Surface Ripples

The “Feedback Conundrum”

Nowadays, when we buy something or use a “Live Chat” service, we get a message asking or for “feedback” about our interaction.  

It’s not unusual.  It’s gratifying to see that businesses are keen to know if they’ve met our needs.  I have some doubts as to how much notice they actually take of the feedback, but I’ve also noticed another growing habit now of asking for “justification” of feedback given. 

In one recent episode, I gave a score of 3/5 to a vendor. They seemed disappointed.  To put it in context, I asked a question, the live chat operator answered it and that was that. What more did they want?  The business seemed to think that 3/5 was “bad” and that the live chat operator could improve. The problem was, he did his job: he answered a question to my satisfaction.  There was nothing he could have done better!

Was there an expectation problem?  Did my view of what 3/5 meant differ to theirs? 

Not every action can be “excellent”.  We don’t get 10/10 for turning up to work (although some people seem to think that this should be the case). 

My views on what deserves a 7/10 score may differ vastly from other people’s depending on my standards and theirs. If someone does the job they’re paid to do, that’s “standard” for me.  What I think of as 4/5 may not be what others do.  It’s all subjective.

The only way around this is to provide definitions of what scores may mean. Some organisations do this when they ask for a score of (say) 1 – 10 where 1 is “Extremely Unlikely” and 10 is “Extremely Likely” when requesting feedback on whether a customer is likely to recommend their services to others.  The customer still has a broad degree of discretion but can decide to which extremity they will incline. 

We can’t expect “rave reviews” for just “doing what we’re paid for”.  The extra points come from when we go the proverbial extra mile in solving a problem, providing a service or something truly out of the ordinary. 

If there’s room for improvement, we should say so (constructively). If not, then customers shouldn’t be pressured to make something up just to satisfy the “box tickers”. 

I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website  provides a full picture of my portfolio of services

Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Selling

posted by William Martin @ 09:23