Category: Customer Feedback

Have you heard this saying? My grandma would say this when I was younger, and I thought of it recently as it relates to customer service.

When companies ask customers for feedback, it’s important to listen. Not just to the good, but the not so good feedback. Your most unhappy customers are often times the best way to learn how to improve.

Of course, you’ll sometimes get the “always unhappy” customer that likes to complain for the sake of complaining, and will never be happy. Or, a customer who complains for the sake of getting free items on future visits. But, when you use your two ears carefully, you can uncover some good information for improvement.

There are a few ways to go about looking at your feedback for pain points and areas for improvement:

1. Overall data: is your overall feedback positive, negative, or neutral? Has it changed over time, or does it tend to change seasonally (ie at holiday shopping time, for example)? Looking for the trends will help you pinpoint where your company may need to make adjustments. For example, if you see satisfaction declining during the summer months, take a closer look to see what factors may be contributing to this – is staffing more difficult due to many employees taking time off, leaving customers without adequate help on the sales floor? Was there an influx of new hires, resulting in slower service as they learn the ropes? Identify trends and look for reasons behind the dips and work to find solutions to overcome this next time.

2. Find common themes: sometimes this is more difficult when there are not open ended questions on the feedback survey, but often times you can identify trends in service, products, or features that are causing issue for your customers. For example, do you get a lot of feedback on your loyalty program? If you see trends on customer difficulty/dissatisfaction with the program, take a closer look to see what might be going on. You can then possibly create a customized feedback survey that only goes to your loyalty card members to ask more in depth questions about their opinions and dig deeper into overall perception and features that may need to be revised.

3. Push the neutrals to the next level: while those customers who provide neutral feedback aren’t dissatisfied, they can be a great source for learning. These are the customers that are satisfied and will probably return, but they aren’t “wowed” or exceptionally satisfied. When a good chunk of the feedback is neutral, it’s simple to create branching to take the neutrals to the next level and learn from them. Incorporate a question that is set up to add an additional question for those who rate the service as neutral – ask them what would improve future visits, or more broadly, what would make them change their satisfaction to “exceptional.” The suggestions provided could be a great learning tool, and you could get ideas you’ve never thought of before!

Use those two ears carefully and listen for what is not being said as well. By employing an effective feedback survey and taking the information to dig deeper, you will learn some important information about your customers while learning how to continually improve.

There are many benefits of using customer feedback surveys, and often times the data collected brings about change that is positive from the eyes of the customer. However, there are also times when it works in the favor of the employees as well.

Consider the case of Rogers Communications, a Toronto based company. One of the chief customer complaints revolved around their billing process. In getting feedback from customers, it was discovered that a big part of the issue was the way the system was setup – when customers called with billing inquiries, conversations were often times difficult. The reason? When customers asked questions referring to their bill, they were seeing charges and billing information differently than the employees did when pulling up a customer’s account. You can imagine the disconnect in conversation that could happen – the customer is talking apples and the employee is seeing oranges. Not a good combination.

In response to this concern, the company revamped their system so that employees and customers were seeing the billing information in the same format. This not only reduced issues, but lowered the amount of complaints by 31%.

In this example, the trend in customer feedback caused the company to look more closely at its processes and make changes for the better, for both customers and employees. I’m sure the employees were just as frustrated with the disjointed conversations, and the system change was a welcome one.

How can you use feedback surveys to pinpoint challenges in your company? Outside of simply identifying trends, you can take it a step further and benefit from your customers’ perspective.

1. Start with the customers: they are the ones who are directly impacted by your procedures. If you are employing feedback surveys, are you asking the right questions? Are you looking for trends and patterns in both satisfied and dissatisfied customers? Identifying these trends is a great starting point.

2. Ask your employees: next to your customers, the employees are the most integral part of your business. After all, they are heavily involved in the day to day interactions. Conduct a survey with your staff to find out where their pain points are – maybe there is something they are required do to based on their performance guidelines, but there are challenges that prevent them from doing so, kind of like the billing system mentioned above. Or, perhaps they have some suggestions, based on their experience, to make processes more streamlined for customers. Listening to employees is critical and can be easily done with the same survey system you use for your customer feedback.

3. Make your changes public: everyone wants to be heard. If there are things your company implements based on the feedback from customers and/or employees, let everyone know what the changes are and why you’ve made them. When customers and employees feel as though they are part of the process, it increases engagement and loyalty.

4. Don’t forget to follow up: all new things come with some kinks. Once a new program or procedure is rolled out, ask for feedback a month or so in. What’s working, what’s not? Is it truly effective in meeting your objectives? Nothing perfect happens overnight – it often takes time to make effective change. Don’t be afraid to ask for insight – people are generally happy to share their thoughts in the common goal of a better experience all around.

Listening to customers and your staff is a critical part of success. They are your front line and can often help you see the forest for the trees.