Handling Feedback
Feedback from customers, friends and mentors is crucial for improvement whether personal or business. When it comes to a business, your customers can be your greatest assets or liabilities depending on how you handle them.
Positive feedback is always welcome and makes us feel good about what we are doing and the fact that we are doing something right. Negative feedback however, unveils the flaws in our businesses one we wouldn’t want to have. However, negative feedback is good as it helps the business improve and grow.
It’s through faults and fixing things that are not working that we get a better product and happy customers. So how do you handle negative feedback?
In most cases, negative feedback comes from angry and disappointed customers who actually care. Therefore, time is of essence. Get back to them as soon as possible and let them know they have been heard. Be calm as you explain to them how you’re going to solve the problem and how soon. Make sure you’re honest with them if you don’t how long it’s long to take.
Having a plan also comes in handy. Anticipate that these situations will happen and how they will be handled. The how, the who and the when. This will help with a short response time and customer trust. It also helps with team management especially if you have a small team without a dedicated customer service personnel.
Being human is of essence here. Make sure the customers can reach you via the channels you have provided. Unfortunately, I have faced this first hand. The contact provided was not going through and when it worked, I was connected to recorded messages! It was so frustrating and I’m no longer a customer. How many businesses lose customers just like that?
How do you collect the feedback?
- Form on the website: this one of the easiest way to get feedback from your customers. It’s not time consuming and it’s the first place they check.
- Email address: emails are a great way for customers to get in touch when they have issues. Rarely will you get emails on positive feedback but hey, every feedback is good feedback.
- Phone call: this is the most effective and yet tricky since you interact with the customer ‘directly’.
- In person: Some clients prefer to get help one on one. You can take advantage of this by sorting them out and getting feedback from the on how you can improve your business.
- Messaging: This could be through SMS and whatsapp.
- Social media: this has become one of the popular channels that customers use to speak up about issues. You have to watch out on your social media handles and respond ASAP. Negative feedback spreads way faster than positive.
With all these channels comes the advantage of giving your clients options and a nightmare in tracking. You have to find a way to track and aggregate all this feedback to identify trends and opportunities. Check out the next post on this.
