Back when I was is college I took a creative writing class, and part of this class was to critique each other’s work: read what the other students wrote, and offer constructive criticism and feedback. It turned out that was one of the hardest things to do effectively, because most people instinctively get defensive about any negative feedback. They’re just too emotionally invested in their work to accept even mild criticism dispassionately.
The same thing can happen when you share negative customer feedback. Often, an employee’s intense and emotional reaction is that someone is trying to tell them that they’re bad at their job, and they react defensively. At the company level, most people take a lot of pride in the organization they work for (even when it’s not justified) and have a hard time hearing that something might be broken. Breaking through this takes a lot of finesse and you have to be careful about how you present and frame the feedback.
I did eventually get pretty good at giving and receiving constructive criticism, and that’s turned out to be really helpful professionally. Here’s my suggestions for making negative feedback a positive experience:
- Most important, always have the attitude of constructive criticism. This is about problem solving, not assigning blame. A customer had a bad experience, that does not mean the company is bad at CX (even if you think they actually are, don’t let that be part of the message). Everyone makes mistakes, and the goal is to identify the mistakes so they are less likely in the future.
- Present positive feedback along with negative, and lead with the positive. This helps set the tone of, “We’re generally doing a good job and we’d like to find ways to do even better.”
- Focus on the customer’s perceptions. For example, if a customer complains about a late shipment, this should be framed as “A customer felt his delivery expectations were not met. Let’s try to figure out why the customer felt this way,” rather than, “We’re really dropping the ball on deliveries!” There can be a lot of reasons for a negative perception, not all of them related to what actually happened.
- Select the feedback you choose to present carefully. Not all negative feedback is credible, but you should reinforce the customer feedback with other data that supports that this is a problem worth paying attention to (for example, “We’re seeing more complaints about late deliveries this quarter. This customer’s experience is similar to a lot of other complaints”). Share feedback that’s articulate, believable, and relatable. Don’t share the crazies, as entertaining as they may be.
Sharing customer feedback, both with individual employees and the organization as a whole, is a powerful way to motivate action but needs to be done carefully to inspire the right action and avoid negativity.
