How to Write the Perfect Customer Feedback Report

Alright, let's face it: Making a good customer feedback report can sometimes feel like volunteering for a root canal with a side of a thousand paper cuts.

But here‘s the positive side (yes, there is one). In this article, we’re not just going to tell you how to write a good customer feedback report. We'll also show you how to turn those confusing comments and quantitative data into actionable insights.

Soon, you’ll have your team giving you kudos and your boss gifting you that coveted “Employee of the Month” t-shirt.

Table of Contents:

• What is a customer feedback report?
• Benefits of a Customer Feedback Report
• Anatomy of Customer Feedback Reports
• How to Make a Great Customer Feedback Report
• 4 Customer Feedback Report Best Practices from Seasoned Professionals

What is a customer feedback report?

A customer feedback report is a document that summarizes and analyzes feedback, opinions, and comments from customers. Here, you’ll gather insights regarding a company's products, services, and overall customer experience.

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According to a Salesforce study, 65% of consumers expect companies to adapt to their changing needs and preferences. Making a customer feedback report can help you adapt to retain customers.

While we’re on the subject, let’s explore some additional benefits of these reports.

Benefits of Customer Feedback Reports

1. Feedback reports provide insight into customer satisfaction.

Customer feedback reports provide insights into how satisfied customers are with your company. This information is essential to customer success teams as it helps measure and track customer sentiment.

Feedback reports also help identify pain points that reveal different needs within your customer segments. With this information, your company can tailor its offerings and marketing strategies to cater to different types of customers.

2. Feedback enhances data-driven decision-making.

Customer feedback reports provide data and evidence to support decision-making processes. Product teams can make informed choices about product development and marketing strategies, while customer service teams can improve their workflows.

3. Feedback reports improve customer retention.

Satisfied customers become loyal customers, leading to great retention rates. This can have a big impact on your business. According to Zipia, loyal customers make purchases 90% more often than non-loyal customers. Loyal customers also spend 60% more per transaction.

4. Feedback reports detect challenges and potential improvements early.

Customer feedback reports help product development teams identify areas for improvement. They then carry out enhancements, new features, or adjustments based on customer feedback.

Feedback reports also call the company’s attention to emerging issues before they become major problems. This early detection allows for proactive solutions.

“The feedback we collect…helps the relevant teams brainstorm solutions and offer enhancements to make the product more intuitive and user-friendly,” says Daniela Korzeniowska, Customer Support Specialist at survey company Survicate. “We believe that insights from our end users serve as the best guidelines.”

From these benefits, it’s a no-brainer that customer feedback reports are a vital tool for businesses.

Anatomy of Customer Feedback Reports

You may have all of the pieces to offer great insights, but the structure of your report has a huge impact on its reception. If your words are jumbled, you won’t effectively communicate your findings.

“The structure of a good feedback report should include a summary of feedback, analysis of common themes, specific examples, and recommendations for improvement,” says Iryna Haida, Head of Sales and Customer Support at Relokia. “It's all about providing a comprehensive view.”

To help you create your customer feedback report, let’s break down the sections you need to include. To illustrate, we’ll share images from NHS Property Services’ customer feedback report.

Section 1: The Foundation — Data Collection

Your customer feedback report should start with an introduction.

“Start with a concise executive summary that highlights the key findings and recommendations. This provides a quick overview for stakeholders who may not have time to delve into the entire report immediately,” suggests Olivia Langford, senior editor at NY Crossword Today.

Then, discuss what type of feedback you’ve gathered and how you gathered it. Are you focused on sentiment through social media? Have you surveyed your customers via email? This should all be included upfront.

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Be sure to include any valuable benchmarks. That includes how many people you surveyed and information related to their demographics — for example, age, location, or industry.

Derrick Hathaway, sales director at VEM Medical, emphasizes the importance of discussing how you acquired your data.

“At VEM Medicals, the process of creating an effective customer feedback report begins with thorough data collection. These include various touch points such as post-purchase surveys, customer interviews, and support tickets,” Hathaway says.

Section 2: The Core — Data Analysis

Once the data is collected, the next critical step is to present the bulk of your findings. Here, you will delve into the heart of the report, where the data you collected is cleaned, organized, and analyzed.

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You’ll want to include relevant graphs and charts when possible. If you used a survey, include what questions you asked recipients and how they responded. Visual representations of your data make the information easy to consume.

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Beyond the quantitative, you’ll want to include what your customer said. That includes quotes from your survey, on social media, or in support tickets. If you have representative stories from specific clients, you can feature in-depth case studies.

Section 3: The Analysis — Actionable Insights

This section will contain insights derived from data analysis. Here you’ll pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of your operation. Identify your customer’s pain points and provide ways to act on them. This often leads to new product developments or changes in workflow.

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Now, let’s get to the nitty-gritty of how to make a great report.

How to Make a Customer Feedback Report

Step 1: Define your objectives.

First, establish clear objectives for your customer feedback report. Are you looking to measure overall satisfaction or gauge the impact of recent changes?

For example, a restaurant might assess the impact of recent renovations on customer satisfaction. Therefore, their customer feedback report would ask questions about the changes they made to the restaurant.

Step 2: Describe how data was collected.

There are different ways to gather customer feedback. Describe the method you used and the details of your sample. If you created customer satisfaction surveys, specify how they were delivered to customers: via email, in-app, phone, or in person.

Further, state how many customers participated, when you sent out the surveys, and if it was directed at a particular segment of your customer base.

Step 3: Organize and analyze your data.

Now comes the critical analysis phase. Identify patterns, trends, and insights using the feedback data. If you are unfamiliar with how to analyze survey data, check out this article on how to analyze survey data like a pro.

Sometimes, data can be vast, making it difficult to process. And, while you could analyze it manually, it would take a lot of time.

Fortunately, AI technology makes it possible to analyze large amounts of data quickly and accurately. With Hubspot’s feedback analyzer, for example, you can view summaries and charts of your feedback metrics.

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With an AI-powered tool like Hubspot’s Customer Feedback Software, you can:

• Create customer surveys and customize them to your needs.
• Easily share customer insights with your whole team.
• Analyze customer feedback data to improve their experience.

Sign up for a free demo and begin your journey.

Step 4: Present key metrics and visualize the insights.

Your data points and metrics are the heart of your report. Include the prominently, emphasizing the most important data points. Consider featuring Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), or Customer Effort Score (CES) to assess overall customer sentiment.

Raw numbers are helpful, but describing your findings with compelling visuals can help drive home your results. A good customer feedback report should be visually descriptive. Add charts, graphics, and infographics where possible.

“Long paragraphs are out, and snazzy graphs are in,” says Sudhir Khatwani, Founder at The Money Mongers. “My favorite method? Mixing cold, hard numbers with real-deal customer words. There’s something about seeing a chart next to Mrs. Johnson’s heartfelt review that just makes things click.”

Step 5: Highlight customer quotes.

Include direct customer quotes to add authenticity and emotional resonance to your report. These anecdotes humanize the data and help readers connect with the customers' experiences on a personal level.

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Step 6: Derive actionable insights

“Aim to make the report as valuable and actionable as possible - it should not only present the data we gathered but, most importantly, become a useful tool for other teams in the company as they work to improve the product,” notes Korzeniowska.

According to Gartner, 95% of companies collect customer feedback. Yet only 10% use the feedback to improve their business, and only 5% tell customers what they are doing in response to what they heard. Turn your data into actionable insights by identifying areas that need improvement and creating a strategy to make the needed enhancements.

This means it is not enough to merely have the data; you should also act on it.

“We believe that insights from our end users serve as the best guidelines,” Korzeniowska says.

Step 7: Share and implement

Share your report with relevant teams and stakeholders so you can get buy-in for your action plan. You’ll want to include product managers, service teams, and even relevant executives.

If you still need a little more inspiration for your customer feedack report, here are some industry standards and principles from our experts that can guide you.

4 Customer Feedback Report Best Practices From Seasoned Professionals

Lead with the highlight reel.

Your customer feedback report should hook readers right from the start. That’s why you should include the most compelling or surprising information straightaway.

Jason Smit, CEO of content marketing agency, Contentellect, calls this leading with the highlight reel.

“Put the big wins up front to showcase momentum. Provide context around goals, strategies, and obstacles. Tell the story behind the numbers through anecdotes and visualizations. Make it relatable,” Smit says.

Include context in your report.

Was there a service outage that impacted your users? Did the economy take a hit, leaving customers anxious about prices? Did you unleash a new feature users love? All of this context should be included in your customer feedback report.

“By understanding the circumstances behind customer comments, we gain valuable­ insights into their experiences and can better address their concerns,” says Sarah Jeffries, Managing Director at First Aid Course Leicester.

To gather this conte­xt, Jeffries recommends asking follow-up questions. Here, you can get additional information about their interactions.

“This empathetic approach not only e­nhances our understanding of their fe­edback but also allows us to craft tailored and meaningful re­sponses that address their spe­cific needs,” Jeffries says.

Reframe negative feedback.

No one likes to hear complaints. However, every negative comment has a nugget of constructive criticism that you can improve the customer experience. That’s why David Godlewski, CEO of technology company, Intelliverse, recommends against listing complaints.

“Instead, analyze the root causes behind the issue and always provide context and viable solutions. Incorporate data trends to identify whether negative feedback is an isolated or recurring incident,” Godlewski.

From there, you can also categorize negative feedback based on severity or impact to prioritize areas for improvement effectively.

Conduct regular reports.

Customer feedback reporting is not a one-and-done. How your customers feel and the forces shaping their lives shift constantly. To stay up-to-date, you’ll need to gather customer feedback regularly.

For example, Derrick Hathaway’s team at VEM Medica reports on industry benchmarks every three months.

Creating Your Customer Feedback Report

By following these best practices and layouts provided above, you can create customer feedback reports that are not only insightful but also actionable, ultimately leading to enhanced customer satisfaction and business success.