Today, consumers want to provide helpful insight for the brands they interact with, but most companies are not taking advantage of customer feedback, even though it's in their interest to ask for input from their customers across multiple touch points.

And that's problematic both for companies and for consumers.

By not making it a priority to ask for, listen to, and implement customer feedback, companies are missing a huge opportunity to earn customer loyalty and improve their product or service.

Customers want to give feedback

To understand how customers and companies perceive feedback, what role mobile plays in the feedback ecosystem, and how loyalty is affected, the company I work for (Apptentive) partnered with SurveyMonkey to conduct two surveys of more than 1,000 US consumers and professionals age 18 and older.

What we found is that about half of customers (51%) expect companies to ask them for feedback directly. That proportion is greater among mobile app users: 64% of customers who prefer to leave feedback in a mobile app expect companies to ask them for it directly.

Yet, it turns out that one in three companies have never asked their customers for feedback; clearly, consumer expectations are not being met.

Consumers are eager to leave feedback because they want to be a part of the process. We asked them what kind of feedback brands asked them for, and the most popular responses demonstrated that desire:

• Give us a list of new, exciting features to vote on to feel like a part of the process of upgrading features
• What could we do to improve on our product or service?
• What features is our product missing? What features are unused?
• How can we improve your user experience?

Those questions go beyond the general and vague "How are we doing?" feedback that companies typically ask for.

By asking consumers pointed questions about the direction or current state of the product, companies can glean invaluable feedback that will help to create a road map that's closely aligned with customer needs.

Loyalty is something that has to be earned; often, that comes down to understanding your customers and building an experience around their needs. If people know their feedback has been implemented, 97% of them are at least somewhat likely to become more loyal patrons to the company.

Feedback implementation not only shows customers that the company cares about them but also creates a more customer-centric product that better serves the needs of the consumer. It's a win-win.

The importance of collecting customer feedback is clearly shown in the data. What can you do to increase the volume of feedback you receive from customers? Here are three tips.

1. Ask for feedback

Most consumers expect companies to ask them for feedback directly. Instead of passively waiting for customers to give you feedback, seek it out. We recommend using in-app messages or surveys to ask for feedback, or using a feedback survey after a prompt that asks for a rating.