Turning constructive feedback into gold

Thomas was thrilled with the contact and subsequently complimented Paarman on the site: “Thank you getclosure for your professional assistance. I am delighted that Ina Paarman contacted me personally to discuss and resolve my complaint. My daughter and I will certainly continue to use her range of great products for our households.”

What makes this noteworthy is that Paarman places such a great importance on dealing with customer feedback that she communicated directly with the customer in a straightforward manner. She took full responsibility for the customer's issue, even though she could have easily pointed to circumstances at the actual store where the product was bought, which were out of her control. The point? Paarman has made a friend for life by acting on customer feedback.

Staff offers valuable insight

It's not just customer feedback that is important, though. Staff can often offer valuable insight into your service levels by virtue of the fact that they are on the ground, dealing with the product or service every single day. Both internal and external feedback is critical to the success of any organisation and the power of this feedback needs to be harnessed and used in all aspects of the business.

And, in the current economic climate, it's more important than ever before to retain your existing customers.

Nathalie Schooling, founder of N'lighten, the customer service improvement company, explains that we have moved from a service-driven economy to an “experience economy”. This means that organisations need to think beyond their product or service and engage with their customers. She emphasises the fact that feedback should form part of a company's overall strategy.

There are a number of ways to encourage your customers to give feedback, such as providing a call centre number or a feedback form on your website, using social media to engage with your customers and using independent third-party channels.

Internal feedback is often the hardest to extract. Leaders need to constantly encourage open and honest feedback, they must evaluate whether they are receiving accurate and relevant feedback, and also use the feedback they receive effectively.

First step

The first step is to create an environment where employees feel comfortable and want to participate and be involved with the expansion and improvement of the organisation. Effective communication is key to achieving this.

Ways to ensure that there is effective communication and feedback include scheduling regular team meetings, creating internal forums and speaking to employees at every level of the organisation and really listen to what they have to say. Once you have the feedback, you need to process and interpret the information and implement changes to add value to the products and service which you provide.

Using internal and external feedback needs to become part of any organisation's philosophy and has to take place on all levels. Companies can no longer afford to ignore internal constructive criticism or refuse to engage with their customers. They therefore need to put working systems in place that allow them to harness and leverage both positive and negative feedback, as Ina Paarman has done. The outcome could be both customers and employees for life.