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The Challenge
It's my favorite... you tell a waiter, a
manager, a customer service rep what you don't like about their product
or service and the common response? "Why are you telling me this?" Maybe
not in those words, but that's what they're saying by taking no
action... not even forwarding the message to someone that might
care.
This is valuable information that companies
should capture if possible.
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An Example
It was an emergency! I needed business cards
for a conference the next day and that left me using Fedex/Kinko's. I
get my cards back to find they are on flimsy card stock that screams
"I ran out of cards and had to go to Kinkos." I let them know that card stock for
professional cards would be appropriate.
The response? "Oh, that's what
we have." Could they have done more with this information?
Was this a
problem many of their customers have? They will never know.
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The Exercise
This exercise is not intended to drive
customer loyalty, but of course you must do your best to correct the
problem with customers immediately to win their loyalty... but capturing
the information is critical to long term success and can be used for
product and service planning.
Brainstorm with your team members how to
capture real customer feedback at the moment of angst (or love.) Some
suggestions:
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For phone-based customer service agents,
add an "Impromptu comments" field to note all unsolicited
comments, good, bad, other. Have them capture exact language as
possible, not just "customer upset". Have them add any situation
information such as what lead to the comment. If they can, have them
ask a follow up question as appropriate, such as; "What other
problems did this create for you?" or "How would you have liked this
to happen?" (work with your team to find the most appropriate one or
two question follow up)
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For in-person agents, provide simple
notebooks with simple forms that can agents in direct contact can
easily note customer comments. Make it easy to send to a central
place for processing.
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Provide a simple survey at the
point of angst. E.g. online put a link where angst is most likely.
Tell us more! Or have a kiosk ready with incentives for feedback.
(I just received a receipt from a drug store with a phone number to
call if I want to give feedback. Nice try.. but not good enough
since I'll never call.)
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Don't make your customer
fill out a survey if they're upset.. please! Unless they want to. If
you have surveys for this purpose, take one and fill it out with
them and let them know someone will care about their input. Document
the situation and ask the follow up as per the 1st bullet above.
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Get the reports to the person (Product
Manager?) to ID for trends, clusters, problems. Of course, act on
any trends or common problems.
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Make it short, simple, and relevant.
Don't use the opportunity to ask 15 questions about your next
product or service.
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Ensure filling out customer angst
reports is part of every customer touch-point agent's job. However!
keep in mind your team members must be listened to so you are do
this in a way that works with their job.. not against it.
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