Throw out the surveys. Are your customer feelings quantifiable? No. Then why do leaders insist on gauging them with numbers. Customer feedback (done right) can expose your gaps, reduce your churn and increase loyalty. And revenue. Collabo XD has helped national corporations like Cummins and the American Red Cross do just that.
Below are 3 tips to get better customer feedback and improve their experience.
Your customers hate surveys
Tech helps us do things faster and cheaper. But there are still many things technology can’t do.
“Robots” can’t tell you what to fix about your customer journey. No AI can accurately predict how your customers feel about you and your services.
Humans are unpredictable.
- Are they lying?
- Are they having a good/bad day?
- How extreme do they feel about you?
When’s the last time you were excited to complete the customer satisfaction survey sitting in your overflowing inbox?
Only your most passionate customers fill out surveys: They’re either passionately in love with you. Or they despise you.
Surveys don’t account for those in the middle of the spectrum. The majority of your customers.
Human emotions and buying decisions aren’t quantifiable. Your customer experience is innately human. And human experiences require human conversations.
Here’s how you do primary research the right way:
- Untech the customer journey
- Avoid confirmation bias like the plague
- Outsource your primary research
1. Untech the customer journey
You can’t automate yourself out of the customer experience.
Watch someone go through your buying process. Literally. And ask yourself …
How many touchpoints are tech-enabled?
Where can you add a human element to personalize the experience?
Where do they get confused or even angry? How can you offer a helping hand during this moment?
Go straight to the source (your customer) and ask them how they feel about your services. No more bland “Give us your feedback for a chance at a $10 Amazon gift card” gimmicks.
2. Avoid confirmation bias like the plague
A note on confirmation bias: We humans love solving problems, don’t we? But when we think we know what the problem is, we look for evidence that supports our preconceptions.
Even if those preconceptions are wrong.
You can easily taint the results with what you think is the problem. By framing questions in a certain way. Or pulling nonexistent insights from the data.
You can’t see a problem with fresh eyes and unbiased perspective if you’ve been in it for too long or you’re highly invested in it.
2 ways to solve for confirmation bias in your customer audit experience
Confirmation bias can cause your company to solve the wrong problems in your customer journey and waste a boat load of resources.
First – To avoid bias, remove leaders from the process whose paychecks directly correlate with audit results.
For example, a product manager who needs her team’s widget to meet a financial goal to make her bonus this year. The widget may be failing, but she’ll do whatever it takes to get her bonus.
Second – A third party conducting your research removes any bias.
3. Outsource your primary research
Honesty hour: Your customers are afraid to tell you the truth.
Think about it this way: Approach someone on the street. Ask them what they like about your outfit. Most will find at least one aspect they enjoy.
You could be wearing the ugliest outfit of all time, and you’ll still get some positive responses.
Why?
Because most people try to be nice. Most avoid confrontation about their true feelings. Which is why survey responses are generally low.
In the wise words of Thumper from Bambi, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.”
So it’s difficult to get honest feedback from your customers.
On the other hand, a third party (like Collabo XD) doesn’t have any bias. A true third party shouldn’t make more money based on the audit results – a form of bias.
Instead an outside party can remain completely objective which also helps your customers feel safe telling the truth.
So they can accurately frame the problem before you start solving it.
So now you know. Drop the customer surveys. Untech the customer experience by going straight to the source.
You’ll get better results. Plus, your customers will appreciate you.