Category: Mystery Shopping

 

Last week I shared a personal story about an experience I had with a major retailer, as it illustrated a great way for follow up on feedback can catch what might be falling through the cracks when it comes to customer issues/complaints. You can read the entire story here before you read the update on my experience….

 

As I left it, I had received a feedback survey via email asking about my experience with the customer service rep. Unfortunately, I had not had an experience because my inquiry went unanswered. I completed the feedback survey and explained the entire situation. I was hopeful that someone would read this and help me out.

 

Unfortunately, as of today, I have not gotten any type of response, and my issue remains unresolved. However, I have received several emails from the company, alerting me to specials, new products, and other promotional material.

 

I guess this is one issue that will go unresolved. I’m left to wonder if there are people on the other side reading the responses to the feedback surveys, or if this is just too busy of a time for them to properly staff that department. Perhaps they only look at the quantitative data without reading the comments? At any rate, it’s been an interesting experience, and one that drives home my point about using follow up with feedback/inquiries/complaints to make sure there are no issues going unresolved. This is a good example of what can happen if there is no quality control in place within a customer feedback department, and a good reminder for companies to continually review their processes in this area.

 

 

 

Have you seen this yet? While still in the “this could become reality..someday” stage, this may be the future of Amazon:

 

I have to admit, when I first saw this video, I could think of 1,000 things that could go wrong with this, but also thought of how cool it would be. You just never know what can happen in the future.

 

While Amazon is dreaming big with the drones, they have also shared that they have also had another futuristic plan in the works, one that will be coming to fruition much sooner than any drone – robots in fulfillment centers.

 

The company plans to increase efficiency while decreasing costs for shipping while speeding up what is already touted as speedy delivery by employing such robots. The robots would be used to pluck merchandise from shelves and deliver to workers, hopefully creating a quicker process overall. And, it can potentially save Amazon up to $916 million per year – that is a significant efficiency.

 

Companies, especially e-commerce sites, are tightening their processes to provide the quickest, least expensive service offerings and products to their customers. Technology is helping that effort, and companies are getting creative in ways to cut costs and pass those on to customers.

 

What do you think? Will we ever see an Amazon drone? Is it a realistic expectation for the future? Please join in the conversation and share your thoughts with the community!

 

 

When you hear the word engagement as it relates to the customers, the first thing you’ll typically think of these days is social media. Have you considered how your customer feedback program enhances engagement, and in turn, increased sales?

 

I’m not talking about customer feedback surveys that point customers to the brand’s social media sites so they can stay connected; instead, I’m referring to an interesting piece of research that lends to the thought that if you can get customers to provide feedback, and keep them continuing to offer that feedback, it will lead to increased engagement. And of course, those customers who are more engaged will likely spend more, resulting in ultimately a piece of ROI for your customer feedback program.

 

PeopleMetrics recently published an article on this very topic. They shared the above theory and wanted to see how it would play out. They conducted some research that looked at customers who repeatedly provided customer feedback over time to measure their engagement and spend.

 

They found that engagement and spend moved in the positive over time; those who were tagged as “disengaged” at the beginning, yet continued to provide feedback over a period of time became more engaged customers, and those that were already engaged at the beginning of the study were even more engaged. Even better, both groups showed an increase in spending.

 

This was conducted in a B2B setting, though I wonder if the results would be similar in a B2C setting.

 

The article cites three reasons why this may hold true:

 

1. It gives customers a way to express their thoughts and opinions from their point of view. Talking about themselves is rewarding, and by giving customers a chance to share their thoughts and how your company affects them, it gives them a reason to feel more engaged with your company.

 

2. By asking for feedback, it sends the message that the company is committed to the customer and providing the best experience possible.

 

3. Customers who get a more tailored experience on future visits feel that their feedback was valued, and companies are working hard to provide them with a great experience that will keep them coming back.

 

In reading this article, I believe that this is a great way to think about customer feedback. However, there are steps that need to be taken to ensure that you are making the most of your feedback program to ensure that you will get those repeat customers who are willing to share with you:

 

1. Respond to feedback when possible: making things right during an unpleasant experience, or simply thanking a respondent for a great suggestion can go a long way in creating a positive relationship with customers.

 

2. Sharing company changes as a result of feedback results, whether publicly or with specific customers who made specific suggestions, can go a long way in sending a very strong message that not only do you listen to your customers, but you take their thoughts and suggestions into consideration. If you’re seeing a trend revolving around a particular issue customers have, perhaps long wait times at the register, it’s time to look carefully at this to see what changes can be made. If, perhaps, you decided to open additional registers during the busy periods, it’s a great idea to share this new development with customers. Something along the path of creating signage that reads “Thank you, shoppers, for your suggestions. We are now providing additional help at the registers to better serve you.” That may be a bit cheesy or simplistic, but showing customers how you respond to feedback can be important.

 

3. Share the results with the staff that matter the most – your customer facing, front line workers. Many times feedback doesn’t trickle down this far, unless it’s significant or negative in nature. Employees that deal directly with your customers need to know what is working for customers and where they feel service is lacking. Sometimes just sharing this information with employees will get them sharing their own thoughts about service related challenges, giving you another opportunity to see how you can do things better.

 

Customer feedback has been around forever, and continues to prove to be a useful tool to capture customer sentiment, opinions, and suggestions. Thinking of it as a tool to increase ROI and engagement is interesting, and one that should not be overlooked.