Customer Insight · Think Local Reviews

Using Customer Feedback to Improve Your Retail Store (Not Just Your Rating)

Most retailers think of reviews as a way to earn stars and convince new customers to visit. But using customer feedback in retail stores goes much deeper than that. Reviews, surveys and in-store comments are a free source of insight into what you’re doing well – and where you’re losing sales without realising.

When you collect, organise and act on feedback, you’re not just improving your online rating. You’re making smarter decisions about stock, staffing, store layout and marketing.

Step 1: Bring all your feedback into one place

Feedback often lives in multiple places:

• Google, Facebook and other review sites.
• Email replies from customers.
• Notes from staff about in-store conversations.
• Occasional surveys or comment cards.

Start by bringing as much of this as possible together. You can use a simple spreadsheet or, for multi-location retailers, a platform like Think Local Reviews to centralise online reviews automatically.

Step 2: Tag feedback into useful themes

Raw comments are helpful, but themes make them actionable. For each review or piece of feedback, tag one or more categories such as:

• Product range / size availability.
• Price and value for money.
• Staff friendliness and knowledge.
• Queue times and checkout experience.
• Store layout, cleanliness and accessibility.
• Online ordering or click-and-collect.

Over a few weeks or months, patterns will become obvious. You might discover that many customers love your staff but are frustrated by narrow aisles, or that they want more sizes in a specific product line.

Step 3: Share insights with your team, not just management

Feedback leads to real change when the whole team sees it, not just the store manager. In monthly or quarterly meetings:

• Share the most common compliments and say “let’s keep doing this”.
• Highlight one or two recurring issues and brainstorm solutions.
• Ask staff if they’ve noticed the same trends in-store.

This creates a culture where feedback is normal, not scary – and where staff feel part of the solution rather than blamed.

Step 4: Turn insight into specific actions

For each major theme, decide on concrete steps. For example:

• “Queues are too long” → add a second till at peak times, review staff rota.
• “Sizes often sold out” → adjust ordering, move bestsellers to a more visible area.
• “Great staff but confusing offers” → simplify signage, train staff on explaining promotions.

Step 5: Close the loop in your review replies

When you act on feedback, let customers know. In your public review responses, you can say:

“Thank you for mentioning our fitting rooms. We’ve listened and added new hooks and mirrors, which you’ll see on your next visit.”

This shows you take feedback seriously and encourages more customers to share constructive comments – because they can see it leads to real changes.

Step 6: Re-measure after changes

A few weeks after implementing changes, check the data again:

• Has the number of complaints in that area gone down?
• Are more customers praising improvements?
• Is your overall rating trending upward?

This creates a continuous loop: collect feedback, act on it, measure results, and repeat. Over time, your store experience improves and your online reputation naturally follows.