Customer feedback is great for identifying areas of improvement, including accessibility. Soliciting feedback encourages customers to return to your place of business which improves brand loyalty and fosters a culture of innovation.
In the world of accessibility, there is a famous phrase "Nothing About Us, Without Us" − a motto that dates back as far as 16th century Poland but gained notoriety in America during the Independent Living Movement in the 1990s. The motto is as simple as it is accurate. There will be no innovation without new information − something advocates for accessibility are happy to provide in droves.
Successful businesses require satisfied and loyal customers. Customer feedback is the only way to truly understand what your business is getting right (and wrong) from the perspective of those who matter most: the customers themselves. Customer feedback ensures that the customer is included in the conversation about what best suits their needs—creating loyal, satisfied customers—and paving the way for a path toward success and growth.
All of this is true for any business and any customer base, but this is especially true when it comes to accessibility and servicing the needs of customers with disabilities. For all the reasons outlined above, obtaining and utilizing customer feedback about your business and its accessibility is a crucial aspect of understanding customers with disabilities and serving them properly. Here we discuss why customer feedback is so critical to accessibility.
A mile in their shoes
Everyone experiences the world differently, and this is doubly true for persons with disabilities. Without a lived experience, it’s impossible to understand how those with a disability experience the product, the store, the website, or customer service. In lieu of that personal experience, the best thing businesses can do is to genuinely listen to their customers and try to understand their unique user experiences. Doing so will not only improve community relationships and brand loyalty but also help your organization identify better ways to serve all customers.
And seeking input from internal customers also improves the bottom line. According to a study by Calvert, Morgan Stanley, 80% of investors believe that diversity in the board room leads to stronger performance on the stock market. When American companies were compared to industry peers in places like Australia, the U.K., and Canada, they found that U.S. based companies were 2-3 times more likely to have stronger environmental, social, and governance practices, which led to stronger stock performance (even investors recognize that diversity fosters innovation).
Beta testing accessibility
Applying insights from customer feedback to future products and practices also creates improved experiences. Yet businesses often expend resources to obtain customer feedback, but never utilize it to initiate any sort of change. What good is seeking out feedback if no changes are made to address issues identified in the process? Think of it as beta testing the business’s accessibility.
Adopting the mindset that no product or experience exists in a permanent state is helpful in moving forward in this process. There are opportunities for improvement in any aspect of a business, especially accessibility, and customer feedback bears that out.
Accessibility beta testing goes something like this: put a product out into the world for real customers to use, seek their input, and utilize that feedback to produce a superior, more accessible model. Just like beta testing the newest iPhone, customer feedback leads to a product with fewer bugs, improved for easier use by all. And this improvement process is ongoing, which is why it’s important to…
Stay in touch
Keeping the lines of communication open via customer feedback allows for continuous improvement. Seeking out and utilizing customer feedback should be a feedback loop that never ends. Staying in touch continuously with customers literally allows for staying in touch figuratively with the needs of the disability community, especially as those needs evolve. It facilitates the beta testing process and keeps a business informed on changes in the community, including changes in the assistive technology many use to access a site or product. Keeping the lines of communication open and flowing is the only way to continuously provide an accessible experience as the world around us changes rapidly.
Conclusion
Acknowledging customers with disabilities by seeking out their feedback gives them a seat at the table, giving them input into the functionality of the systems that shape their daily lives. The end result of that empowerment is facilitating a more accessible customer experience. To maintain that accessible experience, businesses must keep the lines of communication open and continuously welcome and utilize feedback from all customers.
Related: Accessible Customer Services Training Now Discounted for Accessibility.com Readers
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