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Monday, November 24, 2014
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Tips to collect useful customer feedback
You may wonder how you can ask your customers about what they want you to improve in. I don’t mean to ask if you have a suggestion box on the wall or if you have a form in your website. What I mean to ask is which questions you plan to ask them.
Generally, the two questions customers are commonly asked are what did they like and what did they not like. Ironically, many people don’t even think about asking the first question though it is a very important one.
It’s important because the second question is a negative one and will generally lead to suggestions that are not entirely practical. For example, as a customer, I may suggest my bank to have a free ATM installed at a walking distance from my home.
This is not a realistic or useful suggestion as the bank cannot do it for all their customers. At the most, the bank will think that their customers appreciate increased accessibly of their ATMs, which is something that banks already know.
However if the first question was asked, it would lead to more useful answers like I saying I love my bank for the great service offered whenever I needed it, which is also not too intrusive. I also like the bank’s web access provision and free bill-pay service which I regularly use.
You will notice that while I fill out the survey, I feel whatever I write. Moreover, after answering the first question, I am in a more positive frame of mind and I thus concentrate only on the positive aspects of my banking experience, and write all this down. Thus I make the person on the other end feel better too.
When we hit the second question, my anxiety only increases as I get more careful with my words and may not even mention some things that really bug me. I however found that there is a better approach or way to adopt, which is to replace the second question with a question like �What do you suggest we need to do differently next time?”
If you roll this phrase in your mind, you realize that it totally changes your attitude while answering it. You feel like you are being supportive and helpful and not so critical in your response.
You feel that the person reading your comment may appreciate what you had mentioned. As the response is future-oriented, you have permission to be more creative with your response. There is also the additional benefit of your being able to give some advice to expand something the firm is already good at.
This is the secret towards strength-based career management which also works for businesses. Concentrate on strength and make it world-class. Ask your customers and employees for their feedback. Just frame your questions carefully so that the responses are most useful.
Tips to collect useful customer feedback
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
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