Ralipo

"The customer's perception is your reality." — Kate Zabriskie

Introduction

Over 500,000 businesses close down every year in the USA. One of the reasons for this is not understanding the market enough. When you understand the market, you can create a viable product. When you create a product, you will need to leverage feedback from your customers to improve it to meet new demands.

This article will show you how to make your business last by building it around what your customers say they need from you!

But first, you need to know the kind of customer feedback to look out for:

Types of Customer Feedback You Must Look Out For

There are 6 major types of customer feedback. However, they may come in various forms. They can come in form of survey results, poll votes, feature requests, customer interviews, bug reports, and product feedback.

Here are the 6 types of customer feedback that you can use to build a customer-centric brand culture

Formal Feedback

Formal feedback is obtained when you use structured customer satisfaction measurements such as feedback forms or surveys post-purchase.

For example, B2B software companies often send structured post-implementation surveys to understand client satisfaction with onboarding processes. These surveys help product and customer success teams collect measurable data on user experience, feature adoption, and implementation challenges, driving product roadmap decisions and enhancing customer retention strategies.

Informal Feedback

This type of customer feedback is obtained through casual interaction at the point of sale or through social media or community forums.

For instance, SaaS companies regularly monitor platforms like Reddit, LinkedIn, and specialized forums to observe customer discussions about new feature launches or updates. A comment on LinkedIn about integration challenges with a CRM platform might prompt the product team to engage directly, collect detailed feedback, and prioritize improvements in the next release.

Similarly, B2B service providers can gather valuable informal feedback during client meetings by noting reactions to proposals or new service offerings, even when explicit feedback isn't provided.

Formative Feedback

Formative feedback is given during real-time exchanges with or complaints from a customer. It is quite similar to informal feedback. The only difference is that it involves a more serious interaction than mere observation.

Real estate professionals, for instance, use formative feedback during the home-buying or renting process to tailor experiences.

For example, a SaaS customer success manager might solicit feedback from a client during monthly review calls. If the client mentions that their team struggles with a particular feature's workflow, the CS manager can provide customized training resources and relay this feedback to the product team, ultimately improving user adoption and increasing the likelihood of renewal.

Summative Feedback

Summative feedback is invaluable after major company events like product launches, fashion shows, or seasonal launches.

A B2B technology company might analyze client feedback, usage analytics, and support ticket data after launching a major platform update. This type of comprehensive evaluation helps measure the update's overall success and impact on customers. It helps the company make informed decisions for future development priorities and implementation strategies.

Peer Feedback

This is popular amongst user-based products such as tech equipment and apps.

Enterprise software companies leverage peer feedback through customer advisory boards, beta programs, and user communities. For example, beta testers of a new analytics dashboard might provide detailed feedback directly to product managers through structured testing programs. The product team then refines the features based on this real-world usage data before the wider market release.

Peer-driven reviews foster innovation faster than any other type of feedback as it is used by the market type before the product gets to the market itself.

Self-Assessment

While most feedback comes from the public, many companies audit their strategies internally to develop new ones.

For instance, a B2B sales team might review their demo strategy after a series of lost opportunities. They can analyze call recordings, examine prospect engagement metrics, and refine their value proposition to better address specific industry pain points.

5 Unique Ways to Build a Customer-Centric Culture Using Feedback Data

"Our whole role in life is to give you something you didn't know you wanted. And then once you get it, you can't imagine your life without it." — Tim Cook, CEO of Apple

A customer-centric way of doing business is to deliver top customer service even when the customer does not request it.

The best way to do this is to create a customer-centric company culture based on feedback data to create an internal company culture designed to always please them.

Here are 5 tested ways you can build your business around your customers based on feedback data:

Hire for customer success

Employees are the face of the business, so they shape the customers' opinion of the company. Regardless of role, focus on hiring talent who can mirror your customer-centric company values. Also, ensure to train them on new customer engagement methods.

Put relationships first

Customers are not mere stats to be recorded in a revenue performance report. Treat them as humans by offering benefits that show how much you think about them.

Democratize Customer Feedback

A customer-centric strategy should provide all departments in your company with centralized access to customer feedback and insights.

Tools like Ralipo solve this challenge by consolidating feedback from multiple sources—app store reviews, website widgets, survey responses, and more—into a single platform accessible to everyone. When product, marketing, and customer success teams can all access the same feedback data, they can collaborate more effectively on solutions that truly address customer needs.

For example, when a product team sees recurring feedback about feature requests collected by the customer success team, they can prioritize development more effectively. Similarly, marketing teams can refine messaging based on actual customer language found in reviews.

Connect company efforts to outcomes

Link your employee efforts directly to customer feedback outcomes. For instance, when customer support teams receive feedback about response times, establish clear metrics that connect reduced resolution times to improved satisfaction scores. With platforms like Ralipo, you can track how specific internal process changes directly impact customer sentiment over time, creating clear accountability and reinforcing customer-centric behaviors.

Measure and Monitor Customer Satisfaction

Define, track, and regularly audit KPIs related to customer satisfaction using a consolidated feedback platform. Tools like Ralipo help you monitor these metrics over time and across different feedback channels, providing a comprehensive view of customer sentiment. Key metrics to track include:

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): This is a direct measurement of how satisfied your customers are with your products or services
Net Promoter Score (NPS): This is a measure of customer loyalty. It checks how much your customers will talk about your products online or physically. Here is how to score your customers on the NPS scale:

Promoters (9-10): These people use and love your products. They also are very eager to refer you to potential buyers or clients of your product or services. They usually have a higher Customer Lifetime Value.

Passives (7-8): These are likely to be long-term customers but they are very likely to switch to a competitor if they find a better service or product.

Detractors (0-6): Detractors buy once and are not happy with your product. They are very likely to spread negative public opinion about your product with their friends, family, and online connections.
Customer Retention Rate: This is the percentage of customers who keep doing business with you over an extended period.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): The projected revenue or spend that a customer will generate over their lifetime relationship with your company.

Visualize Feedback for Greater Impact

One often overlooked aspect of building a customer-centric culture is making feedback visually accessible throughout your organization. When feedback data remains hidden in spreadsheets or specialized tools that only certain teams access, its impact is severely limited.

Modern feedback platforms like Ralipo transform complex feedback data into visual dashboards that:

Highlight trends over time so teams can quickly spot emerging issues
Compare feedback across different channels (app store vs. direct surveys)
Track sentiment changes following product updates or service changes
Identify your most common customer pain points at a glance

These visualizations democratize feedback insights, making them accessible to everyone from executives to front-line employees. When feedback is visible, it becomes actionable.

Case Study: How a B2B SaaS Company Transformed with Customer Feedback

A mid-sized B2B software company providing project management tools was struggling with customer churn despite having a technically solid product. Their renewal rates hovered around 70%, well below industry standards.

The company implemented a comprehensive feedback strategy using Ralipo to consolidate feedback from multiple sources:

Data Consolidation: They integrated app store reviews, NPS survey responses, support tickets, and exit interviews into a single platform
Cross-Functional Access: Every department received access to the feedback dashboard
Feedback Prioritization: Weekly meetings focused on the most common themes emerging from customer feedback
Closed-Loop Communication: They began notifying customers when their feedback led to changes

Within six months, they discovered several critical insights:

Customers loved the core functionality but found the reporting features confusing
Onboarding was consistently mentioned as "overwhelming" across multiple feedback channels
Their most loyal promoters were in specific industries that used the software in similar ways

By acting on these insights, they:

Redesigned their onboarding process based directly on customer feedback
Prioritized improvements to reporting features over planned "nice-to-have" additions
Created industry-specific templates for their highest-value segments

The results were significant: renewal rates increased to 85% within a year, and their NPS score improved by 22 points.

Summary

Building a truly customer-centric culture requires more than collecting feedback—it demands making that feedback central to your organization's decision-making processes.

To implement this approach in your organization:

Consolidate feedback sources using a platform like Ralipo to get a complete picture of customer sentiment
Share feedback broadly across departments to create organization-wide customer empathy
Visualize key metrics to make trends and opportunities immediately apparent to all stakeholders
Connect specific actions to feedback insights and track the impact of changes
Close the loop by informing customers when their feedback drives change

When customer feedback becomes a core strategic asset rather than just operational data, businesses create sustainable competitive advantages and stronger customer relationships.

Remember, in today's competitive landscape, your customers have more choices than ever. The companies that thrive are those that listen systematically, act decisively on feedback, and build their entire culture around customer success.