This post is based on a webinar - A Good Day to Act Hard: Take Action on Customer Feedback in Three Simple Steps, which was presented by CustomerGauge's Business Development Manager, Vivek Jaiswal. You can access the webinar here. The presentation is embedded below.
Whether it was defeating twisted East German-Special-Forces-vets-turned-mastermind-terrorists through an elaborate series of riddles, or trying to rescue his deep-cover-CIA-agent son against a backdrop of corrupt Russian billionaires and the shady world of the weapons-grade uranium trade, Bruce Willis’s Die Hard character John McClane had the presence of mind to listen to the clues around him and save innocent civilians from mass slaughter.
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John McClane: Be an action hero and Act Hard on your customer feedback. ©20th Century Fox.[/caption]
But what does this have to do with creating fantastic customer service? Let us count the ways.
By listening to customer feedback, you have the power to save your customers from bad service explosions, over-the-phone customer enquiry riddles, and the possible mass extermination of your loyal customer base.
But have courage. You too, can be an action hero – by applying a John McClane-like attitude to listening to what your customers are saying and aligning your organisation to Act Hard on customer feedback.
1. Load your weapons
Every action movie has a bad guy, and in this case it’s underperforming and/or hard-to-reach customer service staff. To combat this, you need recruits who can be trained to become true service heroes – who intuitively understand the value of treating customers how they would like to be treated.
But don’t stop there. Besides recruits, you need a combat plan – even if it needs to be tweaked later (as it inevitably will, this being an action movie and all). Before you put your feedback collection system in place, recruits should already know what they have to do, and a system should already be in place to get feedback to the relevant departments or individuals.
2. Follow through
If John McClane didn’t have the commitment to follow through on his deadly game of Simon Says in Die Hard with a Vengeance, New York City could have been reduced to a pile of smoking ashes.
You need to make that same commitment to following through on customer feedback. Start with the simple things. First of all, make sure you acknowledge and thank all respondents. Keep them involved in any changes you make based on their feedback. And importantly – make sure you read each and every piece of feedback - even if that means scrolling through thousands of pieces of information. Why? By applying an action hero commitment to listening to the clues, you may uncover insights that will lead to truly groundbreaking product or service breakthroughs - insights that no graph or text analysis software is able to do.
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3. Share results
John McClane didn’t work alone. In fact, on the streets of Harlem, sharing vital information with Zeus Carver about his background saved his life.
The same rule applies to customer feedback. Saving your customers from uranium-enriched service bombs can only happen when the whole organisation is involved. Create processes to ensure that departments or teams deal with issues that are relevant to them (hint – the CustomerGauge platform has workflow features built in that ensure different departments are assigned the relevant feedback).
4. Reward (or rescue) your high-value customers
Remember – you’re not a good Samaritan. You are a customer service action hero. Use your wits to identify your high value customers and segment them into Promoters (ambassadors for your business) Neutrals (those with a “meh” attitude) and Detractors (those most at risk of drifting away – and telling their friends about it).
Action heroes don’t just rely on their wits. They make use of the tools around them. A system such as CustomerGauge will enable your business to automate your closed loop on your customer feedback and set up an express route to recovery and reward for your most valued customers.
And in the process – make you look like a real John McClane.
