The Customer Is Always Right: How to Take Criticism and Feedback Seriously
One of the most underrated business practices is the ability to analyse and break down constructive criticism and suggestions from your customers. The saying “the customer is always right” isn’t true 100% of the time, but for the most part, your customer knows your product better than you because they’re the ones who use it on a regular basis.
For example, if you own a company that creates toys for children, then the only way you’re going to get feedback is from the parents and children themselves. You might run some extensive quality testing phases to ensure your product is suitable for children, but at the end of the day, the only way to test your product is to put it into the hands of a large audience.
Listening to customer feedback is a great way to get an edge over your competition and refine your product for your loyal consumers. Not only does it show that you care about your consumers, but it puts you ahead in terms of customer service support which is another crucial factor in any business.
Constructive Criticism Versus Outrageous Claims
It’s important that you understand the difference between constructive criticism of your business and outrageous, often fictitious, claims against you. It’s sometimes easy to dismiss criticism as being fabricated especially if someone has made claims that sound out of character. For example, if you’ve received a complaint that one of your staff members, whom you know is a pleasant person, was rude to a customer on the phone. It’s always a good idea to investigate these types of situations and ensure the customer that you will look into it, no matter how unlikely it may be.
The best way to deal with ridiculous claims is to ignore them outright. If someone is swearing at you over the phone and screaming all types of profanity, then you owe it to your business (and sanity) to not provoke or engage in arguments.
How to Get Feedback
After understanding the importance of constructive feedback, the next thing to do is understand how to obtain it. Some businesses employ third-party information and opinion gathering services, such as this papasurvey, a survey that asks customers to give their opinions about a particular restaurant. However, most people won’t care to give you feedback unless it’s negative and they want to get something off their chest. This is when incentive comes in handy.
You should be giving your customers a reason to answer surveys and give feedback. A simple message such as “we want to continue supporting our loyal customers, so any feedback is welcome” would be enough incentive for some people. You’re telling them that you care about feedback, so the next step is to act on that feedback and, through social media, show that you’ve taken their opinions into consideration and that you plan to do your best to make your product or services stand out better.
Another way to add incentive is to give rewards. For example, if your customers successfully finish a survey or give feedback, award them with coupon codes or offers.