customers to leave you feedback. Everyone has a busy life and may worry that they’re wasting it by taking the time to answer a survey or leave a review. It’s your job to make customer feedback worth their while. Here are a few ways you can do so:

Don’t Pay For Customer Reviews

Commonly, businesses offer some reward in exchange for customer feedback. It’s worth noting that these rewards are based on feedback such as customer satisfaction surveys, not reviews. Offering rewards for reviews comes too close to paying for reviews, which can actually get your business in trouble with the law in most countries. While the FTC has not called it illegal to offer incentives or discounts in exchange for reviews, it might make your business seem less trustworthy.

However, you can offer rewards and incentives for customer feedback, which you can work into making your brand better.

Offer Discounts When You Can

When you can, stick to discounts in exchange for customer feedback. Everyone loves a discount — both your customer and your company. This offers the customer the benefit of being able to save money the next time they make a purchase. For your company, however, it makes it much more likely that the customer will actually make another purchase. This can be a great way to take a good one-time customer and turn them into a loyal recurring customer.

Of course, discounts might mean that you’re losing out on a bit of money compared to getting two full purchases. But think of it another way: you might not have been able to guarantee two full purchases. If your customer makes a second purchase that they wouldn’t otherwise have made with a discount, that still makes you more money.

Base Incentives Off Of Customer Goals

Your incentives have to be something that your customers actually want. For instance, if you offer a subscription service, an incentive for a one-time discount might not matter much; but a discount on one year with the subscription could be a big draw. A free sample of a new product that your customer is interested in might be more enticing than a $25 gift card. Think about what your customers what, what you can offer, and base your incentives on a marriage of the two.

Show Customers How Their Feedback Is Incorporated

Part of the reason customers feel that leaving feedback is a waste of time is that they don’t think their feedback would make any difference. You need to be able to show them that it does. One way that you can do this is by creating a feedback loop. This allows you to keep in touch with that customer and keep them updated when you incorporate their feedback. This shows them that you not only know their time is valuable but you appreciate them taking that time to make your company better. It shows them that their words and opinions matter. And it might just make them more inclined to leave feedback in the future.

Include a “Share Your Feedback” Page In Closing

There’s nothing wrong with asking your customers to share their feedback publicly, and it’s easy to do in this age of social media. If your customer shares their positive feedback with their family and friends, that gives you more exposure and hopefully builds your customer base. You can let them know that sharing their feedback is important to helping your business grow so you can do what you do best. You might even repost or share their social media posts when they give public feedback, which can help to give them exposure, as well.

Offer Gated Content or Resources

Gated content is often used for lead generation forms. It might be an ebook, a template, or some other digital content that can benefit your customer. You can also use this for customer feedback incentives. Customers are attracted to things that can give them useful, relevant information. If they like your open content, they might be curious about your gated content. And when all they have to do is fill out a short customer satisfaction survey to access it, they’re much more likely to do so. It’s a win-win!