Tuesday CX Thoughts is a space where Ken Peterson, QuestionPro’s Director of CX, shares insights on the industry with real-life examples and practical recommendations. His reflections can help shape how you serve your customers, regardless of your industry or service.
In today’s edition, we’ll discuss the culture of feedback and the importance of closing the loop with your consumers.
I recall a terrible experience that I had at a restaurant.
It was normally a standard experience, never outstanding—good or bad—and I had been there several times without incident. Then there was that one time—it seemed everything went poorly. It was slow to get an order and slow to receive it, several items were probably not prepared, and a manager said, “Not my problem,” when I asked her what went wrong.
I did get a survey, and I gave my honest opinion. When I submitted the survey, I received a note from the regional manager just a few hours later. Probably the most surprising part about that note is that it arrived exactly three hours after I submitted the survey—arriving at the very late hours of the night—or the morning, depending on when you wake up.
It had a message that I could respond to the email or call. I waited until the next morning to place a call and give context so they could improve. Instead, when I reached the number, I had to leave a voice message. A few hours later, the call was returned, and the regional manager on the line wondered who I was and why I called.
I filled in the details and mentioned that I got an email from him that I should reach out to him. The response: “That is an automated email.” Even more surprising, when he checked the ticketing system, the ticket was listed as “resolved.” This even surprised him. Apparently, that email was supposed to be a follow-up after the ticket was closed to leave the impression of an open dialog being available.
However, after I mentioned what I did for a living, he brought up the idea that the store was trying to close out the closed-loop tickets, as they are measured on resolution time. He acknowledged that it resulted in many cases being closed without ever contacting the customer—not exactly closing the loop.
Here’s a short video explaining how you can easily and effectively implement a feedback system to close the loop efficiently.
Why should you close the loop?
There are some key benefits to genuinely closing the loop. Those include:
- Improved Customer Loyalty: When customers see their feedback is valued and acted upon, they feel heard and respected. This will strengthen their connection with the brand, increasing loyalty.
- In this case, it appears that the feedback was not valued at all by the frontline team and was mostly ignored
- Valuable Insights for Business Improvement: Customer feedback can provide insights into areas where a business can improve its products, services, and processes. Closing the loop – particularly conversing with a few customers – can help identify trends and patterns in customer feedback, enabling them to make informed process improvements.
- A quick conversation could have led to suggestions that could have helped in coaching employees and seeing patterns from a customer perspective
- Positive Reputation Management: Responding to negative customer feedback can help mitigate potential damage to a brand’s reputation. In the digital age we live in today, online reviews and social media play a big role in customers’ decisions, it is imperative to address customer concerns promptly and publicly.
- This situation could have resulted in a negative online review; too many of those can impair a business’s ability to attract new customers
- Increased Revenue: It has been said over and over that satisfied customers are more likely to make repeat purchases and recommend a business to others, driving revenue growth. When customer pain points are addressed, churn can be reduced and a business will see an increase in customer lifetime value.
- When nothing is done to address pain points, customer churn is inevitable; in this case, it appears that the front-line team is actively ignoring customer pain
Closing the loop is a means of transforming customer feedback into a continuous improvement process and making the customer feel valued. However, when metrics associated with closed loop revolve around closing cases quickly, there is no incentive to contact the customer, which takes time. It is a big reason we have WinBack surveys built into our Enhanced Closed-Loop Feedback system. It will ensure that there is not just an automated response, rather the customer will get a very short survey following “resolution” to ensure the customer was contacted and satisfied with the outcome – truly closing the loop.
Looking for a way to close the loop with a powerful feedback system? With QuestionPro Customer Experience, it’s easy. Get in touch with us to explore our solutions and see how we can help you tackle your challenges.
