Know the Difference Between a Customer Complaint and Customer Feedback
Most people think that customers contact an organization only when they have a complaint. Actually, the spectrum of customer contact with your organization runs from a complaint on one end to a customer making a suggestion he or she feels will make you more profitable on the other. Non-complaint inquiries have increased with the rise of social media.
There are three important constituencies in your organization who need to understand this concept:
• Senior managers who make go/no-go decisions impacting customer service or customer experience strategies;
• Line managers who supervise customer-facing employees;
• Employees who interact with customers, especially those responding to phone, Web, and social media inquiries.
There are subtle differences as you move across the spectrum. For example, here are three different ways a customer could contact you about the same topic:
• The complaint: “I can’t believe you don’t ________! I’m never doing business with you again!”
• The question: “We’ve just bought your product, and we’re wondering if it can ______?”
• The suggestion: “We’re frequent customers of yours and really enjoy your product/service. We’d like to suggest you ________.”
The first example is a complaint and should be handled with service recovery in mind. If it’s made on your Facebook page or other social media platform remember, others, including your evangelists, are watching. Take the complaint professionally, not personally. Think before you respond, then do so in a calm manner with the intent not only to retain the customer but to increase his or her loyalty to you.
The second example is a customer who requesting information. You have an opportunity here to increase their loyalty.
The third example is from a customer evangelist. This is a small group of people who are your biggest fans and who frequently refer others to you. They offer you a suggestion that will increase your profits because then they will be able to engage with you more often which they enjoy doing. You do not want to mishandle this suggestion. An appropriate response can strengthen their loyalty thereby increasing their lifetime value to you. This is true even when there is no way in heck you can implement their suggestion. Fumbling the response can crush or severely damage their loyalty to you costing you profits in direct sales and referrals.
If you cannot meet their need, be especially careful how you respond. Generally, your employee handling the response is not in a position to change organization policy. Rather than saying, “No,” your employee should tell the person he or she will communicate their suggestion up to a higher level. Then have that person reply (perhaps off-line in the case of social media.) For an example of how not to do it, see my recent post, Squelching Customer Feedback Is A Bad Social Media Policy.
Getting back to those managers who are less than customer-centric, explain the differences to them, and show them the value that regular and evangelist customers can bring to your organization. Specifically, that as Bain & Company has shown, a five percent increase in customer retention can mean up to a 75 percent increase in profits.
Regards,
Glenn
I enjoy all kinds of feedback on Twitter. If you’re on Twitter, follow me there. I’m @txglennross.
