Customer Voices Matter - A Guide to Feedback Mastery
“I’d like to give you some feedback.” Seven words that can make a person feel uncomfortable or challenged. From a business perspective, particularly for business owners, it can:
Feel like a threat to business identity and personal investment. For many business owners, their business is not just a source of income; it's a reflection of their personal passion, effort, and vision. Negative feedback can feel like a direct critique of their identity and the value of their work. This emotional investment can make it particularly hard to receive critical feedback objectively, as it challenges the owner's beliefs about the success and impact of their business. It's not just a comment on a product or service; it can feel like a personal evaluation.
Raise perception and reputation concerns. Today, customer feedback is often public, shared on social media, review sites, and other platforms. The fear that negative feedback, especially when visible to potential customers, could harm their business's reputation and affect its future success is very real and can lead to a paralysis in responding or responding in a way that is proactive.
Challenge business strategy and decision making. Feedback from customers can point to fundamental issues with a product, service, or the business strategy as a whole. For a business owner, such feedback can be uncomfortable as it calls into question their decisions and the direction in which they've taken their business. Admitting that aspects of the business may need significant changes or reevaluation can be difficult, especially when it involves revising strategies that the owner has heavily invested in, both emotionally and financially.
As a business owner and one that mentors many other business owners and organisational leaders, it can be easy for me to tell you to just lean into it. But we all know, it’s not that easy. It’s a muscle I am focused on continually building and is one that is important for not only your business, but also for personal and professional development.
So let’s look at how to build your feedback muscle and how to run to it rather than run away from it:
Create a culture of open communication and lead by example. Show that you value feedback by asking for it openly from your team and customers. Respond positively to the feedback you receive, even if it's critical. This demonstrates that feedback is a tool for growth, not criticism. The first thing you say when you receive feedback - positive or negative is ‘thank you’ and be gracious. When the feedback is not so positive, don’t react…take a minute to take a big deep breath and then move forward with thanking them for the feedback and where an immediate solution is required, take care of it. When you have a moment to pause, say, ‘thank you, I am going to take this feedback and investigate solutions.’ When your team sees you doing this, it encourages a more positive culture around feedback and signals to your team that improving processes, products, and services is a priority.
Use feedback tools and platforms. Leverage tools that facilitate anonymous feedback, surveys, and reviews. Tools like Google Forms andSurveyMonkey can help gather insights from a wide range of stakeholders. But be sure to review the data and look for any patterns in the responses, overlaying this with the in person feedback you may be receiving (the two don’t live in isolation and oftentimes the discussions you have can provide further insight). From there, act on the feedback and make changes based on what you have learnt. Some may be subtle and be able to be implemented immediately and some may take a few steps. Map those steps and the process around it to implement so it doesn’t feel overwhelming or impossible.
Build your growth mindset (but also forgive yourself when you have those days). Remember feedback is an indicator for review and improvement, and as hard as it is to admit this, we all have an ego, but there is no place for ego in keeping an open mind to improving. And, when you win and receive positive feedback, celebrate it and when things don’t go as planned, focus on what can be learned from the experience rather than dwelling on the negative.
There is no such thing as perfect - it’s about progress over perfection. When you realise this, you’ll naturally run towards feedback as a means to fuel your growth and the evolution of your business.
For me, once I realised this, I saw feedback not as something to fear but as an invaluable tool for continuous improvement.
A few businesses I want to congratulate for taking on feedback and doing something about it:
Ticketek - Australia’s largest event ticketing company recently rolled out an online accessible ticket booking platform to set accessibility standards, based on a long-term journey of listening and consulting with their customers. Ticketek identified the shortfalls and gaps for people with disabilities to purchase tickets for themselves, with their support workers and with family and friends. They undertook a consultative process with people with disabilities and industry experts to identify what areas of work needed to be developed and how they could best refine their platform to service all customers. This was a long-journey of work to fine tune, and sufficient time was taken to get it right and release something that met the customers needs. A key piece of this work was identifying the various disability profiles and their ticketing types (requirements). Ticketek has rolled out the accessible ticket booking platform slowly at select venues and gradually alongside all ticket sales. They continue to take on board customer feedback on the user experience, make ongoing improvements to the platforms, as well as continuing to educate venues of accessibility requirements.
Service NSW - Customers across NSW have saved millions of hours interacting with the NSW Government with the delivery of 60 time saving initiatives developed by the Department of Customer Service. NSW is committed to ensuring it is easier for customers to access support, services and programs efficiently. Part of this was introducing the opt-in ‘tell us once’ initiative, which allows customers to consent to their details being shared across multiple government services to save time when dealing with government, from applying for grants to enrolling a child in school. COVID-19 provided an opportunity for Service NSW to make improvements to the functionality of the Service NSW app, previously not well utilised. Feedback on the user experience and the need for a user-friendly digital platform to make COVID-19 compliance easy to adopt, saw significant improvements to the app with an ongoing feedback loop as to its functionality. It is, compared to other states in Australia, one of the best adopted service app beyond COVID-19.
Dig It at Mount Tamborine is an innovative business initiated by a sibling duo, offering a unique experience unmatched anywhere else in the world. Since its inception, the business has been on a steep learning curve, adapting to feedback from guests to enhance the overall experience. Through reviews, guests highlighted areas for improvement, prompting the owners to make several adjustments. These changes included adding shade to combat heat, modifying the flow of the experience for better enjoyment, creating a play area for added entertainment, and introducing water sales to keep guests hydrated. This proactive approach to customer feedback has been crucial in refining their service and ensuring a positive experience for all visitors.
If you are a business leader putting feedback into action or want to share your experience putting these actions in motion, I would love to hear from you. Please drop me a line at giovanna@sparrowly.com
And if you are looking for a great way to gather feedback on how you can improve your business operationally, consider entering the Telstra Best of Business Awards. It’s an investment in time but it really is a cathartic exercise and forces you to take a good hard look at your business. The best part of these Awards is even if you don’t win, you get a great feedback report on steps you can take to improve your business.
