Feedback. Nuggets of Gold. Customers often provide it, but not many companies choose to hear it, even less actively seek it. Seeking feedback is one of the most simple things you can do to improve your customer-focus, so it’s exciting to see a company encouraging customers to have their say. Or is it?
Sitting in a car service department last week, I saw the sign on the right asking for feedback. Can you spot the issue?
Having completed a few surveys from this company, I’ve learned that ‘Completely Satisfied’ is the terminology reserved for a top rating. When I bought the car, my sales person was obsessed with me being completely satisfied, and when the survey came out I realised he was making sure that a top rating was imprinted on my brain. He made it clear that there were direct repercussions for him if I was anything less than completely satisfied.
So now that you know about ‘Completely Satisfied’, have another look at the competition flyer. It claims that they’re interested in your feedback, but it’s actually encouraging you to provide a perfect score… because if you don’t, you won’t go into the draw for the iPad. It actually should read:
“Let us bribe you to give us a top score when we don’t deserve it, and then we’ll pat each other on the back when we get a great result even though our service is bad and our feedback systems are worse. And next time you come for a service, it will be just the same as last time because you told us we’re great!” It’s a pretty poor show from a company that claims to be customer-focused!
When was the last time you reviewed your feedback system? Is it really gathering feedback to improve your customer experience, or just providing the answers you want to hear? If it’s the latter, don’t bother – you’re wasting your, and your customers time!
