Branding can heavily impact your company; it changes the way people perceive your brand and can drive new business your way. A positive brand image also helps employees take pride in their work and create a sense of belonging in the workplace.

But how do you know what customers think about your business? What are their thoughts on the efficiency of your staff? How do they rate your products or service? If you want to step out of your perspective and understand what customers think about your company, read on:

Check Out Social Media Conversations

An average person spends around fifty minutes every day scrolling through newsfeeds and sharing things on social media. People make comments and updates, post images, and share their experiences. Because of the frequent use of these social media outlets, companies are using this to handle customer service. First-time customers often read reviews and comments on social media before buying a product, and it has a large impact on sales. An American Express study found that nearly 83% of customers do not complete a sale if they encounter a negative customer experience on social media.

But how do you know which social platforms your customers are on? The customer’s age demographic is a good indication. For example, customers between the ages of 18 to 30 are most likely to be on YouTube and Instagram, while the older age ranges are more likely to be on LinkedIn. There are also plenty of tools that can help you find out where your company is being talked about. Google Alerts, Hootsuite, and Mention are some to check out.

Hire a Secret Shopper

A secret shopper is hired by businesses, restaurants, retail establishments, and service providers to measure customer experience and get a third-person perspective on issues like product quality and regulatory compliance. Hiring a market research company to customize a mystery shopping program that’s tailored to your unique needs is a great way to create a competitive edge and root out potential problems in your business.

The secret shopper gathers data on pre-determined variables and reports his/her findings to the client. Parameters vary depending on the elements the business is evaluating. For instance, retail stores can check for overall cleanliness, employee attentiveness, etc. This helps businesses identify training gaps and evaluate regulatory compliance.

A mystery shopping program starts by the company deciding on the parameters they intend to measure or a challenge that they are currently facing. Once they know what they are looking for, the market research agency will customize evaluation criteria and choose the right candidate to conduct the secret shopping. The shopper will then make observations, and submit a report to the client who then reviews the findings. The data is used to follow up with concrete, actionable steps.

Using social media and secret shoppers can be an effective way to keep on top of your business’s image and branding. Fixing issues and being on top of discrepancies will help your business to continue to grow.