… How British Businesses throw away money by alienating customers  (Extract from National Consumer Council Report 2008), by Philip Cullum.

The key message from our research is that companies need to do much more to understand what it feels like to be a customer. Indeed, customers themselves are usually only too happy to provide advice and information on how to get things right-so long as they are sure that someone is listening and is ready to act. Sir Terry Leahy of Tesco says this approach has been key to his own success:

Our leadership team spends a lot of time in the front-line, not stuck in a chateau a long way from the trenches. We’ve developed many ways of giving customers a voice in the business, from Clubcard database management to market research, focus groups, panels, surveys – but for me the most powerful thing is still listening to customers.

All this information could just gather dust. But it doesn’t, it’s hard wired into the key decision-making committees of the company. The customer gives the leadership of the business the plain and simple truth about the business – it’s the most honest feedback you ever get. In my experience, if you listen really closely they not only tell you what’s wrong – they actually tell you what you need to do (and it’s all free advice). Then what you have to do is believe them – and act on it!  The life they lead, the problems they have, and their experience in your stores.

‘It isn’t enough to use the language of the customer. You really have to believe the customer. This is where I think many organisations fall down. Because they only pay lip-service to the consumer, they never really find out where their business is. They never learn where they need to be, and even when they do, they don’t always have the courage to go there.

So there you have it:

This is too important not to do, and not to do well.
For advice and information on these points, or to access help to make this work for you please contact us or go to www.greatorpoor.com  look at our blog and and sign up for our free weekly top tips.
                                                                                  

This is so often the case.

I suggest you do more than this if you want to spend time and money on customer feedback (and you MUST do this in 2012 to survive). Here's my short tips:

1. You don't want 'satisfaction' you want 'loyalty' and 'engagement' resulting in repeat sales, up sales and referrals

How to ensure your organisation, team or group delivers consistently excellent customer experiences.

Empowering your people and building sales through a systematic approach to customer service.

1.       Beliefs

Poor customer service costs UK businesses more than 15 billion pounds each year, with telecommunications, utilities & financial services companies said to be the biggest losers.

According to a national survey, the cost of poor customer service is now a significant issue. Most companies are losing significant business through customers defecting & abandoning their purchases as a direct result of unsatisfactory service experiences.

They say it costs too much to train people, and put foolproof systems in to delight the customer, then they spend billions trying to get different customers via large sales and marketing budgets.

My local gym has signs up and cards available: all saying:
'Tell us what you think ... we value your opinion!'

So far, in the past year, I have filled out 6 of these cards, attaching my phone number and asking for someone to call me about various issues (I'm not really a nightmare customer ... but I always test people out when they make these sort of promises!)

I have had not one single reply.

So now I dislike them much more than I would have done if they hadn't asked me for my opinion, and made the silly marketing driven promises that they had no intention of keeping.

The lesson is:

• If you have a feedback system, align all your systems around making it REALLY work
• Feedback is NOT a marketing exercise, it's seriously important to get it right
• It's better to have NO feedback system than to have one that you don't respond to
• Feedback can work brilliantly: especially using the great or poor system: but you have to do it well
• 95% of feedback systems don't work: and neither do 95% of customer surveys
• This is too important to get wrong

The answer:

• Have a VERY SIMPLE system that works
• Energise all your people around the value it generates
• Encourage all your customers to feedback ... good and bad
• Make the feedback system FUN!
• Don't be frightened of bad feedback: it will help you learn and grow (and if they're telling you, and you react positively to it, not only can you win the customer and turn them into a loyal fan, but also it's unlikely they'll tell all their friends about their poor experience)
• Have a fun and prominent scoreboard
• Meet with your people weekly to review the score and feedback
• Feedback to your customers what you've changed as a result

This is all, as ever, blindingly obvious common sense. but it's so rarely common practice! It's unbelievable!

And, by the way, the Gym group is Fitness First, so please feel free to forward this to them as they won't listen to me!

So when we’ve asked the 4 ‘Golden Questions’ of customer service, we need the simple and effective answers!  Here they are:

1. What level of customer service will grow our business?

    * ‘Outstanding’, driven by a ‘Customer Focused Mission‘