Can You Hear Me Now?

April 4, 2008


Most customers today have completed satisfaction surveys at the request of a firm they've done business with, only to have that company ignore the feedback it requested. The risk of doing so—of not using that insight or following up to say how the feedback was used—is to alienate the customers you need most: those who are engaged enough to share their opinions and suggestions.

Paying lip service to appreciating customer feedback—"Your voice is important to us"—without demonstrating its value through follow-up or demonstrable changes in a company's actions will only carry go far, says Will Wittkopf, senior director, global loyalty marketing, Carlson Marketing Worldwide.

"It's really about trust. It's implied when you're asking for feedback that you'll do something with it and about the issue being addressed," he says. "Don't overpromise or underdeliver on promises. And don't ask if you don't want the answer."

But once you have asked, it's time to act.

Setting reasonable expectations about what a company will do with its customer feedback is a crucial first step. That starts with having a clear understanding of why such data is being collected in the first place.

"Many firms don't have a clear strategy," says Gartner managing vice president Scott Nelson. "If they are gathering feedback, it's more about looking good to the customer and hoping that maybe something magical will happen over time."

A clear feedback strategy usually requires that those specific goals are agreed by everyone impacted by the customer feedback in question, potentially ranging from store or district managers to the CEO. "Doing a customer satisfaction survey only gets you so far," Nelson says. "If you're looking at customer satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 7 and you don't have some sense of what a really good number would be, you're really missing out. Let's say that two years ago you had an average score of 6.1 and last year you had a 6.3…well, I guess you're showing improvement. But how much did you spend to get there, and is 7 the goal, and so on."

Follow through and follow up
Once expectations have been set internally, they also need to be set with customers. According to Melissa Read, Ph.D., vice president of research and innovation at Spunlogic, it's important to let customers know when asking for their input that their feedback will be used to benefit customers like them—not necessarily just themselves individually—and that changes will most likely be made based on common issues that many customers experience.

Although it may seem like Feedback 101, following up after receiving feedback has its own set of complications. Generally, following up with customers, even with a generic "Thanks for your comment" note, is usually a good idea. "Customers like to know their input was heard and something is being done," Nelson says, adding that a pro forma response probably doesn't fool anyone, "but it's better than the customer seeing a blank wall."

Hertz employs an escalating alert system, developed by MindShare. "Each location manager has his email address on MindShare," says Brian Dickerson, staff vice president, worldwide customer services administration, at Hertz, "and if a customer gives a particularly low score, that generates an immediate email alert to that manager, who now has the means to follow up quickly."

Upper management can track all scores, as well as progress being made on outstanding issues. The system also allows them to inquire as to why someone hasn't received a response. As a result, Dickerson says, response to feedback is now "daily in many cases."

Hertz CEO Mark Frissora reviews a global summary of survey results every Monday morning; he then delivers an overview of those results at each board meeting. "There is no ceiling to how the results are used," Dickerson says, adding that Hertz feels such an approach means no ceiling to accountability: Everyone from lot employees to the CEO has a vested interest in survey results.