Here is your Daily Dose of Amazing Service:
Be passionate about customer feedback
And here are some additional thoughts on this topic…
Recently I was chatting online with a guy who does web design and software development. I was evaluating one of his products. At one point I asked him if he wanted feedback and if so how he preferred to get it.
His response: “I want all feedback!”
I love this. He’s actually passionate about getting feedback. This is a refreshing change from many people who avoid customer feedback like a virus.
The more customer feedback you get, the more opportunities you have to improve your business. And if you’re passionate about getting feedback, you’ll probably get more.
Other articles you might like:
- Encourage feedback from your customers
- Never blame defend or explain (part 2)
- Remember and share customer feedback
- Are your customer service recoveries really recoveries? Part 2
- Thank customers for their complaints
I’ve been thinking a lot about monitoring and measuring lately. You’re right, customer feedback is important, but it can also be difficult. First, customers have to feel inclined to feedback (sometimes they are indifferent, or just silently walk away), second the data has to be usable and reliable, and while the customer is king, they ain’t always right (and not always fair or objective either). There are technical problems. My conclusion is that most companies don’t do enough “mystery shopping”. I blogged about it a couple of days ago, actually
http://blog.capablepeople.co.uk/2009/12/inspection-is-dead/
One thing is for sure, it will ALWAYS generate some surprises, and I have never heard of a company that has done it referring to mystery shopper as a waste of time
When I’m a customer I usually feel like a mystery shopper. I see things that might help the business improve and I want to let them know. Just imagine if 20 or 30% of your customers felt that way. Smart organizations encourage this AND they make it easy and convenient to offer feedback – on the customer’s terms. Thanks for your comments Shaun!
One of the great and often untapped sources of customer feedback is the company’s call center. I tell executives that they’ll likely learn more by spending an hour listening in on customer calls than by an expensive survey. If you’re interested, I wrote about this perspective in a post: “What Do Customers Think about Your Company’s Service?” http://dennissnowblog.com/?p=21
Hi Dennis – I think you’re absolutely right. Call centers (or any place that has direct customer contact) are brimming with useful information. Too many C level execs never even get near the front lines though so they miss out. They’d rather pay an outside firm to report on what people tell them (in an artificial situation) rather than hear what their customers actually say to their employees in real situations. Crazy! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and your article.