Gathering Client Feedback and Growing an Online Nutrition Business
Having an online nutrition business as an RD has lots of advantages. If you run an online private practice, you probably love the fact you can help who you want, when you want, how you want, and where you want! The freedom online business gives you truly allows you to reach your full potential. However, there are parts of running a business (online or not) that are challenging! One of the biggest hurdles RD entrepreneurs face is growing their online practice with a sustainable and effective marketing strategy.
All in all, the best way to expand your online practice is with a strategic marketing mix combined with the guidance of an expert Dietitian Business Coach. But, what’s one of the primary components of that marketing mix? Asking for client feedback!
Gathering Client Feedback and Growing an Online Nutrition Business
Asking your clients for feedback is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your nutrition business! Yes, it definitely takes courage and humility, because what you get back won’t always be positive. However, to grow your practice, you need to know what’s working and what’s not! That way, you can refine your counseling and marketing strategies to better reach and impact your target audience!
In this post, I’ll break down all the reasons feedback is important and explain how to effectively request input from your dreamy clients.
Why Feedback is Important In An Online Nutrition Business
Makes it Easier to Identify Areas For Improvement
When you’re meeting with your clients and doing all the behind the scenes to keep your practice going, it can be hard to notice what needs improvement. Sure, you might notice a scheduling issue here or a communication issue there, but without hearing from those you’re serving, you could be missing the big things. And these issues or opportunities for improvement could be the reason for poor retention metrics, lack of growth, or low revenue.
When you ask for feedback, you learn everything right and wrong with your business. That can be nerve-wracking, but remember that ALL businesses have growth opportunities and there’s no shame in having areas that need improvement. Once these issues are revealed, you can make a plan to fix them and come out on the other side with a better and stronger business!
Boosts Your Confidence by Revealing Customer Satisfaction
As I mentioned, when you ask for reviews of your nutrition services, your clients will tell you the good and the bad. At first, it can be difficult to emotionally and mentally overcome criticism, especially if it’s not communicated in a gracious way. (But the longer you’re in business, the better you handle constructive criticism!) However, let’s not forget the flip side of the coin: your clients will tell you all the ways you’re AMAZING!
Client feedback will affirm a lot of the things you hope are true about your nutrition coaching. This can boost your confidence, squash self-limiting beliefs, and help you further capitalize on those strengths. Though negativity can be a challenge, the positivity that comes from reviews is incredibly empowering for RD entrepreneurs!
Builds Long-Term Client Trust and Loyalty
When nutrition professionals (or any professionals, for that matter) ask for their clients’ input, it sends a powerful message: You value their input and are committed to improving your business. This approach fosters trust and reinforces your practice’s credibility. Clients will remain loyal if they know they have an open channel to voice concerns and see meaningful change.
That means even when something goes wrong, your clients will trust you to make it right instead of dropping your services or spreading negative reviews. This is huge for a growing business!
Helps You Discover Emerging Trends in Your Niche
The nutrition industry is BOOMING! More and more people are realizing how they can take control of their health or performance goals just by changing their diet. That means the industry is also constantly evolving, and when you’re focused on running your own business, it can be easy to miss emerging trends that could be profitable for your business.
Whether it’s family-style meal planning, sustainable nutrition, or something else, keeping up-to-date on your client’s interests and expectations is always a good idea! This way, you know what you’re offering is relevant, appealing, and effective for your dreamy clients!
Inspires Strategic Brand Development
As you uncover what people truly love about you and your business, your vision for your brand becomes clearer. You can find your place in your niche and know for certain what makes you stand out in your industry. This deep understanding will help you grow your nutrition business strategically, playing to your strengths! And, long-term, this will help you tremendously with retention and growth!
Provides an Effective Marketing Tool
All those positive testimonials that will come in from your feedback request? Those are POWERFUL tools for marketing your online nutrition business. Everyone is wary of people on the internet, even with verifiable credentials and a professional brand. So, when you’re trying to convert your target audience into dreamy paying clients, one of the biggest hurdles is establishing trust and authority. They need to believe that you’re going to help them!
Of course, you can upload informational blog posts, share insightful videos, run promotions, and make all your qualifications public, but that’s still you vouching for yourself. However, testimonials are from people who don’t seek to gain anything from sharing their insight. Your audience will trust your clients when they talk about their experience! In fact, research shows that 72% of consumers will only take action after reading positive reviews. That means client testimonials are one of the best ways to convert clients!
How To Collect Feedback From Client And Grow An Online Nutrition Business
Exit Interviews
Always be sure to talk to clients (or send them a feedback form) as they leave your program, whether they’re leaving because they’ve reached their goals, their budgets have changed, or they're unhappy. It doesn’t matter. It’s a great way to get really honest insight into what’s working and what’s not with your nutrition business.
Midpoint Check-Ins
Don’t forget to check-in with clients as they move through your program! This will help them feel seen and supported while also giving you the opportunity to handle issues in real time. You don’t want a client to leave or lose motivation because of an issue you could have fixed had you known about it, so regular check-ins will ensure you’re always in the loop!
Client Testimonials
Gathering client testimonials after they’ve made significant progress towards their goals (or reached their goals) is a great use of your time. Of course, you already know those dreamy clients are happy, but taking time to curate a full testimonial in the form of a video or long review will give you the marketing material you need to convert more potential clients.
Online Surveys
To get regular quick input about various parts of your nutrition practice, set up regular automated emails that include feedback surveys. These more frequent, but more simplistic forms keep that open line of communication with your clients, so they always know there’s an upcoming opportunity to express praise or concerns.
You could even set these up via programs that utilize a Net Promoter Score (NPS) system, which is a popular method for collecting and interpreting client satisfaction data! Here’s more on how to analyze and interpret data to scale as an RD.
Follow-Up Emails
It’s a good idea to ask for feedback when the information is still fresh in your clients’ minds. So, send follow-up emails asking for insight after they complete a session, purchase a product, finish a course, or take any other significant action with your online practice. Right afterward is when they’re most likely to offer feedback!
Social Media Engagement
Client engagement is an important method of retaining clients and driving them toward success. One way you can keep up with your dreamy clients is via social media platforms. If you post about a program, course, product, or other service, and clients comment that they made a purchase, ask them about their experience! Or, if they express a concern or deliver praise directly, respond to that as well! Good or bad, responding to all feedback comments shows authority, trustworthiness, and professionalism.
Live Chat Support
On your nutrition website, a live chat support button can not only add to the credibility of your business and user-friendliness of your website, but it can also be a great tool for feedback! Whether there’s a real person or an AI bot behind the chat, the conversations the individual or machine has with potential or current clients will provide valuable insight into how people feel about your program!
Products/Services Reviews and Ratings
If you have your products or services listed on your website for purchase, don’t forget to provide a review box on the page. When trying to find honest reviews of your offerings, this is one of the first places potential clients will look! Having plenty of honest reviews and ratings will be great for closing those sales.
Incentivized Feedback Requests
If you don’t feel like you’re collecting enough feedback, try incentivizing surveys and testimonial requests! You could offer a discount code, free resource, access to a course, or anything else you think may be valuable for your current clients. These kinds of programs can be highly motivating and bring in lots of feedback.
Gathering feedback from your clients is one of the best ways to grow your business!
To build your business, you need to know what makes your online nutrition practice special and where it may need improvement. Though it can be intimidating at first, getting feedback will only benefit your long-term business growth by giving you the information you need to make strategic decisions and changes.
If you need help establishing a feedback collection system or you need help using the information to grow your practice, let me help as a Dietitian Business Coach! I can help you, like I’ve helped hundreds of others, turn your start-up into the thriving private practice of your dreams. You can find out if coaching is right for you by taking this quiz. Either way, let me be the first to give you some feedback . . . you’re doing amazing and I can’t wait to see you succeed!