08 Jan 18 Bad customer feedback is good for business!

Customer feedback is very important for the success of any business. Half the battle is won by ensuring that there is a constant feedback mechanism. The next step is analyzing the feedback.

• Positive feedback is good for the morale, and is important to keep the team motivation high
• Negative feedback on the other hand helps to understand where the shortcomings are, provides improvement goals, and sometimes even unearths potential new opportunities

In our experience of doing voice of customer (VoC) surveys for clients, we have come across various instances where negative feedback has resulted in a new opportunity or increased business for the client.

To put this in perspective, let’s look at some ‘bad’ customer feedback and the underlying cause, which when identified and addressed, resulted in good business for our clients.

 We did a VoC study for a manufacturer of boilers and plant equipment and discovered negative feedback around service lead times and service quality. This was not being provided by our client, but was done by other agencies or in-house. This was affecting customer ratings. The client turned this into an opportunity by entering into the service business themselves, and they now even services equipment sold by other manufacturers.

During another VoC study, we discovered that our client’s software product was good but lacked flexibility to adapt to changing demand. The client noted this and introduced its product in modules which could be scaled up or down based on the need. This resulted in an increase in sales for the client, and helped in customer retention as well.

 While trying to establish the NPS (Net Promoter Score) for an IT company, we probed the negative ratings and learned that one of the customers did not get along with a senior account manager, and he did not know how to bring up the issue. The IT firm changed the account manager and promptly won a second order.

 The bottom line is that in this increasingly competitive world, ignoring bad feedback does not make good business sense. It is better to take the bull by the horns and convert possible disasters into opportunities!