Chapters 8 & 9

Customer Feedback, and
Getting Them Back if You’ve
Lost Them!
Chapter 8,9

Customer Service, 5e
Paul R. Timm 2
© 2011, 2008, 2005, 2001 Pearson Higher Education,
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.
Many people dislike negative feedback,
however…
 Feedback is a valuable form of coaching
 Shows where you may be able to improve
 Peer review is normal internal process while
canvassing is normal external process

Paul R. Timm 3
 “How likely is it that you would
recommend this company to a friend or
colleague?”

Paul R. Timm 4
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.4
Detractors Passively Promoters
Satisfied
Likert Scale-odd number gives you even split either side of neutral

Paul R. Timm 5
NPS (Net Promoter Score):
An excellent way to gather critical data about
overall customer loyalty
P - D = NPS
 Total number of [P]romoters
 Subtract the number of [D]etractors
 The end number is your NPS

Paul R. Timm 6

Paul R. Timm 7
Companies have varying levels of
commitment to feedback
 Reluctant: compliant
 Active: listener
 Pro-active: Metric-conscious

Paul R. Timm 8
Increasing the number of complaints heard
may be an effective strategy
 Lack of feedback
 can indicate that something is preventing
customers’ speaking out
 Rewarding low complaint rates
 may give incentives for employees to ignore or
discourage customer feedback

Paul R. Timm 9
Feedback cards
 Customers only fill out a card when they are very
upset or very happy
 Be careful not to have too many questions with
open ended questions (survey fatigue and data
analysis complications)

Paul R. Timm 10
How we react to customer complaints
determines whether we get additional
“coaching”
 The initial reaction is critical
 Don’t justify or explain
 Simply accept the criticism and let them know you
want to solve the problem

Paul R. Timm 11
Four ways to proactively seek out customer
feedback
 Focus groups
 Explorer groups
 Surveys
 Mystery shoppers

Paul R. Timm 12
Focus groups gather unstructured information
and opinions
 Get a representative sample of customers
 Use not fewer than five, not more than a dozen
people
 Reward participants for their time
 Limit the time for the group
 Record the entire session for analysis later

Paul R. Timm 13
Explorer groups go to other businesses
 They do not need to go only to competitors;
 They are forms of observational research
 Before you go, decide what you are looking for

Paul R. Timm 14
Customer surveys work best with a random
(or stratified random) sample
 Random sample: any customer has an equal
chance of being selected for the survey
 Stratified random sample: anyone in a pre-selected
category has an equal chance

Paul R. Timm 15
Use surveys when customers have
recently completed a transaction
Face-to-face surveys as they walk out of your
office or store
Mail or email brief questionnaires
Written surveys that they can mail back later
Telephone customers at home or at work

Paul R. Timm 16
Mystery shoppers visit or contact
companies, posing as customers
Findings are used
 In employee training materials
 For improving the business
 For improving product quality
 To compare one location to another

Paul R. Timm 17
Capturing and using feedback is critical to
success. Managers can benefit from
maintaining a complaint log to capture ideas
from customers and others.

Paul R. Timm 18
The average company
 Will lose half its customers every five years
 Misses opportunities to aggressively recover
lost customers
 Fails to do “defection interviews” with lost
customers (or employees)

Paul R. Timm 19
The second life cycle of recovered
customers
 Customer is already familiar with products and
services you offer
 You have more data about customer’s likes and
dislikes
 Customer may feel flattered by your attention
 Customer will be re-acclimated to doing
business with you more quickly than a new
customer

Paul R. Timm 20
Customer retention requires
 Positive attitude toward problem solving
 Seeing complaints as opportunities to create
stronger loyalty
 But not necessarily a “customer is always right”
mentality

Paul R. Timm 21
Key issue in customer disputes
NOT who is right or wrong, but rather how all
parties can cooperate to solve customer’s
concerns

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Key skills in recovery
 Feel the customer’s pain (empathize)
 Do all possible to resolve problems
 Offer “symbolic atonement”

Paul R. Timm 23
Handling the chronic complainer
 Be sure they are “chronic” (these are actually
rare)
 Know what to do:
 Listen actively
 Establish the facts
 Avoid apologizing
 Ask complainer to propose solution
 Take a break; cool off

Paul R. Timm 24
Attitude is critical
 Abrasiveness is counterproductive
 Assertiveness is better for problem resolution
 “assertive” means being pleasantly direct

Chapters 8 & 9

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