Feedback from your customers on how your product or service is faring is priceless.
Too often organisations formalise the feedback process to the point where it becomes a structured machine. When was the last time you actually sat, listened and had a conversation with one of your customers? Rather than have them fill out a form, which is responded to with an auto-reply email, have you actually conversed back and forth on their thoughts on your customer experience?
Which brands build up the most customer loyalty? Brands that listen. But more than that, brands that listen and act upon their customers thoughts. Listening is only the first step, essentially just acknowledging the customer has a point of view on something. Taking the time to consider the feedback and most importantly, acting upon it, clearly demonstrates to the customer that their thoughts are valued, and improving their customer experience is paramount to the success of the organisation.
As Marietta McCarty succinctly puts it:
“Conversation is not a one-sided lecture, not about being right, not about getting in the last word. It is a mutual exchange”
Even in the age of social media, where you can employ hundreds of different listening tools and engage with your customers through an @reply/dm/update – there can be no more effective tool than the art of conversation.
Remember, customers are just normal people when they aren’t in your store!
The Cut & Paste Customer Experience
With the click of a button, the press of a few keys and you can find, read and copy endless reams of information. The cut & paste culture that has developed on the web has been integral to its growth. However, it is also seen by some as its potential cultural downfall.
Ilana Simons has a great write up on how The Internet Makes Us Superficial and Sensational. Simons challenges the cut and paste culture of the web – that any part of a conversation, section of an opinion, or even specific words can be spliced, lifted and reposted. Simons comments that anything posted online can be taken out of context, creating a new piece of information – one without our traditional offline form of contextual information.
What is most interesting with about this concept is twofold:
If people can take anything you post, comment or upload online then how can you ever communicate effectively as a brand? With this thought in mind, it should be more apparent than ever that building a customer experience that makes people want to react positively to your brand, communications and product/service. If customers, clients or the general public come across a negative customer experience with your organisation, and are readily presented with the tools to communicate this (i.e. Blogs & Social networks) then what sort of chance do you think your brand has?
You may not be completely ready to hand over your brand to your customers, but you can be prepared for any influence by crafting a sublime customer experience.