Customer Feedback and Business Performance: Are You Listening to Your Customers?

In my last Read the Business article, I talked about what can happen when a business that was growing starts to see sales and transactions decline.

One of the questions I asked was:

What happened to the customers you already had?

Your financial reports can help you see that something has changed.

Sales may be down.

Transactions may be declining.

Customers may not be coming back as often.

But your financial reports may not tell you why.

Sometimes, you have to listen to the people who are actually doing business with you.

Your customers.

What are they saying in your reviews?

What are they telling you in your surveys?

What complaints are you hearing?

What are they telling your employees?

And here's the bigger question:

Are you listening?

When you start connecting customer feedback and business performance, you may begin to understand more about what's happening behind your numbers.

Customer Feedback and Business Performance Can Tell a Bigger Story

Let's say your sales have been declining for several months.

Then you look at your transactions and realize they're declining too.

Now you know fewer purchases are being made.

But you still don't know why.

So you start reading your customer reviews.

One customer mentions a long wait.

Another says the service isn't as good as it used to be.

A survey mentions that the business seems short staffed.

Then you look inside your operation.

Employee turnover has increased.

You're operating short staffed more often.

New employees aren't getting the same amount of training.

Service times have increased.

Now you're starting to connect the pieces.

Sales are declining.

Transactions are declining.

Customers are complaining about service.

The business is struggling with staffing and training.

Does that automatically prove that staffing is causing your sales decline?

No.

But it gives you something to investigate.

That's the point.

Your numbers can show you what is changing.

Your customers may help you understand why.

Don't Just Look at the Stars

When businesses look at online reviews, it's easy to focus on the rating.

Five stars? Great.

One star? We have a problem.

But I think you need to go further than that.

Read what your customers are actually saying.

Are several customers mentioning long wait times?

Are they saying products are frequently unavailable?

Are they complaining about cleanliness?

Are they saying your employees don't seem knowledgeable about the products they're selling?

Are customers saying your prices increased but the experience doesn't match the price?

One negative review doesn't necessarily mean you need to change your entire business.

But if you start seeing the same complaint again and again, that's something I would pay attention to.

Don't just count your stars.

Look for patterns.

Are You Collecting Surveys Just to Collect Them?

A lot of businesses ask customers to complete surveys.

That's great.

But what happens after the customer completes it?

If you're collecting hundreds of surveys and nobody is using that information to improve the business, what are you really getting from them?

Let's say customer satisfaction has been declining for six months.

During those same six months, your transactions have also been declining.

I would want to know more.

What are customers saying they're unhappy about?

When did the scores start changing?

What changed inside the business around that time?

Did staffing change?

Did management change?

Did training change?

Did prices increase?

Did you change a product or service?

Did your hours change?

Again, don't assume you already know the answer.

Use the information to start asking better questions.

Connect Customer Complaints to What's Happening in the Business

Imagine you own a retail business.

Sales for one of your product categories have been declining.

If you only look at your sales report, you may think:

Customers don't want these products anymore.

But then you read your customer feedback.

Customers are saying the products they want are constantly out of stock.

That's a completely different problem.

The demand may still be there.

Customers simply can't buy what you don't have.

Now imagine a restaurant where transactions are declining.

You read the reviews and customers repeatedly mention long waits, incorrect orders, or inconsistent service.

Your P&L isn't going to say:

Customers aren't coming back because they're frustrated with the service.

It will show you the financial result.

That's why I believe you have to connect what's happening in your financial reports with what's happening in your operation.

Don't Only Listen When Customers Are Unhappy

Customer feedback isn't only about complaints.

Your satisfied customers are giving you valuable information too.

Maybe customers repeatedly mention how friendly your employees are.

Maybe they love a certain product.

Maybe they appreciate how quickly they're served.

Maybe they choose your business because it's clean, convenient, or because your employees know them.

Pay attention to that too.

Ask:

What are we doing that keeps these customers coming back?

That's important because sometimes businesses are so focused on fixing problems that they don't pay enough attention to protecting what's already working.

If customers love something about your business, you want to know what it is.

Because you don't want to accidentally change the very thing that keeps them coming back.

What Are Your Lost Customers Telling You?

This is one area I think businesses should think about more.

We usually hear from the customers who are still coming.

But what about the ones who stopped?

A regular customer may not walk into your business and announce:

“I'm not coming back anymore.”

They may simply stop coming.

That's why declining transactions and customer retention matter.

If your regular customers used to visit three times a week and now they're coming once a week, something has changed.

If they stop coming completely, something has definitely changed.

Maybe it's your business.

Maybe it's their circumstances.

Maybe it's competition.

Maybe their needs changed.

You won't always know.

But if you see enough customers changing their behavior, that's something worth investigating.

Retaining Customers Starts With Understanding Them

Businesses spend a lot of time thinking about how to get new customers.

Advertising.

Promotions.

Social media.

Discounts.

Those things can help bring somebody through the door.

But I think there's another question businesses need to ask:

What makes them want to come back?

Getting someone through the door once is one thing.

Giving them a reason to return is another.

That's where your financial information and customer feedback can work together.

Your sales reports can show you how revenue is changing.

Your transaction reports can show you whether purchasing activity is changing.

Your financial reports can help you identify trends.

Your reviews and surveys can help you understand what customers are experiencing.

And your operations can help you understand what's happening inside the business that may be affecting that experience.

Now you're looking at the whole picture.

Read the Business

Your financial reports are important.

But so is the voice of your customer.

I don't believe business owners and managers should look at those things separately.

If sales are declining, look at your numbers.

If transactions are declining, look at your numbers.

If customer retention is changing, look at your numbers.

But then ask:

What are my customers telling me?

Read the reviews.

Look at the surveys.

Listen to complaints.

Talk to your employees about what they're hearing from customers.

Look for patterns.

And don't only look for what's going wrong.

Pay attention to what customers say you're doing right.

Your financial reports may tell you that customer behavior is changing.

Your customers may help you understand why.

But that only helps if you're listening.

That's what Beyond the Books is about.

It's not just looking at the numbers.

It's understanding the business behind them.

Understanding Your Business Means Reading the Business

At Clorista Bookkeeping Services, I believe bookkeeping should do more than tell you what happened last month.

Your numbers can help you ask better questions about your customers, your operation, and your business.

Read the business is about looking past the numbers and understanding the business story behind them.

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