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So you have a business, and things seem to be going fairly well. You’re still going, despite the economic impact the pandemic has had, and you still seem to be attracting customers. But what do they think of you and your business? It’s nice to be in the mindset that other people’s opinions don’t matter, but that couldn’t be further from the truth when it comes to running a business. You need to know what they think⁠—so how do you find out?

Pay Attention to Trends

Trends can be a pretty good indicator of people’s attitude toward your business. Buying habits of your customers are important to note, because these data analytics of your own company as well as general market trends indicate a lot about what people care about right now. If you pay attention to what your target market is gravitating towards, you can get an idea of where your business stands in relation to that. Make sure you pay attention to industry trends as well as the trends within your business analytics.

Read Reviews

If you want a more straightforward way to figure out what people think about your business, reading reviews can be one of the better options out there. Make no mistake, consumers will read reviews that are posted about your business. 84% of consumers trust reviews as much as what people they know say. Because reviews can influence how people perceive your business, it’s a good idea to read them yourself. You’ll get some insights into what’s working well for your business and what needs improving.

Send Out Surveys

Another thing you can do to get a feel for your customers’ opinions on your business is to send out customer satisfaction surveys. This can be a really good way to follow up on things you’ve noticed in trends and reviews. Surveys can give you more specific, targeted feedback, which can be especially helpful in making sure you’re taking your business in a direction that will yield the results you want. Just make sure you are strategic to encourage survey responses from all customers, so you get helpful feedback from both the happy and displeased.

Knowing how people view your business can give you a real advantage. If you’re starting to gain a negative reputation, learning that quickly helps you to take corrective action quickly towards improvement. If you notice that your reputation is overall quite good, you can use that to identify what it is that your customers really like about your business and capitalize on that. Regardless of how people view you, understanding where you stand is valuable insight.

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