A couple months ago, I wrote a post titled, CX Journey™ Musings: The Challenges of Customer Listening. In it, I wrote about, well, some of the challenges that brands face as they embark on their customer listening work. I included things like: inducing survey fatigue, not taking advantage of the multitude of listening channel options, forgetting the survey experience is a touchpoint in the customer experience, not sharing or acting on the feedback, and more.
I don’t know how I missed the challenge I’m about to write about. Perhaps it’s not so much a challenge as an incompetence. Yea, I know; that’s harsh, but seriously. OK, let me share with you what I’m talking about.
A couple of weeks ago, I was walking through the airport, and as I arrived at my gate, I noticed something hidden off in a dark corner, far away from anyone who was going to use it: a HappyorNot feedback terminal. (See the image above.)
The terminal says, “Please rate our service today.”
No one is going to – or did – go out of their way to rate the airline’s service. That’s not how you’re going to get feedback. If you’re truly looking for feedback, if you really want to hear what your customers think, you’re sending the wrong message.
- Make it easy for customers to leave feedback.
- Use a variety of channels.
- Let them provide feedback however and wherever they want to leave it.
- Don’t hide (or put in obscure places) survey links, feedback forms, or other listening mechanisms.
- Remember that the survey experience is a touchpoint in the customer experience.
Listening to customers is an important part of understanding and improving the customer experience. Show customers you care. Take a moment to make sure you’re doing what you can to make it easy for customers to provide their feedback.
Clear feedback is the cornerstone of improvement. ~ Sir David Brailsford, Ineos Grenadiers
Annette Franz is an internationally recognized customer experience thought leader, coach, speaker, and author. In 2019, she published her first book, Customer Understanding: Three Ways to Put the “Customer” in Customer Experience (and at the Heart of Your Business); it’s available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle formats. In 2022, she published her second book, Built to Win: Designing a Customer-Centric Culture That Drives Value for Your Business (Advantage|ForbesBooks), which is now available to purchase on Amazon, Books A Million!, Target, Barnes & Noble, and thousands of other outlets around the world! Sign up for our newsletter for updates, insights, and other great content that you can use to up your CX game.
