Introduction
I went to collect a coffee maker I’d ordered the
other day from a well-known retailer. At the collection point I was asked if
I’d complete an electronic feedback questionnaire. I rarely do questionnaires
of any type. Anyway, that’s another story. On this occasion, I said to the
woman who served me “does anyone take any notice of this”. She assured me in
best corporate speak that a great deal of notice was taken of customer feedback.
You don’t have to look far to find someone who will
tell you about the benefits to be gained from customer feedback. Here, for
example, is Tim Jahn:
“After every one of my company's events for entrepreneurs, we send out a short survey [for] feedback on
the event…This feedback directly influences what changes we make for the next
event, what aspects we want to highlight more, and what parts need to stay
exactly the same.”
http://theyec.org/why-customer-feedback-is-valuable-to-your-business/
If you run a business or you’re a manager, please
don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that customer feedback is a bad thing.
It’s not. I am, however, suggesting that you should be cautious about what is
asked for and what you do with the feedback.
We’re
Listening to You
A friend of mine used to be a quality manager in a
college. He often tells the story of a lecturer who taught History. Every
lesson she’d get written feedback from her students. Each feedback sheet had 6
questions. She used to average about 15-18 students in each class and have
17-20 classes a week for 30-32 weeks in the year. In a year, that’s over 8000
feedback sheets – about 2 1/2 feet of paper - each with 6 questions – 48000
questions! Is it any wonder that her students’ main complaint was that nothing
ever changed. Will Yakowicz, quoting Rob Markey, makes a good point:
“Multiple-choice questions are convenient for your
company to process and analyze, but they impose a burden on your customers,” [Markey]
writes. He suggests implementing a system that allows customers to address
whatever issues they want in plain English.”
I guess, there’s feedback and there’s feedback. The
type of feedback you want is the type that is going to make a difference to the
quality of the service that you give to your customers. And that is feedback
that will tend to come from individual customers about specific aspects of your
service.
We
Value Your Feedback
How often have you seen something like this in a
restaurant or shop or some other establishment: “Your feedback is important to
us, please take a few moments to fill in our customer satisfaction survey.” I
accept that such feedback might be useful. If, for example, you run a
restaurant and the same waiter in your restaurant consistently scores very low
on the quality of service given, then your alarm bells should start ringing.
But if your customers, like the students in my friend’s college, feel that you
say you listen, but in fact do nothing, you have to question whether gathering
the feedback you are gathering is doing more harm than good.
However, if half your customers say that the prawn
and avocado salad is fantastic and half say it is terrible: what do you do?
There are only two things you can do: do nothing or change the dish. If you do
nothing half of your customers will complain you take no notice of what they
say so what’s the point of your asking them what they think. If you change the
dish – not remove the dish just change it – you run the risk of upsetting those
customers who liked it as it was. If you remove the dish, you probably will
upset those who liked it as it was.
Therefore, as useful as feedback can be it can leave
you in a position where you just can’t win. Aesop’s fable of the man his son
and the donkey taught this lesson to us over 2500 years ago: if you attempt to
please everyone you’ll end up pleasing no-one.
Garry Costain is the Managing Director of Caremark Thanet, a domiciliary care provider with offices in Margate, Kent. Caremark Thanet provides home care services throughout the Isle of Thanet. Garry can be contacted on 01843 235910 or email garry.costain@caremark.co.uk. You can also visit Caremark Thanet's website at www.caremark.co.uk/thanet.
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