This episode of Kissing a Cactus is about what I like to call ‘corporate deafness,’ and its harmful consequences.
- The customer’s pain remains unresolved and is even increased because feedback is not listened to;
- customer pain cannot be mitigated if an organization is unaware that the customer is experiencing pain;
- customer processes can’t be improved;
And as a result…
- the motivation of customers to respond to subsequent requests for feedback decreases;
- this may cause the organization to mistakenly believe that customers who remain silent are satisfied.
In addition to asking customers for feedback, it is just as important to do something with that customer feedback. Without blindly doing what a customer wants, you can listen to your customers, weigh customer feedback, and make targeted improvement choices. In addition, you can let your customers know that you have taken note of their feedback, thank them for it, let them know what you are going to do with it, and inform them later about choices made and the next steps.
This is a process that is called closed-loop feedback. It helps you to improve the customer experience in a structured way and to keep your most important stakeholders, your customers, informed.
[00:00:01] You are listening to Kissing a Cactus, the podcast where experienced professionals share
[00:00:07] their insights to help you successfully capture the voice of your customer in order to improve
[00:00:13] the customer experience.
[00:00:15] Here's your host, also known as the customer listener, Frans Reichardt.
[00:00:38] In the middle of the corona crisis I received mail from my housing association.
[00:00:43] For a moment I hoped for a gesture to me as well as all the other tenants who were suddenly
[00:00:49] without income due to the government lockdown measures.
[00:00:54] Paspoment of rent payment, a temporary rent reduction.
[00:00:58] When I opened the envelope and read the letter I quickly had that illusion wiped away.
[00:01:04] While the world from a virus point of view was on fire and many people were without
[00:01:09] work and income from one day to another, my housing association casually informed me about
[00:01:14] a new rent increase.
[00:01:17] As a customer I felt unseen and misunderstood.
[00:01:22] I shared my bewilderment about this on Twitter.
[00:01:27] I wrote who thinks that my housing association is an unscrupulous money grabber who has
[00:01:32] been collecting thousands of euros in rent for years without significant housing maintenance.
[00:01:39] This week they sent me a nice letter.
[00:01:42] Very thoughtful in times of crisis.
[00:01:45] It turned out to be the annual rent increase.
[00:01:50] One of my followers replied immediately saying other housing associations are committed
[00:01:55] to affected tenants.
[00:01:58] Curious I asked for examples.
[00:02:00] He sent me a link to the website of a housing association that organized balcony concerts
[00:02:06] and a few other initiatives that while well-meaning did not help financially affected tenants
[00:02:12] at all.
[00:02:13] Shortly afterwards he turned out to have removed his tweet.
[00:02:17] You see it more often.
[00:02:19] Initiatives that are intended to improve the customer experience but hardly matter
[00:02:23] from a customer perspective.
[00:02:26] They ignore improvements in the customer journey that really make the customer happy.
[00:02:32] Adding a handwritten card to an ordered product is nice and at the same time no longer very
[00:02:38] original.
[00:02:39] It is much more fun if the customer can easily find what he's looking for and can
[00:02:44] proceed to a purchase, can easily pay and can choose how and when the order will
[00:02:49] be delivered just to name a few crucial touch points in the customer journey.
[00:02:55] To really improve the customer experience it is best to focus on improvements in the
[00:03:00] customer journey that take away customer pain and make the lives of your customers
[00:03:04] easier and more carefree.
[00:03:08] From the moment I received a letter about the rent increase, the higher rent was automatically
[00:03:13] debited every month.
[00:03:15] As a customer I had no choice and that makes it even more painful.
[00:03:20] Organizations with a stronger position over their customers than other organizations
[00:03:24] should be aware of customer experience and the frustrations resulting from negative customer
[00:03:30] experiences.
[00:03:32] After all a customer of a housing association cannot easily switch from one housing
[00:03:37] corporation to another and even if he could he would have to wait and see whether that
[00:03:43] housing corporation does have an eye for the customer.
[00:03:47] In those situations the customer's frustration could be much stronger than the dissatisfaction
[00:03:52] which a customer might have towards a company from which they can easily switch from one
[00:03:57] moment to the next.
[00:04:00] Also painful is that my expression of customer pain on Twitter has probably escaped the
[00:04:05] housing association's notice.
[00:04:07] In any case there was no response to my tweet.
[00:04:11] For many organizations social media remained the blind spot of customer feedback, a missed
[00:04:17] opportunity since this is precisely how customers are increasingly expressing their satisfaction.
[00:04:22] Social media platforms are a goldmine for those who want to listen to what is happening
[00:04:29] with their customers and who want to use customer feedback as a basis for improvement.
[00:04:35] You might think that this housing association does not conduct any research into the
[00:04:40] satisfaction of its tenants.
[00:04:42] Wrong.
[00:04:44] This summer I received an email asking if I would like to participate in a customer
[00:04:48] satisfaction survey.
[00:04:51] You might think that this would be a great opportunity to express my dissatisfaction with
[00:04:56] the rent increase.
[00:04:58] Well, not quite.
[00:05:01] A few years ago I also received an invitation to participate in the customer satisfaction
[00:05:06] survey.
[00:05:07] I did.
[00:05:09] In my feedback I indicated various points on which I, the customer, wished the corporation
[00:05:14] would improve.
[00:05:16] My house is dramatically badly insulated.
[00:05:20] There is a draft in the house.
[00:05:22] Many windows have single layer glass, which means that heat is lost unnecessarily.
[00:05:28] In this time of growing climate awareness this should prompt a housing association to take
[00:05:32] action.
[00:05:33] It didn't.
[00:05:36] Other comments such as about the water jet of the shower not being powerful enough
[00:05:40] and the opening of the shower tap causing a heavy hum in the outdated boiler or in
[00:05:46] the pipes, that's also possible I'm not an installer, remained unanswered.
[00:05:51] None of my improvement requests were honored.
[00:05:54] In fact there was no response at all.
[00:05:57] The housing corporation did not take any action and did not respond to my customer
[00:06:02] feedback.
[00:06:03] Feedback that they had directly asked me for.
[00:06:06] When this happens what do you as a customer think?
[00:06:11] Exactly.
[00:06:12] If you're not listening to me don't ask me.
[00:06:15] I call it corporate deafness and its harmful consequences are severe.
[00:06:21] The customer's pain remains unresolved and is even increased because feedback is not
[00:06:26] listened to.
[00:06:28] Customer pain cannot be mitigated if an organization is unaware that the customer is experiencing
[00:06:34] pain.
[00:06:36] And customer processes can't be improved.
[00:06:39] And last but not least, the motivation of customers to respond to subsequent requests
[00:06:44] for feedback decreases.
[00:06:47] This may cause the organization to mistakenly believe that customers who remain silent are
[00:06:52] satisfied.
[00:06:54] In addition to asking customers for feedback it is just as important to do something with
[00:07:00] that customer feedback.
[00:07:02] Without blindly doing what a customer wants you can listen to your customers, weigh
[00:07:07] customer feedback and make targeted improvement choices.
[00:07:12] In addition you can let your customers know that you have taken note of their feedback.
[00:07:17] Thank them for it, let them know what you are going to do with it and inform them later
[00:07:21] about choices you've made and next steps you're going to take.
[00:07:26] This is a process.
[00:07:28] That process has a name, closed loop feedback.
[00:07:32] It helps you to improve the customer experience in a structured way and to keep your most
[00:07:37] important stakeholders, your customers informed about this.
[00:07:42] Let's take a look at the seven steps in the closed loop feedback process.
[00:07:47] Step one, ask your customers for feedback.
[00:07:51] Depending on the variety of contact moments between your organization and its customers
[00:07:56] there are different moments and methods to ask your customers for feedback.
[00:08:00] On the web page you might ask visitors if the information was relevant to them.
[00:08:05] In an email you might invite readers to click thumbs up or down.
[00:08:11] In a physical setting you might place a terminal on site and ask your customers to share their
[00:08:15] experience with a certain aspect of your services by pressing a green, yellow or red smiley.
[00:08:22] Whatever you do the closed loop feedback process starts with asking for feedback and
[00:08:27] the channels through which this can be done are many.
[00:08:31] Preferably choose feedback channels that if successful are sufficiently scalable to
[00:08:36] collect customer feedback and provide feedback to customers.
[00:08:41] Step two, thank your customers for their feedback.
[00:08:45] Thank your customer for providing you with feedback.
[00:08:48] Preferably do this right when the customer provides feedback and preferably personally.
[00:08:54] Even if you do not know the customer personally you can thank the customer.
[00:08:58] For example with a thank you message on the website or on the feedback terminal.
[00:09:03] At all times let your customers know that you appreciate their feedback.
[00:09:07] The customer will feel seen and heard.
[00:09:12] Step three, follow up with customers immediately.
[00:09:16] As far as possible follow up personally with customers who have provided feedback.
[00:09:21] Immediately contact customers who express serious dissatisfaction in their feedback
[00:09:27] or express some other form of customer pain.
[00:09:30] Always acknowledge the customer's pain.
[00:09:33] It's their pain not yours.
[00:09:35] Make sure your customer feels heard and show that you are going to act on their feedback.
[00:09:41] Offer to help solve your customers problems and ease their pain.
[00:09:45] Give employees a mandate to correct errors immediately or when necessary
[00:09:50] to escalate issues to colleagues who can resolve them.
[00:09:54] Assign the customer contact to an employee who remains responsible for
[00:09:57] the case until it is handled to the customer satisfaction.
[00:10:01] Define in advance when management receives an alert about customer feedback
[00:10:06] that leads to escalation and requires management follow up.
[00:10:11] General Electric discovered the value of complaining customers
[00:10:14] after the company analyzed the buying behavior of these customers.
[00:10:19] What they saw was that customers who had once complained
[00:10:23] displayed much better buying behavior than customers who had never complained.
[00:10:27] The customer satisfaction of complaining customers turned out to be higher
[00:10:31] and they bought more.
[00:10:33] A complaint therefore not only offers you the opportunity to improve yourself
[00:10:37] but also as a bonus you will get a more loyal customer in return
[00:10:43] on one condition that you address the complaint satisfactory.
[00:10:48] Step 4, analyze customer feedback.
[00:10:52] Listening to customers does not mean that you always do what the customer wants.
[00:10:57] The reason is simple.
[00:10:58] The customer is not in a position to oversee the impact of your choices.
[00:11:03] You are.
[00:11:04] If many customers ask in their feedback for more cash registers in your stores
[00:11:09] to be open there may still be good reasons not to.
[00:11:12] Employees cost you a lot of money and hiring even more employees
[00:11:16] can endanger your company's survival.
[00:11:19] That is why it is important to look carefully at the underlying customer need
[00:11:24] A customer who asks for more cash registers to be opened
[00:11:28] has a customer pain that's different from the customer need.
[00:11:32] The customer pain is not that there are insufficient cash registers open.
[00:11:37] The customer doesn't bother really.
[00:11:39] The customer pain is that he has to wait.
[00:11:42] The customer's need is not that more cash registers have to be opened.
[00:11:46] The customer's need is that he wants to leave faster.
[00:11:50] If you differentiate between customer feedback, customer pain and customer need
[00:11:54] you can better look for solutions that take away the customer pain
[00:11:58] without endangering the survival of your business.
[00:12:01] In this example of the retail chain
[00:12:03] you can think of self-scanners or think about other ways
[00:12:06] to shorten the waiting time that the customer experiences.
[00:12:10] Translating customer insights into improvements
[00:12:13] requires conducting an analysis of customer feedback.
[00:12:18] Step 5.
[00:12:19] Share customer feedback in the organization.
[00:12:23] The most powerful way to drive change and improvement
[00:12:26] is to make sure the customer's voice is heard throughout the organization.
[00:12:31] By all departments, all teams and all employees.
[00:12:36] By projecting customer feedback into real-time dashboards for example
[00:12:40] and by discussing it on a regular basis in multi-disciplinary teams.
[00:12:45] Share customer insights with the right stakeholders within the organization
[00:12:48] and make clear agreements about who is going to do what
[00:12:52] and when feedback on this will take place.
[00:12:55] Step 6.
[00:12:56] Make improvements.
[00:12:57] Use customer feedback and customer insights
[00:13:00] to make targeted improvements to specific touch points
[00:13:03] in specific customer journeys.
[00:13:05] Step 7.
[00:13:07] Keep your customer informed.
[00:13:09] The pinnacle of closed-loop feedback
[00:13:11] is when you keep your customer informed
[00:13:13] of the improvements your organization will be working on.
[00:13:17] Preferably customize individual, personal
[00:13:20] and related to the feedback of this specific customer.
[00:13:24] Depending on the industry you work in,
[00:13:26] the type of customer relationships
[00:13:28] and the possibility to personalize feedback to customers,
[00:13:31] inform your customer by email, by telephone,
[00:13:34] in a personal conversation or on social media.
[00:13:38] Successful use of customer feedback starts with an organization
[00:13:42] that really wants to know what its customers experience
[00:13:46] and what it can do to improve.
[00:13:48] This requires a listening mindset,
[00:13:51] the willingness at all levels of the organization
[00:13:54] to embrace customer feedback,
[00:13:57] even if it might hurt a little.
[00:13:59] Based on the belief that customer feedback
[00:14:01] always makes the organization stronger.
[00:14:04] Once that conviction is in place,
[00:14:06] the basis is in place for implementing the seven steps
[00:14:09] for closed-loop feedback.
[00:14:14] You've been listening to Kissing a Cactus,
[00:14:17] brought to you by Franz Reichars,
[00:14:19] also known as the Customer Listener.
[00:14:22] Make sure to subscribe to this podcast
[00:14:24] if you don't wanna miss updates and new episodes.
[00:14:27] You can find show notes, episode guides and resources
[00:14:30] at kissingacactus.com.