
- Image by luc legay via Flickr
I’m a big advocate for customer feedback and ratings. Why? Because you can generally get a good sense of how well you are doing if you get enough feedback. Why is this important? Damn it, because we are your customers. Every time I am met with bad customer experience, I make it a point to send feedback. Sometimes, this embarrasses my husband as I am critiquing the waitress on why she is not getting her tip for the day. Sometimes, it makes an impression and you get a real response. Mostly, you feel like you were heard and your opinion matters. If the enough people say the same thing and the right people listen, great things could happen and it becomes a win-win for both sides.
A couple weeks ago, my husband’s uncle passed away and we had to book bereavement tickets. Did you know that airlines don’t really do that anymore? Did you know even if you book bereavement tickets, the price is often higher than a regular ticket? Neither did I, so I complained and voiced my concerns. So what happened? I got an e-voucher. All right, that’s money; it helps in convincing me to come back. But do you get my respect, no. I need to see results next time I have an experience. Like they say, you are only as good as your last performance.
Not too long ago, our complaints went into a box and nothing was really done. These days, we can voice our complaints all throughout the web through twitter, facebook, friend feed or any other social network. The good or bad thing is; messages and twits can easily go viral. And it is not necessarily one message but a whole group of them. There are so many sites that devote to anti this or that solely devoted to your company so you should pay attention.
Why is this good for you? It is a good place to start to win back your customers. Listen first. Your customers want to be heard and to know that you care. Second, use the information that you find on these sites and turn them to your advantage. Set goals for yourself. We don’t expect you to give us everything any time soon but we do expect to know that you working on them. Third, communicate with your customers. Again, we like to be heard and we like to know that you care. We are willing to be a part of the process and can be forgiving if we know what is going on. Fourth, don’t make promises that you can’t keep. We don’t like to be fooled or lied to. Now it seems like we are in a relationship. See, you get it now, we are in a relationship.
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