Customer Feedback - what you do with it, counts.
November 24th 2011 06:49
Link: www.theprofitfrog.com
Good, Bad, or Ugly - how do you deal with and maximise the value of customer feedback?
Yesterday I reported on a great experience I had with a customer who told me how "amazing" I was in the context of my role as a customer service staff member in a garden centre.
Today when I arrived at work, I spoke to one of my colleagues who was serving at the check out that same day, and subsequently helped the same young man complete his purchases. She said to me that I received a "rave review" from the customer; so impressed was he that he completed a customer feedback form there and then and apparently gave me a pretty full-on rap.
I don't mean to blow my own trumpet here, but the point of my story is built on that additional information I learned when I walked in to the garden centre today.
My employers have just been given feedback about the performance of their staff - not just me, but also my colleague at the checkout (she must have also "wow-ed" the young man when he told her how great my assistance was).
There is something else, though.
About two weeks ago, I helped two ladies with regards to a purchase of a water feature - one of those Balinese effect sculpted walls that the water flows down. Admittedly one of them was a bit of a challenging customer with an attitude that was less than tolerant. It was her birthday so I simply kept feeding positives to her, and in the end they made their purchase of a particular colour (not the one that was on display).
Next day, very unusually, the water feature arrived in our store. As can happen, the customer had already changed her mind and called to ask to change the colour. So, another order was placed. BUT what a fiasco.
Our distribution centre may be having a few teething problems because this second order took almost 9 days to be received. We did try to remain in contact with the ladies to advise them of progress but there were some problems with the phone number and we could not always get through.
Eventually we called the lady who had made the purchase and let her know the water feature was in store, and she and her friend came down to the store, picked it up and took it home.
Much to our dismay, there were (1) no instructions in the box, and (2) no Australian power plug as part of the pump operation. The electricity cord had a universal power plug on it. We should have checked (lesson learned since).
When the lady who bought the feature spoke to a senior manager on the phone, she was apparently spoken to in a manner that borders on incredibly intolerable.
I know this because although I had gone home for the day before the power cord issue was discovered, the two ladies came back in the next day to buy a light fixture that goes into water features.
I took them down to the display, opened the light's box, checked EVERYTHING in front of them and then the lady who had paid for the feature regaled me with the story of how the power point and the senior manager issue unfolded. She told me that the senior manager inferred that the instructions in the box were in the language of the country of manufacture and that these two ladies just simply could not read them.
The two ladies stood their ground and fired back, and complained also about the power plug. This prompted the senior manager to have a conversion plug personally delivered to the ladies via the assistant department manager who drove there in his own time.
Not only that, the ladies complained bitterly to me that our call centre telephone service was appalling and that they had been kept waiting for almost 30 minutes before speaking to someone.
I was, quite literally, HORRIFIED. These customer details, in my mind, are utterly disappointing and simply NOT good enough. I suggested to the ladies that they write a letter of complaint - and in fact, they already had and it was quite a biting summary of everything.
What I was privately pleased with was the feedback they both gave me on my own individual service to them. They were not shy about saying that I had been good and that the assistant department manager had also done well.
Here's the thing.
The managers of this store - and any managers of any business - can choose to act positively OR negatively upon these two scenarios.
They can choose to see them as powerful learning experiences and thank each customer profusely for their time and effort in providing the most valuable of feedback.
OR, they can ignore it, and also ignore the input about staff like myself who do go out of their way to make the customer experience the most EXCELLENT it can be.
Personally, I will carry the knowledge with me and allow it to reinforce my own performance - it keeps me smiling at work each day to know that I have really made my customers satisfied and happy.
As for management - I have no idea how they will react to the customer feedback form or the letter of complaint.
How do you manage these things?
Are you humble enough to acknowledge that you've stuffed up, made an error and screwed the customer around too much?
Or do you wait till the customer has walked out the door and then vented your spleen to the nearest staff member, calling the customer all sorts of colourful impolite names?
Think about it.
The customer may not always be right - but they have the right to expect the VERY best customer service. It is NOT just the product they buy. It is not just a service they buy.
They buy the right to be respected for choosing to spend THEIR money with YOUR business when they could JUST as EASILY go somewhere else and spend even more money.
If you are inclined to take your customers for granted and devalue the dollar-spend they bring to the store, then you have a mighty lesson to learn about what customer service really is.
It is as much a part of the cash-exchange as the product or service you offer in the market place.
What do you do with customer feedback?
Do you take it on board and evaluate it and learn from it, or do you file it away - in the bin?
Are there lessons to learn about how to maximise opportunities that come from customer comments and criticisms?
Whatever you may be doing, never underestimate the power of customer service and the awesome feedback that customers will give you, if you ask for it.
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