A recent study by Oxford Brookes University claims that UK businesses are losing around 20 million customers each year due to poor customer service, equating to losses of £3.69 billion. It’s no big secret that understanding what customers want is the best way to keep them happy. Organisations spend hundreds of thousands of pounds engaging with customers through multiple channels, whether it’s face to face interviews, outsourcing to call centres or creating web-based surveys, in a bid to gain their feedback and keep them as customers.
So why are so many customers still unhappy? Gartner Research identified that whilst 95 per cent of companies collect customer feedback, just 10 per cent actually use the data to make improvements, whilst Warwick Business School highlighted that 75 per cent of customer feedback remains unread as organisations struggle to manage the volume and complexity of customer insights.
Not having a robust customer feedback management strategy is typical of many organisations that simply fail to understand the importance of taking action on the data that is collected. Organisations generate useful customer data and reporting outputs, but they don’t actually do anything with this information to better their business. I believe that using this data within an organisation, both operationally and strategically, to help drive business growth is vital. Here are my top tips for driving action from customer feedback that will help organisations improve customer satisfaction and retention and positively impact the bottom line.
Sponsorship from the top – CEO vision
Organisations will only succeed in their customer feedback programme if the CEO has a customer-centric vision – the customer must be at the heart of everything the company does. Executives who recently responded to Forrester Research analysis on customer experience programmes cited a lack of senior management involvement as one of the main obstacles for improving customer experience. When implementing a strategic customer feedback management programme, organisations must establish clear objectives from the top; customer engagement is an ongoing process which is aimed at creating a cultural change within an organisation to improve the customer experience.
Stimulating a customer-centric culture
Employees are an organisation’s greatest tool when it comes to ensuring a positive customer experience. Make sure they are focused on the customer and fully motivated to provide exceptional customer service. Use a system that clearly defines what actions are required to rectify issues and respond to the customer. Create support hubs where employees can go to for guidance if dealing with a customer complaint.
Staying ahead of the competition
In order to compete effectively you need to benchmark your products and services against those offered by competitors. Speaking to your customers can help you to understand where you fit in with the competition. The information you gather can then be used to drive various actions: to improve your offering or to help your sales people when speaking to customers about a product or service.
Identifying key areas of risk and opportunity
Customer enquiries and complaints come with built-in opportunities that can help you to understand what the organisation is good at and where it can make improvements. With the insights that are gathered and communicated through an effective customer feedback management system, you can identify and quickly address specific problems, spot trends and take advantage of emerging opportunities long before the competition. You can take fast, clear and specific actions to help you run the business better, gain competitive advantages and drive growth.
Busting the silos, creating synergy and results
Customer feedback must be reviewed, analysed, reported upon and disseminated out to where it is most relevant within the organisation thereafter. I often hear of organisations that have a mound of customer feedback that is never properly reviewed or if it is takes weeks to gather into a meaningful report. Data should be stored centrally so that the information is accessible to all departments. Set up a system that provides real-time reports which are distributed to the relevant people and allows them to act on issues with all the knowledge available. Being better informed and sharing knowledge is the key to creating enterprise-wide best practices in dealing with customers and achieving the ultimate results from their feedback.
Integrating the ‘voice of the customer’ into business operations
Always ensure the feedback you obtain is actually used. Use it to identify patterns of customer dissatisfaction and set up projects if necessary. Implement complaint management tools that allow you to alert relevant people if complaints escalate and a follow up system to allow you to close the loop on each issue. Develop an action plan that focuses on building on what’s working well and resolving any areas that are causing your customers concern. Organisations that take the time to actively listen to customers, gather their feedback, and vitally take actions to improve their business, will not only survive, but also thrive when it comes to competing for and retaining customers.
