How to get customer feedback

Business owners can be extremely protective of their business, which is why so many are lost for words when customers complain.

But handling complaints just as efficiently as you would handle positive feedback is paramount if you want to try and salvage the relationship with the upset customer.

In fact, the experts suggest that complaints can be a very useful business tool. However, it does take some maturity to handle complaints correctly, according to Leigh Thomas, director of customer complaints specialist businesses Listening Post.

“It’s still quite surprising just how many organisations don’t get the importance of handling customer complaints appropriately. If someone takes the time to complain or praise your business, you should count yourself lucky because either way, it shows they care,” Thomas says.

Veronica McGowan of Melbourne’s PR Help agrees. She has worked in reputation management for many years and says too many businesses take negative customer feedback personally when they shouldn’t. “A bad review is worth its weight in gold because it gives you the opportunity to improve your business,” she says.

Analysis from the more than 400 entrants of the 2010 Telstra Business Awards suggests its worth taking customer feedback seriously.

It found that 79% of entrants could identify their best customers and that 64% of Australian businesses frequently seek feedback from their customers.

Brendan Tully, principal consultant, The Search Engine Shop, says businesses should seek feedback every couple of months.

“Even the best businesses have room for improvement. But businesses need to go one step further than just getting the feedback. They need to use it to actually shape and perfect their business,” Tully says.

Handling complaints

Businesses should be motivated by the fact that customers can actually become more loyal after a bad customer experience, so long as you try to recover the situation.

“Everyone makes mistakes, and the best way to respond to complaints is to listen very carefully to customer issues and act upon them immediately. A bunch of flowers, a card, even a simple apology where service has failed to hit the mark can have a huge impact,” Mark Copeman, co-founder of service organisation Customer Thermometer says.

Copeman says that 80% of companies believe they deliver a superior customer experience, but only 8% of their customers agree.

While some businesses try and blame the customer or their own staff for the problem, this isn’t wise, Copeman says.

“What matters is the customer’s perception of the issue, not who is actually at fault. Make sure that you fix the process that’s broken rather than leaping to conclusions about staff or customers.”

PR professional McGowan says it’s vital that management knows the five top beefs about their business at all times so that they can work to resolve them.

A quick response to any feedback is paramount, she says.

“Expecting customers to wait a week to hear from you once they make a complaint just isn’t acceptable. If someone cares enough about your business to give their feedback, you should respond the same day.”

More often than not, customers that make a complaint simply want an explanation or apology, which can sometimes be enough to convince them to maintain a relationship with your business, she says.

The online phenomenon

Granted, it’s far more difficult than it used to be to deal with customer feedback. The rise in social media has made this a far trickier issue given that these days negative feedback is often posted online for the world to see.

But business owners can’t afford to bury their head in the sand, according to TrueLocal.com.au CEO John Allen. The website is one of the many online tools available for customers to give their feedback on any business in Australia.

Allen says businesses were hesitant at first when the “rate and review” service on the site launched nearly three years ago. While the hotel and restaurant industry are well versed at handling customer feedback, car dealers, real estate agents and some trades don’t respond particularly well to negative reviews, he says.

“You just can’t ignore what is being said about your business online in this day and age. You’ve to be an active participant in online conversations and shape the outcome or the conversations will run away into dangerous territory.”

Businesses should remember that customers are more likely to engage with businesses that have online reviews, but that they were just as sceptical of businesses with only positive reviews as they were with businesses with only negative reviews.

“Consumers understand that businesses handle things poorly from time to time, but it’s how the business responds when things haven’t gone smoothly that matters,” Allen says.

How to funnel feedback

There are a number of ways your business can make it easy for customers to give their feedback.

Forms placed on your front counter inviting customers to give their feedback is perhaps one of the more traditional ways, but feedback via your website, questionnaires, focus groups, or an independent phone survey might also work for you.

If questionnaires appeal, avoid questions like “on a scale of one to 10…”, and “rate from excellent to poor…”, which Nathan Williams, managing director, Customer Return describes as an insult to your customers’ intelligence.

“Questions should be phrased in an engaging and open ended manner that goes beyond the superficial and gets to the core of the issue,” Williams says.

And businesses should never ask a question if they’re not prepared to respond to the answer, he says.

There are also a number of cheap or free online tools available to businesses, including the very popular Survey Monkey, which provides the tools for businesses to design an online questionnaire. Or there’s kissinsights.com, which enables businesses to survey visitors to its website.

Another online tool is LinkedIn, which offers a number of tools to capture customer feedback. Cliff Rosenberg, managing director of LinkedIn Australia said the site has the ability to target potential customers for feedback and continued engagement.

Or perhaps you’d prefer to hire a mystery shopper? Rachel Power, founder, Customer Consultants, provides businesses with mystery shoppers, with packages starting at $45.

“A mystery shopper visiting your business once a month can really keep staff on their toes, and the mystery shopper’s experience can be used to tailor training,” she says.

It’s also important that everyone within your business understands the customer complaint handling process clearly.

Thomas says employees need to know exactly where the buck stops.

“For most businesses, it isn’t feasible that the boss takes all the complaints all of the time. Businesses need to create a policy around complaints handling, and frontline staff need to know exactly where their limits lie,” he says.

Make changes today

It’s never too late to start improving your customer service, according to Jo Macdermott of Melbourne’s Next Marketing.

She suggests that if you haven’t answered website enquiries, you should send an apology note to anyone who has sent an enquiry and didn’t get a response.

“In this instance, a sales promotion would be a nice way to try and make it up and encourage a purchase for your business,” Macdermott says.

McGowan says too many business owners know that customers are complaining about something, but don’t make the time to make changes.

“They think that they don’t have the time to fix something for one person, but they’re actually making changes for a many other customers who couldn’t be bothered complaining, and perhaps instead took their business elsewhere.”

And follow-up is paramount, says Thomas. “You should go back to unhappy customers and try to ascertain if you’ve managed to make them happy about a month after the initial incident.”

“Customers know that businesses make mistakes from time to time. Acknowledging that you’ve made one only makes your business more human and approachable,” Thomas says.

Principles for great customer service:

• Be happy that customers voice their concerns to you. The ones you need to worry about are those who tell their friends about their concerns via social media.
• Don’t forget that customers pay your salary and that you are in business to serve them
• Make it easy for customers to complain. That way you know exactly where the issues are within your business and can work to resolve them.
• Make customer service everyone’s responsibility. Adopt a policy of continually improving customer service.