The root of excellent customer service is customer feedback. Feedback is the backbone of adjusting customer service, because it shows you what you’re doing well and what needs to be changed. The problem a lot of salespeople face is how to gather feedback thorough enough to lay out a new customer service approach when needed. In the past, many businesses relied on surveys, but Nancy Porte points out the limitations of survey feedback in her article, “Beyond Surveys: 5 Methods to Learn More About Your Customers.” So, what are better ways to ask for feedback?

First, Porte suggests making digital feedback media easily available to your clients. Her examples include online communities and pop-​ups openly requesting feedback. Pop-​ups on your site will make it quick and easy for your clients to send you feedback, especially if something goes wrong and they want to alert you that they need help immediately. Online communities are a nice medium to make available to your clients because they know they can post on them for assistance and to give suggestions that they know will be taken into consideration. They’re not limiting your clients to answer options A, B, or C, and they give your clients the opportunity to speak directly with you.

While digital feedback is useful, few things will beat good, old-​fashioned one-​on-​ones with your clients. The next time you want feedback from your client about your product or service, invite them to a meeting with you and discuss it with them directly. This will give your clients the opportunity to openly communicate their opinions on your customer service and it will provide you with another way to harvest information from your clients: body language. Observing your clients as they speak allows you to view another layer of their joys and frustrations, one you never would have seen with digital communication alone.

If you want to use a happy medium of the two customer feedback formats, video chatting is a good way to have a thorough one-​on-​one type meeting from the comfort of your respective offices, no traveling required. Not only will you get the opportunity to speak face-​to-​face, you'll also be able to send links to each other with examples of what can be changed and how.

At the end of the day, all you need to do to get thorough feedback from your clients is to ensure that you aren't limiting their response potential in any way. Give them the freedom to express as much or as little as they want. Don't limit them to preset survey answers.