Why No One is Collecting Authentic Customer Feedback

Businesses need customer feedback collection to thrive in a competitive market. Everyone thinks they are collecting and acting on customer feedback, yet 80% of US companies failed to increase customer satisfaction since 2010. And customer retention rates are plunging. So, despite what many companies think, they are not actually collecting meaningful feedback. They are asking the wrong questions. Or they are failing to act strategically on customer insights to drive CX transformation.

Here is a common scenario we see as a customer experience consultant brought in to resolve underperforming CX. A B2B organization claims to have a robust customer feedback system in place. Read, they invested a few hundred thousand dollars, took it as a set it and forget it proposition, and expected actionable feedback to roll in and customer experience to transform. In reality, they are failing to capture a clear picture of the customer’s perception of their end-to-end experience. They can’t identify breaks along the customer journey. And they lack data to devise a measured plan of action that reflects actual customer sentiment, let alone real customer need.

You can anticipate how this scenario plays out. Customer retention drops. Customer experience initiatives lack intentional strategic guidance informed by the voice of the customer. And the collective organization sours on the idea of customer experience as a driver of ROI. CX funding drops, experience and brand reputation erode. All because the CEO never saw the real picture of brand experience through the lens of the customer. Despite investments in customer feedback collection.

How did we get here? Let’s demystify what authentic customer feedback is. And why it’s essential for a sustainable, high performing customer-centric strategy.

What is Customer Feedback?

Customer feedback is not just any response you garner from a client. Surveying a few customers or relying on a limited set of responses does not constitute comprehensive feedback.

Customer feedback is a solicited or unsolicited customer response to interactions with your brand across channels. Notably, this customer response comes in two forms: public or private. Just as not all feedback is solicited, not all feedback is private. In addition to your investments in formal feedback collection mechanisms like surveys, customers voice their perception of your brand across channels you build and those you don’t.

A customer who logs on to LinkedIn to tell a story about their experience with your brand is providing unsolicited, public customer feedback. It is incumbent upon you as an organization, and your customer experience team specifically, to act on this feedback, whether the feedback is negative or positive.

In fact, the most important thing about customer feedback is how you use it. The voice of the customer transforms customer experience only when you empower your teams to act upon that voice. The old adage holds true. We cannot manage what we do not measure. At the same time, we cannot measure without a strategy that allows us to act on the insights that measurement provides.

Of course, it is not simple to implement effective customer feedback solutions and develop a process for analyzing and acting on insights to transform customer experience. It requires investment, yes. But it also demands a well-honed customer experience strategy aligned with your business strategy. Not only does this strategic alignment make it easier to secure investments in experience, it also provides CX teams with the apparatus they need to respond to customer feedback efficiently and impactfully.

Common Misconceptions about Customer Feedback

Many organizations fall into the trap of thinking they have nailed customer feedback by sending out paper surveys. Even when those paper surveys deliver minimal responses. This approach is flawed. The small sample set, made smaller by the fact that it is further segmented into users likely to respond to a paper survey, leads to biased data. And an unclear picture of overall customer experience. If only a small demographic is responding, your data does not represent the entirety of your customer base.

But it is not only the delivery method that can limit the scope and quality of your customer feedback responses. We have to look at what you are asking your customers. Both B2Bs and B2Cs often miss an invaluable opportunity to connect with their customers and get authentic, helpful information from them because they fail to ask customers questions that generate meaningful responses.

Meaningful responses are those that capture accurate customer perceptions and opinions directly related to their cross-channel experiences with your brand. Further, meaningful responses provide a sufficient level of detail for your customer experience teams to garner actionable insights and act accordingly.

The Yes/No Problem

It is impossible to derive meaningful data that drives actionable CX responses from the would-you-recommend question alone. The first problem with this question, phrased in this manner, is the limitation of the binary Yes/No structure. To design a survey that delivers usable data, avoid a series of all Yes/No questions. “Would you recommend us?” has a place on a survey. But it can’t hang there without the follow up of an open-ended question for clarification. Include questions like “What was the main reason for your answer?” to the standard would-you-recommend question.

This kind of survey design is critical, especially if your organization has a customer experience strategy that outlines what metrics are most important for tracking and improving. Because it allows you to check your efforts against the real customer perception of those efforts.

The Value of Surveys and Questionnaires for Authentic Customer Feedback

In pointing out the limitations of certain survey questions and distribution tactics, we are in no way discounting the validity of surveys as a form of customer feedback collection. In fact, surveys and questionnaires are vital tools for collecting customer feedback in a controlled manner.

They allow you to solicit private opinions and tailor questions to gather actionable insights. However, in order to be effective, survey design must align with your overall strategy. This goes beyond the limitations of Yes/No questions. Consider how to formulate meaningful multiple-choice questions. If the options you collect in multiple-choice questions are not relevant or actionable, the responses won’t be either. This goes back to survey design.

When we work with our clients to design survey questions, it is not plug-and-play. We make sure we are drilling down to the essence of what matters for the organization as well as what matters for the customer. All informed by strategy and metrics of success. Remember, when you send your customer a survey, you are asking them for time and trust, two precious things they can’t get back. So honor their time, and honor their experiences by asking questions that will ultimately support and improve future experiences for them and for your next wave of customers.

Transactional vs. Relationship Surveys

Understanding the difference between transactional and relationship surveys is crucial. Transactional surveys are short-term and focused on specific interactions or moments. These surveys are built for product launches or customer service interactions at key points in the customer journey. They are actionable and provide insights that can be used for continuous improvement.

On the other hand, relationship surveys assess the broader, long-term relationship between your customer and your organization. While both types are important, transactional surveys tend to be more actionable because they highlight specific areas for experience improvements.

Build a Customer Feedback System

A robust customer feedback system requires significant investment in strategy, methodology, selection, analysis, reporting, and follow-up actions. But not everyone is doing this. Many stop at the investment and assume it takes care of the rest. Take the healthcare industry, for example. Many patient feedback systems are outdated. Some rely on paper survey collection. However, the most significant gap we see in healthcare feedback collection exists not in what they do survey, but in what they do not survey.

The majority of healthcare patient feedback questions focus on physician performance. Think about how many times, as a healthcare system user, you have been asked the question “were you satisfied with the care you received”? In fact, this is one of the most-asked questions on patient experience surveys. Along with “How well did your healthcare provider explain your diagnosis and treatment options?” these questions focus on the physician. As a result, this focus often biases feedback toward the physician’s performance rather than the patient’s end-to-end healthcare experience, from billing to customer service.

This is a prime example of how you think you are collecting feedback, but you are not. There is insufficient actionable information to capture the reality of patient experience if you neglect to ask patients whether they understand their bill, if they are able to make appointments when they need them, or how they feel about being asked the same question three times in one visit because disparate EMR (Electronic Medical Records) systems don’t talk to each other. These moments along the journey impact patient experience profoundly. But they are not measured by questions that only ask about interactions with physicians.

Alternately, a comprehensive customer feedback system ensures the voice of the customer is gathered across all touchpoints. This provides a complete view of the customer journey. And real, actionable insights for improvement. Without it, organizations suffer from inaccurate perceptions of their performance. Enter lower satisfaction scores and customer attrition.

Mistakes to Avoid

There are several common pitfalls to avoid when developing a customer feedback system. First and most common is assuming your responsibility begins and ends with investing in expensive software. Technology for the sake of technology never solves problems. And implementing software, no matter how state-of-the-art, will not enhance your customer feedback system on its own.

When making technology choices related to customer feedback systems, remember, the software company provides the tools. Your customer experience consultant aligns feedback collection with your business strategy from feedback collection design to actioning insights.

Second, and this cannot be stated enough, failure to act on feedback turns the collection process from an initiative that can improve customer experience to one that threatens brand reputation. Not addressing the issues feedback collection raises indicates a lack of listening, an ineffective feedback system, or both.

Take Action on Feedback

This is why we say too many companies are not collecting customer feedback. Ultimately, if you collect feedback but do not use it, you are not really engaging in customer feedback. You are assigning customers another task to complete. Collecting feedback is only the first step. The real value lies in taking action. Feedback you do not act on is useless.

Make it useful, instead. Plan to address issues and implement changes based on insights, not only to improve customer experience, but to preserve existing customer relationships.

Customers who feel heard are loyal to your brand. Ignoring or offering responses that do not take into account what your customers are telling you leads to attrition. We often tell our customers, “feedback is a gift.” This is absolutely true. Use it as such, and both your brand and your customers will reap rewards.

Customer Feedback Collection Strategic Advantage

Now is the time to approach customer feedback collection as a strategic advantage. By understanding and implementing effective feedback mechanisms, you position your organization to continuously improve processes, enhance customer satisfaction, and  achieve sustained success. For help optimizing customer experience feedback collection aligned to your strategy, contact us.