Feedback is Where You Find It

Recently I was talking to a PM from a consumer products company. I mentioned that the feedback for his products on Amazon was pretty good. He looked a bit offended, and said "that's not very scientific - we try not to pay too much attention to it."

There are a LOT of customer comments about his product. The majority are good, some are not so. As a sample of his customers (and possible customers), he's right that it's a pretty atypical group. But worthy of being ignored?

There are two kinds of people who write customer reviews on the web: Those who tried the product and have a really strong opinion, and those who have a really high opinion of themselves and want to share their every thought. Kind of like bloggers and twitterers. And people will review almost anything - software, MP3 players, music, books, deodorant - you name it.

Actually, there's one other type of contributor: People who review their own products or competitors products. But we'll ignore them while noting that they can really skew a small sample.

Customers with really strong opinions may not be typical customers, or even close to typical, but they are worth listening to. If your product delighted (or inflamed) someone enough to get them to write a review, well, maybe you should pay attention to what they're saying. Especially if a number of people say something similar - this is where you know you're getting something really useful. Maybe your product's installation is a bit clunky - you'll hear about here. The key thing is: these are people who might never bother to complain to you, the creator of the product. But they'll post online.

Web forums are similar, and maybe even more useful, since that's where people go to ask questions if they can't get straight answers from your tech support line. Forums have been around forever, or at least as long as most of us can remember. They're a tried and true method of staying in touch with customers, and smart companies not only promote and sponsor forums, but they actively encourage staff to monitor them and answer questions. (Well, sometimes it's important to make sure that the right people represent your product in customer forums - sales people and developers love to talk about the cool things that are coming in the future, and that might not be the best thing to post just now.)

And, of course, your products are being discussed on blogs, Facebook and Twitter. If you're the PM for the iPhone or for Windows, it may be a bit much. But if you're hungry for customer opinions, they're out there. The trick is to keep it in perspective by keeping your target customer segments in mind and not letting the emotional posters carry the day. Sometimes you have to draw lines and say "this fellow has a point, but his problem is not a development priority for us. And next time you run a survey, ask your customers what type of web feedback they have given, if any. Then you can begin to map what you see online to your actual customer segmentation.

Oh, and one other thing: even if you aren't reading this stuff, your sales guys are. And probably your executives. You might want to check it out now and then.

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