Six Tips to Get Priceless Feedback from Your Customers

Alan J. Zell

Feeback

Kevin, Yes, as you wrote, “Customer feedback is vitally important to organizations of all kinds. It gives you direct knowledge about what your customers want from you and what they think about your organization. It can tell you what you need to do to keep customers coming back. And, in challenging economic times, a steady flow of accurate customer feedback could be the difference between a healthy business and no business.

I agree that the front-line people are a very good way to get the feedback. However, all employees need to know that negative feedback will not have a negative result on how they seen. A bad employee who does not give feedback, especially negative feedback are the ones that should be looked upon with a negative eye.

I want to carry Chuck Van Court's post a bit further.

Those who complain, be they employees or customer, care . . . care about the business and they want to keep doing business in or with the business. Those who do not complain or make suggestions really don’t care or do not care enough to voice their opinion.

Another aspect of complaints is that, very possibly, the person doing the complaining is not the real complainer. Complainers are, often, the agent of someone who has the complaint and the complainer has to report the results to the real complainer.

In some ways, questions are a way of customers trying to alleviate there being a complaint. Most likely, this is the reason questions are asked. . If the same questions keep coming up, the feedback is that the firm’s presentations lack answers to the questions they need to know . . . so if they are asked for an answer to that question, they have the answer. Any question that comes up often, that is real viable and useful feedback. How many sales managers, department supervisors, marketing gurus, management ever ask front line salespeople what questions keep coming up?

While sales is always good information to know, it may not be the most important when it comes to improving business. Rather what was not sold and way is far more important as a feedback tool. Customers do not, other than buying, want to take the time to tell why they bought because, in their minds, the store/vendor only needs to know that something was purchased. Nor do customers want to say why they did not buy as they don’t want to get into an argument. So, the best feedback, other than sales, is really no feedback.

Good feedback, as you wrote, comes from the front line and, for the most part, it comes from those who have a personal working relationship with customers. It is that they hear why people buy because there is a discussion taking place while a customer makes a choice. At the same time, salespeople learn during these conversations, comments why the customer did not buy . . . and the reason, while it may be said, are indicated. If price is the base of feedback, it is a false reason. Price becomes the topic when what was under consideration did not fit (time, effort, color, size, quantity, etc.) what the customer is doing, planning to do, would like to do. Hence, the price is too high. Who would buy, even if the price was right, it didn’t fit into their business or personal life. ?

It is very possible that what causes negative feedback is customers’ reactions why many things – advertising, brochures, display not being logical to the customer at their level of understanding, visible prices not evident, company policies and procedures that get in the way of the customer making a purchase. That type of feedback is what front-line people get a feeling for. Ask salespeople what works or doesn’t work, that is good feedback. But, it cannot stop there. Something has to be tried to work the solutions into the business’s presentations.

To go along with this last point, another form of good feedback is to ask not just front-line people but ask all employees to tell what is not working and what solution they would have and then ask them what ideas they have for solving the problem to make the company more efficient and their presentations more effective. Increasing efficiency and effectiveness offsets inefficiencies which lead to more profit.

Feedback is more than telling customers what happened to their feedback. It is making the changes that will cause the negative feedback to decrease or change. Negative feedback will never go away nor should it. It’s an important part of all businesses.

Thank you for bringing up the ideas to get the conversations and discussions about feedback going. It will be interesting to see where it goes and what kind of feedback you get from those that have changed the way they use feedback to be better at getting better.

Alan
Alan J. Zell, Ambassador of Selling
Attitudes for Selling offers consulting, workshops and speaking on all business topics that affect sales. He can be reached at azell@aol.com. Articles on busness topics about feedback can be found on www.sellingselling.com.