Different customers provide different types of feedback. We break down the types of ratings, and how to design situations to get useful feedback from them.
Positive feedback provides a great feel-good factor and reminds you of what you do well. EasyHike, with an NPS of 90 (95% customers give a 5-star rating), says the raving reviews they receive serve as reminders of what’s valued most by their customers and reinforces what they should continue doing.
But if your 5-star reviewers already think you’re doing a perfect job and providing unparalleled customer experiences, can they help you continuously improve and stay ahead of the competition? They sure can!
You can use the fact that they’re highly engaged customers and big fans of your business to your advantage, by asking for their ideas about what more you could do to provide an even better experience. You might just receive a gem of inspiration that’ll help you maintain your competitive advantage.
These customers neither loved nor hated their experience. Many cultures withhold a perfect score for truly exceptional experiences. So what’s stopping them from loving it? Their feedback could be the key to developing new product lines and a whole set of new happy customers. You might find there are a few extra touches needed to deliver an exceptional experience, or there may be business processes that need improving to ensure the quality of their experience is consistent. For example, an accountant that we spoke to described a situation where a customer felt in the dark simply because the team forgot to add them to an automated email sequence due to the unconventional way the customer had come through to the business.
Looking at their feedback comments, asking additional questions about what could be improved, and following up with a phone call to learn more can help you pinpoint opportunities for improvement. Map out and understand their entire customer journey to figure out which touch points need improving, as it could be as simple as a channel or step in the journey that was missed or fell short.
When it comes to your 1 and 2-star customers, your first step is analysing their feedback to determine what (if anything) went wrong. Contrary to popular belief the customer is not always right, and sometimes their ‘bad experience’ is not something that you ever had any control over.
Likely, they’re just in the wrong demographic for your business, meaning you’re probably never going to be able to please them (no matter how hard you try). In this instance, we suggest taking their feedback with a grain of salt and using it to define who aren’t your target customers. You can then add information into your marketing and sales process to try and help these types of customers navigate away from your services. While it may sound counterintuitive to turn away revenue, it could be a small gain compared to a large loss caused by the negative word of mouth they may create.
