The words customer and feedback can instil a sense of fear amongst those in service industries, with businesses being lulled into a ‘we receive only a few complaints, so almost everyone must be happy’ pretence. Whilst it’s always beneficial and pleasing to hear what positive things consumers have to say about their experience, it’s the negatives that can often have the most valuable insight to an organisation undertaking feedback.
In today’s saturated and increasingly competitive marketplace, businesses, no matter how large or small, don’t have the luxury to buy into the misconceptions often associated with engaging customers. They should be embracing customer feedback, engaging with their consumers at every possibility. If they do, they will be rewarded with something of intrinsic value…data; data from their customers, those who choose to use their service over a competitor.
Misconception can be a dangerous business when engaging customers…here we explore some of the most common:
- No news is good news
Many businesses today assume that no news is good news; however, silence isn’t always golden. Just because a customer has not communicated with you, does not mean all is well. For every person that complains it is thought there are a further 26 dissatisfied customers who have not told the company about their issue. Those that don’t complain are often the ones that tell at least three other people about their negative experience, highlighting the importance of finding unhappy customers and resolving their issues.Businesses can only truly start to gain an insight into how their customers feel by engaging them in proactive communication; providing them with a platform to voice their views. Identifying first-hand the issues that are upsetting your customer can be instrumental and will provide you with the necessary insight to resolve any problems while enabling you to engage directly with them. It’s important to implement a plan that allows for regular communication with customers and enables the customer experience to be monitored frequently.
- Feedback is negative and invasive
Many organisations view customer feedback as a negative practice when in fact it should really be their best friend. Through its collection and analysis, businesses have the opportunity to better themselves and build better experiences for their customers in turn increasing loyalty. For instance positive feedback lets businesses know what is working well and what they should be doing more of to continue to this standard. Negative feedback, while not so favourable, is a huge positive in itself, allowing organisations to deal with legitimate problems, from overall operations to individual members of staff, a customer’s feedback will affect a business’ strategy.The truth is the majority of customers are also happy to provide feedback, be that negative or positive in nature, and share their individual experience, if they are presented with a channel that allows them to do so. 83% of customers state they would remain loyal to a brand if they would use their feedback to facilitate improvements. This clearly shows customers have a real interest in developing a conversation with the business. Not only do they want to know their feedback isn’t falling on deaf ears, they want to see the results for themselves.
- All spend should go on marketing not customer service
In reality it costs around seven times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. As well as this, the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60% whilst selling to a new customer has a considerably lower probability, sitting at 5%. Ensuring current customers are satisfied and stay loyal through great customer service delivery can result in lower acquisition costs, and with increased recommendations through positive word of mouth, businesses will often spend less on their marketing. - A lost cause
A common misconception amongst businesses is that a dissatisfied customer is a lost cause; however, no one is completely lost. Through recognising and resolving a complaint, businesses have the opportunity to transition a customer from a potential defector to a loyal consumer. With over 70% of buying experiences being founded solely on how the customer feels they are being treated, this is too large an audience for an organisation not take notice of.Whilst it’s not possible to satisfy every unhappy customer, the results of turning a bad experience into a win are immense. On average, customer’s whose complaints are resolved in their favour will continue to return 70% of the time. With 95% of customers willing to be won back if their initial complaint is handled successfully and in a timely fashion, it makes commercial sense to try and reach out to those that have had a negative experience with your business.
- They’re all the same
Treating all customers alike is a mistake – as well as not being physically possible, it can also impact negatively on the standard of customer service offered. Each customer is an individual, with a different set of needs and it’s important to recognise this from a customer service and experience point of view. Through securing feedback, in addition to personalising their experience, it will also enable businesses to create a fuller picture of their customers. Feedback can also play a crucial role within aiding businesses to effectively target customers through specific personalised promotions that will appeal to them, based on their customer profile.
David Capaldi
Founder and director of Opinurate
At just 33, David has demonstrated that he has the entrepreneurial nous required to succeed in business. The ambitious Scottish Italian is owner of successful kilt company MacGregor and MacDuff, which he acquired in 2003 and directs with younger brother, Dominic.
Over the year’s David has transformed the kilt brand, growing the firm’s fortunes from two shops to six, increasing staffing numbers from seven to 40+ and multiplying business revenues eight times over representing in excess of £2m.
David holds this success down to the excellent customer service provided thanks to a management solution he and brother, Dominic, created after identifying a gap in the market in 2010. The opportunity was for a mobile-ready platform which would enable businesses to optimise their customers’ experience.
The development of this platform led to the creation of Opinurate; a software company that helps clients to accelerate growth by gaining a true understanding of who their customers are and what it is that drives them to become loyal.
After studying Risk Management at university, David knows the risks involved in business and thrives on pushing boundaries in order to achieve success. He credits Skyscanner as one of his top inspirations for the global success it has achieved as a software company based in Scotland; something which he wants to emulate with Opinurate.
A self-confessed workaholic, David dedicates over 90 hours a week to his businesses. When not working, the busy dad likes to spend time with his wife and 2 year old daughter, Ava. Always keen to learn new skills, in his spare time David is learning how to program.
Book or kindle: Books – I am a big fan of Colin Shaw’s work on the industry as he is someone who very much embraces the importance of customer experience and customer loyalty as key factors for business growth.
I also enjoy keeping up-to-date on industry news and regularly spend time on; Codecademy, Khan Academy, Mashable and Slideshare.