Customer feedback has three phases – Collect, Analyze, and Take Action – and yet many companies only focus on the first two. Following up on customer feedback to enhance customer experience is a matter of deciphering the data – and using it to your advantage.
There is no shortage of data to analyze. By one estimate, information is growing at such an exponential rate that 90 percent of the world’s data was generated just in the past two years.
Data is especially pouring in to corporate America, with the average company collecting it from 400 different sources.
But there is gold to be experienced in that data – and it comes in the form of customer feedback. Only many brands don’t know how to use it.
How Voters and Customers Are Alike
I was reminded of this fact recently while listening to, of all things, a podcast on politics.
The podcast was called “Possible,” and the guest was Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark website. She collects all sorts of feedback, only it’s from voters in focus groups.
Longwell described how why she loves talking to voters instead of just reading polling data.
“I want to hear the tone of their voice,” she said. “I want to hear the words they’re using…I want to know if they’re voting against or voting for.”
Then she explained why qualitative responses are often more valuable than quantitative.
“It is much denser and more interesting and more actionable to have real people’s opinions as opposed to just a number,” she asserted.
The proverbial light bulb went off in my head: the same is true for customer experience! If you sub out voters for customers, it’s exactly the same.
The revelation speaks to a larger truth: even though companies should be focusing on collecting and acting on qualitative data about customers like Longwell does for voters– meaty data that actually means something–many are not.
Instead, they often stick to quantitative, numerical data that does not mean very much. And fail to fully utilize what they do collect. More on all that below.
Collecting Customer Feedback: Effective Strategies
Most companies are good at the Collect phase. I haven’t yet met a company that is lacking in data, so collecting data isn’t the problem (as evidenced by how often consumers are asked to complete surveys).
There are two key methods for collecting feedback: passive and active.
Passive feedback is when you insert a persistent survey mechanism on each page and let customers provide feedback when they want.
Active feedback is when you intentionally solicit feedback via a pop up or screen takeover, most often through surveys. Don’t do this too frequently as it can frustrate customers who just want to accomplish their task quickly and leave.
I recommend using both methods strategically. Active feedback is great for specific moments like cart abandonment, while passive feedback sends the message that the company always welcomes feedback.
Where do you collect all of this information? Everywhere from social media, telephone transcripts, email and even snail mail, to ratings, review sites and, of course, survey responses.
Types of Customer Feedback to Focus On
Of course, we’re going to love our happy customers who compliment us. That’s going to happen most often on social media and in survey responses.
That positive feedback serves an important purpose: It tells us what we’re doing right. We want to share it with internal teams and celebrate it. And of course, focus on doing more of it. Because if one customer loves it, chances are others will too.
If you get a compliment, ask yourself: how do we do more of this for more customers?
Then, you’re going to hear from some people in the middle with questions or neutral comments. The key here is to note the recurring questions or comments and use them to determine how to make things easier for customers. After all, if you’re seeing a question come up a lot, that’s a clear indicator that the answer is not as easy or obvious for customers as you might think.
Consider updating your website FAQs to answer the most commonly asked questions and gain some SEO juice to boot. Because if one customer has a question, chances are others do too.
Finally, you are inevitably going to get the sad (or even mad) customers – the complainers, the people unhappy with you. And of course, you’ll want to know what you’re doing wrong.
The goal is to resolve each customer’s issue individually, and then do a root cause analysis to try to fix the underlying issue. Because if one customer is complaining, chances other others are having the same problem.
Respond to Everyone
A key thing to remember: All feedback is worth responding to. If people don’t tell you what you’re doing well and what you’re doing wrong, how will you ever find out? So treat feedback as a gift.
That’s why Responsive is the “R” in my WISER methodology for creating remarkable experiences – Witty, Immersive, Shareable, Extraordinary, Responsive.
And remember, don’t be afraid of those complaints – they help you get better. Customers complain because they care. If they didn’t, they would simply move on to a competitor and not tell us.
While we obviously don’t want that, even if we lose a customer it’s still better to have received the complaint. Maybe we can fix the issue for the next customer.
AOC vs. VOC
Another key aspect of collecting feedback is to look at both VOC, or Voice of the Customer, and AOC, AOC, or Actions of the Customer. Because what customers say and what they do can often be very different.
What customers say can be gleaned through social media, website feedback, phone and chat transcripts, surveys, and focus groups.
What customers do can be learned with search keywords, website and mobile app usage data, and product ordering data.
If we don’t look at both types of feedback, we risk missing big opportunities to fix customer pain points or enhance the customer experience in new ways.
Analyzing Customer Feedback: Beyond the Numbers
Most companies are decent at analyzing customer feedback. They have teams to analyze all of the data and put it into a pretty report. The growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) to rapidly sift through masses of data, of course, is making this much easier. The problem is that companies tend to stop there, but the analysis is far from the end of the game.
Some friendly advice: Please do not collect all of this information and just put it into a report. Your executives do not need more reports. They already get so many reports that they don’t have time to read all of them.
Yes, you are going to have to put customer feedback data into some sort of report. But if all you do is email it out to people, it is likely going straight to the recycling bin, and all of your time will be wasted.
So please resist the urge just to create another report and make sure that you turn it into something actionable.
Examining The Right Metrics
Even as companies collect ever more customer feedback, they are often focusing on metrics that are less helpful in improving experience.
Specifically, as I explained in a previous blog, the two most popular customer experience metrics are quantitative, lacking in the rich and dense qualitative data that Longwell seeks from voters.
One is Customer Satisfaction, or CSAT, a measurement of how satisfied customers are doing business with you.
Sounds logical on the surface, right? But is satisfied enough these days?
As I explain in my book, The Experience Maker: How To Create Remarkable Experiences That Your Customers Can’t Wait To Share, customers share either very positive or very negative experiences; what they don’t share is just being satisfied.
Related: Buy The Experience Maker on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, or head over to BulkBooks to get it at bulk pricing for the entire team.
Satisfied customers may stick around for a while, but not out of a sense of loyalty. They’ll likely stay until they get a better deal – or a better experience – elsewhere.
Another issue with the CSAT score is that it represents a snapshot – a moment in time – that has already happened. It may give you an indicator of how things are going, but not why. To get at the why, you need to supplement this score with qualitative customer feedback.
Qualitative Feedback Is What Counts – From Customers And Voters Alike
The other most popular customer experience metric is Net Promoter Score, or NPS. It is a measure of customer loyalty, as it indicates how likely customers would recommend a company to others.
While research from the London School of Economics and the Temkin Group has found a connection between NPS and revenue, NPS suffers from the same problem as CSAT – it’s a number that represents only a moment in time. Further, it indicates whether customers would recommend a company to a friend, not whether they actually have done so.
NPS does a great job of telling companies how they’re doing, but not why. So when it goes up month-over-month, everyone cheers and pats each other on the back. When it goes down, everyone scrambles for rationalizations – like the pandemic, supply chain issues, climate change, or some other uncontrollable force. Like CSAT, NPS must be accompanied by qualitative customer feedback to get the entire picture.
The bottom line: Like Longwell talks to voters, executives must talk to their customers. There is nothing like hearing the actual voice of your customer – the words they use, their tone, and their emotions – which provides the true substance of what they are thinking.
That’s the best kind of feedback to analyze.
Taking Action: Turning Customer Feedback into Tangible Improvements
So you’ve collected all that customer feedback, and you’ve thoroughly analyzed it. Now it’s time to take action! This is the step that most companies miss, because they think that big analytics report is the actual deliverable. Feedback has to be turned into action items that are shared with the rest of the organization.
As my friend and fellow customer experience speaker and author Annette Franz says: “Great customer experience begins with listening to your customers and taking action based on their feedback.”
Yes, it’s as relatively simple as that.
If we don’t take action on customer feedback, then we’ve wasted the time collecting it. Taking action means identifying the things we should start, stop, or continue doing based on what customers are telling us.
Stop = things customers don’t like, so we should eliminate them.
Start = things customers are asking for, so we should initiate them.
Continue = things customers already love, so we should be doing more of them.
Taking action is what moves the needle on the quantitative metrics like NPS and CSAT – and the qualitative feedback from customers – because we are making continuous, positive change.
In essence, this process is creating a “feedback loop” – and closing it.
Make sure the root problem that caused the customer’s issue is addressed so other customers don’t experience the same thing. And if a customer makes a suggestion that the company ends up implementing, be sure to follow up – even if it’s months or years later – to let them know their input was valued.
Related Guest Post: 6 Tips For Making Customer Insights Actionable
New Services To Enhance Your Customer Feedback Strategy
Here are two new services that The Experience Maker is offering to help companies get better at collecting, analyzing, and taking action on customer feedback:
CX Inspection™ Report
The CX Inspection Report is a comprehensive customer experience evaluation solution designed to help businesses enhance every aspect of their customer interactions.
Too often, companies struggle with taking action on customer feedback. They get stuck in the analysis, often resulting in arduous reporting and satisfaction scores that only provide insight on a moment in time. What if you could go immediately from collecting feedback to taking action on it – and ultimately improving your customer experience?
The service will assess key areas such as the physical or digital environment, service efficiency, staff interaction, product quality, and overall customer experience. You’ll receive a customized report that provides actionable insights on aspects of your CX that you should start, stop, and continuing doing.
Want to deliver exceptional customer experiences that drive loyalty and growth? Start by identifying your strengths and areas for improvement, courtesy of your customers’ own feedback.
Voice of the Customer Amplifier Workshop
Ready to unlock the power of your customers’ voices? Imagine transforming raw customer feedback into a goldmine of insights that propel your business forward. Our Voice of the Customer Amplifier Workshop does just that – and more. In this high-impact session, you’ll:
- Dive deep into real customer interactions across all channels
- Uncover hidden pain points and opportunities for excellence
- Perform root cause analysis to prevent future service interactions
- Engage your leadership team in collaborative problem-solving
- Develop actionable strategies to elevate your customer experience
This isn’t just another dry analysis meeting. Prepare for an energizing, eye-opening experience featuring your actual customers that will unite your team and ignite passion for customer-centric innovation. You’ll leave feeling inspired, aligned, and equipped with the tools to drive meaningful change.
The result? Dramatically reduced call volumes, lower operational costs, higher satisfaction scores, and a customer experience that your customers will want to tell others about.
There’s nothing quite like the literal voice of your customer; it can revolutionize your business. Book your Voice of the Customer Amplifier workshop today and start your journey to service excellence.
Quarterly sessions recommended, monthly for optimal impact. Over time you will learn techniques to conduct your own continuing insight sessions.
Interested in learning more? Please email Dan at dan@dangingiss.com or book an introductory meeting on his calendar.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.
