Would you drive to your next vacation destination looking behind you in your rearview or side-view mirror? Ridiculous question, right?

As a business owner, you make decisions that impact your customers’ experience. What information are you using to make those decisions? If you are getting feedback from your customers through surveys or other market research, you are running your business looking in the rearview mirror.

Improving the individual and aggregate customer experience has a huge impact on the top and bottom lines. In order to deliver a great customer experience, you need to get timely feedback that enables you to make quick adjustments that improve interactions with your customers.

Listening to the voice of the consumer is much easier to do for web-based e-commerce, where a live chat button is just a click away. Feedback is in real-time and analytic tools can paint a very accurate picture of the customer journey.

But brick and mortar businesses have a tougher time getting good, timely feedback and unless the owners are present on-site, they have a hard time gaining visibility into customer interactions.

Many businesses rely on reports from surveys and other market research techniques to aggregate and organize customer feedback. Often, by the time business owners get the reports they have lost customers and valuable time. This strategy is akin to trying to drive a car by looking in the rearview mirror.

Those lost customers are expensive-most research indicates that it takes 4-10 new customers to replace the value of one lost customer.

In this mobile, real-time world, businesses must be able to quickly capture and react to customer-driven feedback, where customers care enough about their experience to reach out to you. Make it easy. Even minor issues are important. Research has found that 70% of minor issues are never brought to the attention of management, but those issues are five times more likely to drive your customers away.

Make it easy for your customers to give you feedback and act on that feedback quickly. You will enjoy the view looking through the front windshield.