Sometimes, the insights you need most are right in front of you—it’s just overlooked. Because the competition in the software as a service (SaaS) world is so cutthroat, you’ve likely already taken a good, hard look at your product and scrutinized it until you’ve found ways to improve it.

But few things are as effective as competitive intelligence (CI) when it comes to innovation. And a big part of CI is customer feedback. After all, there’s no better way to gain an edge over your competition than going right to the heart of that competition: the customers.

Why customer feedback is a treasure trove for competitive intelligence

You know the saying, “The customer is always right?” Well, that may be true to an extent, but the real wisdom comes from gleaning insights directly from them. Simply taking in what the customer is saying isn’t enough. You’ll need to dig deeper and understand their real needs.

To become more competitive, most businesses often do too much at a surface level. They might dive into product features or overhaul their marketing strategies in hopes of triggering a revolution, all while neglecting the people using their product on a daily basis. They’re the ones who know how your product truly works and will spot things that even your product team won’t.

Here are a couple of reasons why customer feedback is so underrated:

Uncovers what’s working well, where you’re falling short, and what’s really happening in the market.
Reveals their frustrations with your product and your competitors’.
Exposes any gaps or opportunities in the market.
Provides insights into trends before they spread like wildfire.

What kind of customer feedback is key?

Practically all types of customer feedback have value to your business, no matter how insignificant they might seem. But the reality is that specific kinds will provide the deepest insights prime for competitive intelligence. If you want to get the most out of your customer interactions, this is the feedback you’ll want to pay close attention to:

Direct feedback from surveys and support tickets: Direct feedback refers to any feedback provided intentionally and willingly. Here’s where you can get both quantitative and qualitative data that tells you how satisfied they are with their experience or what pain points they face.
Indirect feedback from online reviews and social media: Indirect feedback is any opinions or thoughts shared non-directly with your business. What’s different is that customers may express more authentic views through online reviews and social media posts, as they’re not communicating directly with your staff.
What your customers are saying about competitors: Before purchasing or subscribing to something, customers make comparisons. From pricing to features and longevity, customers will speak about both the benefits and downsides of your competitors’ products, as well as yours. There’s an opportunity to capitalize on that.
Sentiment analysis: Feedback isn’t just all about addressing specific issues. Discovering how your customers generally feel about your brand and product can show you where you need to improve and whether you need to better your customer connection.
Usage data: If you were to read through user reviews, could you pinpoint frequently discussed features that people love or widespread issues that make customers turn elsewhere? This information can do wonders for CI efforts.

Where to gather customer feedback

Customer feedback can be found just about everywhere online, but it’s also important not to overlook proactive methods. Let’s take a look:

Customer support and sales teams: These teams interact with customers regularly, meaning they are the prime source for insights about customer concerns. Support tickets can showcase common problems, while interactions can highlight feature requests.
Social media and review platforms: Review sites like Trustpilot are full of honest reviews from your customers, both positive and negative, to give you a complete picture. Social media listening is also a fantastic way to see what people are saying about your brand or product.
Surveys and polls: The most direct way to ask customers for feedback is through surveys and polls. You might provide QR codes or links or use a platform like Typeform for easy access and include both open-ended and multiple-choice questions for a variety of insights.
Customer interviews: For the most thorough insights, conduct one-on-one interviews or host a focus group. Here, you can have free discussions on specific areas of interest and get more context around aspects you’re curious about.
Usage data and analytics: While the customer isn’t directly putting their thoughts out on the table, tracking user behavior through tools like Hotjar and Google Analytics will show you exactly how they’re interacting with your product.

Integrating customer feedback into competitive intelligence

Once you’ve collected your customer feedback, you’ll be able to integrate it into your broader strategy—but you’ll also want to integrate it into your competitive intelligence efforts. CI will leverage this feedback and provide a better understanding of your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, the market landscape, and how your product shapes up. That’s right, all thanks to customer feedback.

Here’s how to use your customer feedback for CI after the collection process:

1. Break down and analyze your feedback: Are there themes and patterns throughout your feedback? Split up your feedback based on common complaints, comparisons, feature requests, rather than just “type.” Take advantage of tools to help make sense of this feedback.

2. Understand customer feedback in the context of your competitors: Figure out where you excel and lack compared to your competitors, create benchmarks in key areas like user experience, and write down any opportunities for differentiation.

3. Market trend analysis: Does your industry have any unmet needs? Check out customer pain points, priorities, and special feature requests and find out if any competitors have addressed these yet. Social listening tools and product feedback tools can help.

4. Integrate feedback into your product roadmap: This feedback isn’t just nice to know. Instead, it should be incorporated into your development cycle. Feedback should prompt you to prioritize new features and enhancements and address competitor feature gaps right away.

5. Build a competitive intelligence dashboard: Having all your data and feedback organized in one place will make it easy to monitor for changes and update your strategy.

Final word: Make customer voices your competitive advantage

It’s clear as day: your customers are the key to elevating your product and brand. They have the top-quality, authentic feedback you need to guide your competitive intelligence and make smarter decisions for your business. If you’re looking to turn valuable feedback into a competitive advantage, Aqute can help.

While you could go through the gathering and analysis process on your own, it’s a time-consuming process that may fall short if you don’t have the tools and expertise to make sense of the data. Aqute Intelligence specializes in CI for SaaS companies, and we can show you exactly what you’re up against and how to beat your competitors at their own game.

If this sounds like what you need, book a call with Aqute today!

References:

https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2023/06/30/the-power-of-customer-feedback/

https://fibery.io/blog/product-management/customer-feedback-types/

https://blog.hubspot.com/service/types-of-customer-feedback-examples

https://martech.org/consumer-behavior-and-todays-publishers-why-advertisers-love-the-affiliate-channel/

https://www.helpscout.com/blog/customer-feedback/

https://websites.harvard.edu/piesev/easy-ways-to-implement-competitive-intelligence-for-smarter-business-decisions/

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