MC: 0:00

Experience Action. Let's stop just talking about customer experience, employee experience and the experience of leaders. Let's turn ideas into action. Your host, jJeanne Walters, is an award-winning customer experience expert, international keynote speaker and founder of Experience Investigators, a strategic consulting firm helping companies increase sales and customer retention through elevated customer experiences. Ready, set action. One, two, three, four.

Jeannie Walters: 0:31

Negative feedback. We all get it from customers, but what should we really do? That's the question today on the Experience Action Podcast.

Listener Question: 0:42

Hi, Jeannie, I have a question for you. It is how can you turn negative customer feedback into actionable insights that really drive improvement?

Jeannie Walters: 0:53

Thank you so much for asking this question. I am excited to answer it for you. I'm Jeannie Walters, CEO and founder of Experience Investigators, and I'm here all the time to answer your questions. So, don't forget, you can leave me your own voicemail at askjeannievip. All right, let's get right to it.

Jeannie Walters: 1:11

We all have to deal with negative feedback from customers, and when I say deal, I should really say something like we all get the gift of negative feedback from our customers. When our customers care enough to provide that feedback, they are really telling us that they care enough to let us know so that we can fix it for them. If they didn't care, they would just leave. They would go to our competitors, and there are plenty of your customers who will do that anyway. So when one or two or many customers tell you something is wrong, take that for what it is. They are asking you to help them with something so that they can continue to be a customer. So, first and foremost, let's shift the perspective on negative feedback. Let's make sure that we are letting everybody know that we shouldn't be scared of it. We shouldn't run away from it. We certainly shouldn't get defensive about it. What we should do is take a deep breath, look at it for what it is and figure out what can we learn from it so that we can make it better, not just for that customer, but for other customers as well. So let's make sure that we are respecting the fact that these customers who complain are invested in the relationship that they have with us and our brand.

Jeannie Walters: 2:29

So the second part of this is what do we do with this feedback? Well, we want to make sure that we have the processes, the tools, the technology and the people in place to really make sure that we can categorize the feedback, we can analyze it, we can make sure that we're looking for those root causes that created that feedback to begin with. We want to get right to it and make sure that we're not just listening and nodding along, that we are acting on it, and the only way we can act on it is if we know what we're doing and why we're doing it. So what do I mean by that? I mean that if we can categorize certain feedback responses, then we'll start seeing what the priorities might be, based on quantity. So if we see that many, many customers are complaining that their deliveries are delayed, then we want to look at the root cause of what is causing those delays. What can we do about it? How can we update customers more proactively so they don't have to call us? What can we do to make that specific touchpoint better for many customers?

Jeannie Walters: 3:34

However, sometimes things happen that maybe don't impact the quantity of other complaints. We might not be hearing from a lot of customers about it, but when we see what happened, we know that's not the quality of the experience that we want to deliver. And this is where we get into really paying attention to what our customer is saying, not just about the how or the what of their experience, but about their feelings. What are the words they're using? Are they saying things like frustrated or disappointed? Those are strong, emotional words that we want to really zero in on, and one of the ways we can do that now is by categorizing around that what is creating frustration or friction for our customers. What are they telling us is preventing them from taking that next step on their journey with us? So there are different ways when we talk about categorizing feedback, to really think about that. Don't fall into the idea that it's just about how many customers are complaining. Look for those bigger concepts around emotions and around points of challenge, obstacle or friction that is preventing someone from taking that next step through the customer journey with us, because, remember, we have to tie everything back to our organizational goals. Most organizations want customers to go through the journey and convert, and so if there's anything preventing conversion, we really want to make that a priority as well.

Jeannie Walters: 5:07

Once we have categorized and really understood why we have those categories, we want to go ahead and look to analysis. What can we learn here? Well, this is where tools like AI and your customer relationship manager, your frontline workers, can have a lot to say here, but we want to make sure that we're looking at the specific insights that we're gathering. If we don't do this part, this is where it's easy to become what I call a number narrator, where you are reporting out numbers, you are reporting out metrics and customer feedback measurements like net promoter score or customer satisfaction rate, but you aren't taking that next step and saying what are we learning from the feedback that we're gathering because of that? So this is where we really want to get into the insights that we've learned and make sure that we identify what are those root causes, what would happen if we fixed it, and how should we go ahead and fix it? Now I'm talking in somewhat simple terms, in kind of a find and fix mentality. This is where a lot of organizations kind of live with customer experience efforts.

Jeannie Walters: 6:19

Now, remember, I'm all about being intentional and proactive. So, while I want you to react to these complaints, I also want you to think bigger about what is it we're learning that could have an impact on how we innovate for the future. This is about fixing the challenges that you identify, but you always want to look one step beyond that and think about what is the experience of the future? What are the insights that we can learn there? So if people are saying things like I wish I didn't have to X, I wish I didn't have to call you, I wish I didn't have to go through filling out this form again, I wish that I didn't have to reorder every time, that I could just make it automatic renewal. They are telling you in those complaints very clearly what they want for the future. And then I want you to take that one step further and think about okay, what if we not only didn't have you fill out the form the second or third time, what if we didn't have the form at all? What if we could remove the barrier that you're even speaking of initially? So this is where being proactive about customer experience can become such a winning strategy.

Jeannie Walters: 7:32

If we are only finding and fixing, then we are missing opportunity to really deliver bottom line results for our organization. But in any case, negative feedback points you to where to actually fix things that are broken. It's also telling you what our customer's looking for in the future. But you have to make sure you have your radar up and that you are categorizing in these multiple different ways. So once you have analyzed this, you've come up with insights. Then you want to turn the insights into actionable efforts that are tied to goals. So if you want to make sure that you are getting more conversions, then you want to define what are the efforts that you'll put in to fix something or innovate around that touchpoint or challenge to get more conversions. So remember, we always want to pull that thread all the way. We can't stop talking until we get to the goal for the organization.

Jeannie Walters: 8:34

So, as you're reviewing the negative feedback, as you're coming up with your plans, as you're finding those insights, everything comes back to measurable goals around your organization. How are you delivering on the bottom line results? That means how are you getting more revenue? How are you decreasing expenses? How are you delivering on the mission of your organization? We want to get to there. Now, will every single find and fix result in something like that? Maybe not, but that's how you prioritize. What are the business results that you are aiming for that will help you get people through that journey so that they buy more, they stay longer, they refer others all of those wonderful things that happen with a proactive, positive experience.

Jeannie Walters: 9:19

So you can't do this alone. CX is a team sport, we like to say. Customer experience is everyone's business and the only way you can really improve the experience for your customers is by getting others involved. Let's take the example I brought up before.

Jeannie Walters: 9:36

You know that you're getting a lot of complaints around delays in delivery, so you want to go to where you will have an impact there. Ask your delivery people, ask your product people. What's happening here? Why are we having these delays? Oh, some of this is out of our control, because of weather or strikes or whatever. So what can we do? Well, can we communicate? Can I get more visibility into this so that I can proactively tell customers when their delivery will be delayed? That's the type of conversation we have to have in order to actually make improvements.

Jeannie Walters: 10:14

Otherwise, we're basically talking in metrics and we're talking to leaders who don't really have skin in the game. If they don't see anything, if they don't see these complaints, if they don't really understand the impact that it's having on the customer experience, then how can we expect them to care enough to change it? That's where customer experience leaders can have the most influence and impact by talking to others, making sure that the leaders understand what they can do and putting all that together, creating that cross-functional support and getting that leadership buy-in to get the right resources, investments, and putting the right efforts in place around the right priorities. And then, of course, when we have negative complaints, they come from a real person. So we need to close the loop.

Jeannie Walters: 11:02

Whatever we're about to do, whatever we learn, we want to make sure we have a process to close the loop with that customer, to reach out and say we heard you, this is what we're doing about it, or we heard you, we've never heard this before. We want to learn more from you about your experience so that we can make sure this never happens again. Sometimes customers want just to be heard, so don't underestimate the power of saying we heard you, we're really sorry that happened and we want to make sure this doesn't happen again. That can go a long way with building empathy and trust with our customers, so make sure that is part of your process as well. And then, as you go through this, you're going to have successes.

Jeannie Walters: 11:47

I want you to celebrate those, I want you to socialize those. I want you to communicate that far and wide throughout your organization, because what that will do is create a culture where, instead of being afraid of negative feedback or running away from it, people will understand we're here to embrace it, to own it, to change things for the better. And if you get to that culture, everything else becomes a little easier for both you and your customers. So I cannot wait to hear how you will turn negative feedback into insights that drive actionable results. That's what this is all about, folks. We are designing and developing and implementing strategies and designs that will improve our business, the experience of our customers and the experience of our employees. That's the win-win-win of customer experience strategy. Thank you so much for this question. I cannot wait to hear what's next and I hope that you will join us as we explore another question on the Experience Action Podcast. Thanks for all you do, customer experience leaders. I'll talk to you soon. To learn more about our strategic approach to experience, check out free resources at experienceinvestigatorscom. Where you can sign up for our newsletter, our Year of CX program, and more. And please follow me, Jeannie Walters, on LinkedIn.