Listening to your customers without going crazy

As iPrioritize has grown over its first three months, I've heard an increasing amount of feedback from my users. I'd estimate that last month alone I spoke to roughly 100 users via email, phone, or face-to-face. Each one has their own opinion as to how the application should grow in the future. When I start to think about how much feedback I'll be getting as the site grows two-fold, ten-fold, and a hundred-fold I'm a bit overwhelmed.

Don't get me wrong, I ENCOURAGE customer feedback. Whenever a user contacts me for any reason, I always ask them for their feedback. I want and NEED their feedback to ensure that the application meets the continuously growing needs of its users. I have a good system in place for tracking the feedback so I know if there's a trend in the feedback. But it can be demoralizing to listen to people constantly tell you how to improve your application, and sometimes it borders on telling you how to run your business.

I think a lot of my frustration stems from the fact that it seems like every suggestion I get from a user is completely unique...yet I still want to please them. It would be EASY to know what direction to take the application if everyone was suggesting the same thing. I tend to think that the variation in suggestions means that there is no one hole in the application and try to take it as a compliment. Some of their suggestions I will use (or have already used), and others I won't.

Ultimately, you need to decide what makes sense for your business and what doesn't. You need to be the judge. No one knows your business like you do. Your business is not a democracy. The goal of every for-profit business is to make money and you need to make the decisions that will result in your company being as profitable as possible for as long as possible.

Many times, that aligns with what your customers suggest, but not always. And you will always likely alienate a percentage of your customers with your decisions. It is impossible to meet all of their needs - you will go crazy trying to do so. I think it's more important to let them know that you value their feedback than by actually implementing it. Make each customer feel as though their needs and thoughts are important and they will be happy. So many businesses don't even make the effort to do that. If you can, you'll be a leg up on your competitors.