Continuously benchmark...and act on the results!
What do you think would happen if you drive a car down the road at a speed and fashion of your choosing, without paying attention to other road users, pedestrians, laws, etc…? It’s highly unlikely you will get to your destination unscathed, unless you are powerful enough to have the road closed off to everyone else but yourself.
Now apply that to business. Are you just motoring along without looking around and obtaining customer feedback? You might think you aren’t – but there are a surprising number of companies out there that are doing this – or worse, thinking that they know the customer even better than the customer knows themselves, and thus ‘don’t need to be told how to do what they do’.
As a customer, how many times have you wished that a company you loyally patronise would offer a certain new product or service, or adjust their product and service offering? For instance, last year I noticed that one of the major ice cream manufacturers in the country had released a new flavour in their premium range. As an ice cream aficionado, I tried it and felt it was too close to a flavour from the regular range of a competitor. I commented my observation on their Instagram post, and noticed many others had shared a similar sentiment requesting them to improve their product – after all it was marketed as a premium offering. There was no acknowledgement of these suggestions, and when I tried the flavour some months later, nothing had changed. I do not purchase that flavour anymore, opting for the lesser priced, and similar-tasting alternative from the competitor.
On the other token, my wife sent in some feedback about a cosmetic product she orders from a smaller company, and she received a positive response. She also noticed that the future batches had incorporated the suggested adjustment. Now that’s responsiveness to customer feedback in action and a company that is willing to listen to its customers.
Three year old Lily Robinson with a little help from her mother wrote a letter to Sainsbury’s, a UK grocery store, asking why ‘tiger bread was called tiger bread and not giraffe bread?’ Lily was clearly onto something, as the bread really does look like the spot pattern of a giraffe rather than a tiger! In most cases, these types of suggestions are met with a simple "Thank you”. But, to Lily’s surprise, Chris King, the customer service manager of Sainsbury’s responded with “I think renaming it to giraffe bread is a brilliant idea!” Several months later, the bread was renamed to giraffe bread. Soon, how the name change came about went viral, and thousands of people became aware of the actions of Sainsbury.
Merely collecting customer feedback into a file or database and calling it a day is not enough, and if this is all your company does, you are being lazy. You need to analyse the information within the database and the best way to start is to categorise it. It’s worth hiring an intern for this purpose – you can provide valuable work experience, as well as get the job done.
Complaints and feedback shouldn’t be lumped together, but common themes identified and categorised. A pattern will start to emerge – for example, are many customers complaining about the taste of a particular product? Once you have identified the themes, gather your team and brainstorm ideas on how best to address these, and act! Brainstorming sessions usually give birth to great ideas but unless the enthusiasm continues outside the boardroom, these ideas die swiftly.
Finally, don’t forget to communicate with every customer who provided feedback (legitimate feedback, of course. You will have those who make malicious remarks or are social media trolls, and you can typically ignore those). Provide customised feedback, not stock replies. Use the customer’s name when responding to them, state that you understand their concern or suggestion about the attribute they have stated, and that it has been communicated to the appropriate department. Stating the attribute and the department adds a further degree of concern and shows the customer that their concern or suggestion was read and replied to by a real, live human being!
Ashraaq Wahab - Technical Director Hospitality Sri Lanka, Automotive Journalist, Marketer and Writer, who enjoys penning his thoughts, insights and ideas on a variety of topics.
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