I regularly do customer feedback surveys for competitive analysis purposes (full disclosure: ServiceDock is a CEM platform for multi-location businesses). For the most part, I am a genuine customer of the business when I do them and try to think as such, while also making notes on the survey solution. Some of these surveys can be extremely tedious and drawn out, but the most frustrating experience I frequently encounter is when I\u2019m told that there is no chance of a follow-up on my feedback.<\/p>\n
The real irony here is that the goal of the exercise is to improve CX, but the process offers terrible CX.<\/p>\n
Put yourself in the customer\u2019s shoes for a moment. A business has just asked you to spend a few moments of your valuable time to provide feedback that will help the business improve customer experience. So the business is getting something very valuable from the customer. <\/p>\n
In return, you, the customer, get a small statistical chance of winning a low-value prize, while being informed that no one is really paying attention to what you\u2019re saying. Does that sound customer-centric to you?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no wonder that the engagement rates on many in-store surveys are so low (often less than 1%).<\/p>\n
Of course, it would be very difficult for any busy consumer-facing business to follow up on every piece of feedback, particularly if you’re being successful at capturing it in high volumes. It would be a huge mistake to create the expectation that there will be a follow up because the resources required to manage such an operation would be significant.<\/p>\n
The goal should be to respond to as much customer feedback as possible, which in an ideal world would be all of it. Avoid promising that you WILL follow up but certainly do not state that you WILL NEVER follow up. There is nothing wrong with offering a secondary channel that will receive a more immediate response, but stating outright that the feedback being provided is not going to get any direct attention is discourteous at best.<\/p>\n
For simplicity, let’s assume there are only two types of customers. Happy loyal customers (aka promoters) and unhappy customers who are ready to do business with someone else (aka detractors). The benefits of following up with both are different so we\u2019ll look at them separately:<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re only going to reply to a small percentage of feedback your time is probably better spent on detractors, but there is a lot of value to be gained from promoter follow-ups. These people already like your business enough to be willing to tell their friends and colleagues to avail of your services. Imagine the pleasant surprise and subsequent increase in advocacy levels if you come back with a well-timed \u2014<\/p>\n
\u201cReally appreciate your kind words and continued support.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
or <\/p>\n
\u201cThanks for the great suggestion. We will make that change before the end of the month.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It takes effort, but there is real payback on such follow-ups.
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\nWarning!<\/strong> Be careful not to make the follow up intrusive. Following up with a phone call, for example, can actually have a negative impact if it is timed badly and interrupts an important meeting.<\/p>\nWhy respond to detractors?<\/h3>\n
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When I talk to potential clients, they often express concern that all they will get are complaints. In my experience that is not the case, at least where a reasonable incentive is provided. In any case, studies have shown that proactively dealing with a complaint creates a huge opportunity to increase a customer’s level of loyalty. <\/p>\n
Weighing up the pros and cons of following up on at least the bottom few percent (i.e. super detractors) is an analysis worth doing.<\/p>\n
Pros v Cons of Closing the Feedback Loop with Super Detractors<\/h4>\n
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Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n