Paste your Google Webmaster Tools verification code here

Tag: customer feedback

Not Getting Many Feedback Surveys?

 

You have a customer feedback program in place, which is great, but are you getting the results you want? If you notice a decline in responses or a consistently low response rate, there are some things you may want to consider:

 

1. Is the link to the online survey (or telephone number) visible in multiple customer touchpoints? This could mean placing the survey invitation on the receipts or brochures, on the company website, etc. You’ll want to make sure it is as visible and easily accesible as possible in order to get people to take the survey.

 

2. Are your employees doing their part? At the point of transaction, do you instruct employees to point out the survey invitation and ask that they take a few minutes to provide feedback? If not, you may be missing valuable feedback from your customers. People are moving at a quick pace these days, and many will not take the time to review a receipt unless the survey is pointed out to them.

 

It can be a quick mention of the invitation or the employee simply circling the link or telephone number as the transaction closes. I was in a JCPenney over the holidays and the employee went WAY overboard talking about the survey – she circled the link and asked me to take the survey, which was fine and should have ended the interaction. However, she went on for another two minutes about making sure I enter her name correctly, provide good feedback so the managers know she did a good job, and on and on.  That wasn’t cool at all, and actually turned me off from the survey.

 

Pointing out the invitation to raise awareness can go a long way in getting customers to provide feedback.

 

3. Employees may SAY they’re pointing out the survey.…but are they really? If you have a mystery shopping program in place, this one is easy to resolve. Simply add a question to the mystery shopping report that asks if the employee mentioned taking the survey at the end of your transaction. This will only work in instances in which a purchase is required, but it can go a long way in objectively determining whether or not employees are promoting the survey as you’ve trained them to do.

 

When you have a mystery shopping program in place, tracking the disconnect in collecting customer feedback surveys can be easier than simply guessing why participation rates are low. Customers want to be heard – let them know you have ways of letting them tell you what they think!

 

Share

Hot Transfer For Customer Feedback

 

If you use a customer feedback program, you know the value of post transactional feedback from your customers. You provide a link to a feedback survey at the bottom of the receipts, on your website, and possibly even through POP signage.

 

How do your telephone customers provide feedback? You may want to consider a “hot transfer” program to incorporate into your existing feedback program.

 

Here’s how it works. Say you have a phone based feedback program in which customers call a toll-free number to provide feedback. Depending on your telephone system, this toll-free number can be programmed into your system so that once a call with one of your customer service representatives is complete, it will transfer the call to the feedback survey.

 

Sounds great, right? I’m sure you are also thinking of a few issues that may arise with the hot transfer system. Let me see if I can address them below:

 

1. Employees won’t transfer the call to the feedback service for all calls, especially the ones that don’t go so well: the hot transfer system will automatically transfer calls to the feedback service as soon as your employee ends the call – they do not have control over which customers get into the feedback system. Since every call will have the opportunity to provide feedback, this is not something you need to worry about.

 

2. Customers will be annoyed by this system: not at all! Customers, as you know, love giving feedback. It shows that you care about their experience and want to do better. Like traditional feedback programs, of course not everyone will want to participate. You can set your phone system to throw an automated recording (along the lines that you do for recordings: “This call may be monitored for quality control…”) that asks customers to press 1 if they would like to provide feedback at the end of the conversation. This not only makes them aware that you’ll be asking about their experience and make them more aware of the details of the call, but it gives them the option to participate or opt out.

 

3. Customers won’t provide negative feedback for fear the employee will know who left the feedback – after all, they typically have the customer’s account number: customers are opting in to take the survey prior to the call taking place. Yes, they can hang up if they change their mind, but assuring customers that their responses are completely confidential can help in obtaining negative feedback. You want to encourage this group as their feedback is what can best help you to improve.

 

If you haven’t considered the hot transfer method of customer feedback, or if your current provider doesn’t offer this service, please let us know and we’d be happy to help! You can leave a comment below or email us for more information.

 

Share

Customer Feedback Programs: The Social Media Advantage

 

Customer feedback programs are effective tools to learn how your customers perceive your business and provide you with feedback for improvements, but it doesn’t come without limitations; response rate is important, and making sure you’re not only receiving the “extremes” (highly positive or negative feedback only) also plays a factor in the success of your program.

 

One discussion across the industry is whether or not social media will become a new form, or completely replace, customer feedback programs in the future. Let’s face it – people are more likely to voice their opinions on blogs, forums, and other sites than provide that feedback directly to the company. There is also a feeling of anonymity online that allows people to be more honest in these forums.

 

By not keeping tabs on social media surrounding your company, brands may be missing out on potential opportunity. For example, if you’re not monitoring online conversations, you may miss the post of a dissatisfied customer. By not knowing this information and not being able to respond in some way, it can be a lost chance to re-engage that customer and get them to return in the future.
Social media monitoring tools are more sophisticated than they were even a year ago. This development provides analytical data that can be incorporated into the more traditional customer feedback data. Why is this important? First, it gives deeper information on what makes customers tick, and secondly, if can alert a company to potential challenges with their current feedback system. For example, if feedback is coming back at a 95% satisfaction rate, yet online conversations lend to a lower rate, it may be that you are only collecting feedback (or making it inviting enough) from the completely satisfied customers. Is there something you can be doing differently to encourage all customers, regardless of their experience, to share their thoughts?

 

It could be a case of asking the wrong questions. If the questions on a feedback survey are too general, or only focus on one aspect of your business, you may be missing out on valuable feedback. Take, for example, a restaurant’s customer feedback survey. If it asks general questions about the service a customer received and the overall experience, that’s all well and good. However, if social conversations are suggesting that customers are dissatisfied with the food quality or portion size, it may be time to take those issues to your customers in your formal feedback program. If you’re not asking the right questions, you may not be getting full information and miss the opportunity for customer loyalty and retention.

 

With all of the talk about companies monitoring what people are saying online, taking further steps by analyzing the information coming in, and engaging with customers, I can see how this might complement, but not fully replace, customer feedback programs.

 

For now, companies can think of social media as yet another tool at their disposal to learn more about their customers and see their business from the customer’s perception. It’ll be interesting to watch social media evolve over the next few years; its evolution over the last two years has been quite remarkable alone!

Share