What can we learn from our customers?
Learning opportunities are everywhere. You just need to seek them out.
Asking for feedback is a brilliant way to learn from your customers. The real value of this is we can all learn so much from it.
In my last post, I talked about the golden opportunity of customer feedback and how to ask for it. In this blog we’re going to take it one step further and explore what to do with the feedback you receive, and how teams can use it to learn and improve.
When asking for feedback becomes routine practice
At the end of every training course I always ask for feedback using a paper form. It’s part of my customer journey. One time, after the session had finished, a delegate approached me in person to discuss the most brilliant suggestion. I thanked him and implemented his feedback immediately because I could see how it would benefit future training programmes.
This is a simple reminder of how important it is to consider other people’s perspectives of your product or service. It also underlines how people like to give feedback in different ways.
The man who spoke to me in person perhaps wouldn’t have written his suggestion on the paper form. If I’d not taken the time to speak to him, perhaps he wouldn’t have shared and I’d have failed to learn from such an important snippet of information. It demonstrates how important it is to be be open and willing to accept feedback from your customers, whether they are external clients or internal employees. This is the best way to learn.
Team learning opportunities
How do you collate and share customer feedback within your team? Having a system to collect, record and analyse customer feedback is essential if you want to learn and take steps to improve. As a manager it’s important to ask your team what they’ve learned from their customers each day. Remember, sometimes feedback can be informal, like the delegate who approached me at the end of the session. Would your team know how and when to share this type of feedback?
Then there are opportunities for colleagues to learn from each other. What can you learn within the team as you go about your daily work? As a manager, ask your team for feedback. Use your regular communications, team meetings and check-ins to encourage your team to share what they have learned from their customers. Together you can decide on how to implement this.
Make it easy for your customers to give you feedback
Asking for feedback is not a tick-box exercise. It’s a process that adds value to the whole customer experience. It shows the customer that you and your team really do value their feedback.
Every member of the team should take every opportunity to ask customers for feedback. Then wait and listen attentively for their response. Offer your whole self to the customer at that point in time. Don’t ask and then start another task. Stop, wait, listen, learn and take action. I guarantee, you will learn a lot!
What if the response is average or less than positive?
Negative responses are not always a bad thing. In reality, okay or average feedback is a huge opportunity to learn.
Here’s how to respond if you receive an average response:
‘What one thing could we have done to make your experience better?’
The customer might suggest something straightforward like, ‘offer me a drink whilst waiting for my room/table to be ready’. Or their response could be loaded with lots of little golden nuggets of possibility that you had never previously considered. Ideas that make you step back and think, ‘Yes, that’s absolutely doable’.
It’s a fact of life that not every customer will be completely satisfied with every experience. Instead of fearing average feedback, look upon it as the biggest and best motivator for you and your team to learn and get better. All feedback is good feedback. We have to evolve to improve. If you don’t evolve, your competitors will leave you behind.
Making changes in response to feedback
Not all feedback can be implemented as quickly and easily as in the example from my training programme. Change and evolution can take time. Look at how long it is taking to develop electric vehicle technology and charging points. Customers want it, but are having to be patient whilst the energy giants argue with local government and town planners over what’s possible! But they are taking steps to develop and evolve - and that’s important.
People also need time to get used to the idea of change, and adapt to new situations. Team members might require additional training to upskill, change their behaviour, or build confidence in a new approach. Be patient with them. The realisation of how important change is to the whole customer experience can also take time to sink in.
To get to fully understand what changes your customer values, you first need to build confidence in your team to ask. Collate their feedback, take lessons from it, adapt and evolve. Give it a go! You’ll soon start to notice improving results. If you would like support in this area, book a free Tell Me More chat with Sally.