If I never got feedback from my customers, I would never know what I’m doing right and what I’m doing wrong. Small business and big business alike depend on customer satisfaction to survive. As a small business owner, there’s nothing I love more than to hear a customer’s rave review about my products. It’s what makes this little bird tick. And, while I want you to keep those coming, I actually learn more from the feedback of what makes people unhappy. Your opinion is valid, don’t worry about hurting feelings. Why is good feedback is important?– So a company knows they’re doing the right thing, especially if a product or service is vital to you. Why is constructive feedback is important if you’re unhappy?– It allows the company to make it right for you. If they hear the same complaints from others chance are they’ll change the product or the service. Forums for feedback:
- Every website has a point of contact like an email address, phone number or contact form. When contacting a company someone SHOULD ALWAYS get back to you. Pet Peeve- using a contact form and never getting a response. This is a major fail.
- Yelp– Meant for honest reviews of products and customer service though we know this isn’t always the case.
- Facebook– There are several ways to state your opinion here. You can post written comments and reviews on some business pages depending on their privacy settings or message them directly. Also, rate a business by using Facebook’s scale of 1 to 5 stars.
- Twitter– If you tweet, then give a company a shout out if you like them or if you have a problem.
A few tips to make sure you’re voice is heard appropriately.
- If you have something nice to say, feel free to say it anywhere and everywhere. Customer satisfaction and referrals is the strongest and most trusted form of feedback. Other customers want to know what you have to say about your experiences.
- If you weren’t satisfied with customer service or a product there are constructive ways to go about this before you put up your one star review on yelp or Facebook. Try to contact someone directly from the company with your complaints. There’s always the chance that this was an honest error and if a company is worthy they will try to make it right.
What feedback has done for Birdy Botanicals: It’s allowed me to:
- spot a malfunction in serum pumps that affected many more customers than the one who spoke up.
- plan on repackaging products that have not been user friendly like getting the DANG CREAM CLEANSER OUT OF THE EFFING BOTTLE! (I feel your pain.)
- launch my new Face Scrub because of popular demand.
So don’t hesitate! Communicate! ]]>
I’ve been a Birdy fan for years. I’ve come and gone numerous times. I am still waiting for Birdy to formulate a sunscreen lotion for the face, as sunscreen is VITAL for daily living. Birdy’s response has been that it is too expensive. I beg to differ, as there are a plethora of even smaller skin care companies out there, that have in fact formulated a sunscreen product for the face. Take a look at Olive Branch Bodycare from Seattle. They offer a superb, natural sunscreen product. Thanks for listening.
Kind regards,
Trenton
Hi Trenton, Thanks so much for your feedback and your request of creating a sunscreen product! It’s great to see you back.
First, I agree with you that sunscreen is vital to the protection of the skin for health as well as aesthetic purposes. Unfortunately the subject of creating a sunscreen is much more complicated than it just being “too expensive.”
The FDA considers a product that is called a sunscreen to be a drug. It requires a lot more then just including specific ingredients in a formulation and calling it a sunscreen. The first test is that it requires the product be formulated and to sit its entire shelf life (can be 2 years +) to make sure the stability of the sunscreen ingredients are adequate. Then there is specialized drug labeling and expensive testing to identify the SPF of a specific product. This test alone can cost up to $20,000 according to my manufacturer. The FDA does not take any of this process lightly.
There is also a lot of controversy about sunscreen ingredients and whether they are good for us. Europe is way ahead of the United States as far as the number of sunscreen ingredients they allow on the market. The natural sunscreens work great but to be effective they can leave a white sheen on the face that a lot of people don’t care for. The pros and cons of certain sunscreen ingredients could be discussed until the end of time so I’m not going to go into too much detail here.
I took a look at the company you mentioned above and I think I found the products you spoke of. They look like they have some quality products and ingredients but they come from a different school of thought than Birdy Botanicals. Regarding their “sunscreen products” I had a hard time seeing the picture of the product but as far as I could see there was no SPF number on the product (that could mean they did not go through the final step and cost of having the SPF determined). Though they do mention “*Contains natural sunscreen of micronized zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.” There are a lot of ingredients out there that have natural sunscreen abilities, like shea butter, for instance. But to call it a sunscreen is a completely different subject (which they don’t call it a sunscreen so don’t get me wrong. They refer to it as a product that contains ingredients with sunscreen abilities). If I was to use a product as a sunscreen and depend on it to protect me, without the SPF listed I would not know how long my skin was being protected from the sun. This can be misleading and can ultimately harm your customers when they misunderstand the intention of a product’s abilities. You should still use a sunscreen with an SPF even when using a product such as this.
I hope this helps you understand where I am coming from concerning the subject of sunscreen and Birdy Botanicals. It’s definitely something on my to-do list for the future but there are many factors involved to be able to pull this one off.
Take care and thanks again for your feedback and throwing in your 2 cents. I appreciate it greatly! Sunscreen is definitely a product that I get requests for all the time and some day you will see it on my shelves, but that day is still in the future.
Regards,
Sally