WHEN MAKING THAT CUP OF TEA IS A 'NO NO' - LISTEN TO FEEDBACK
ASKING FOR FEEDBACK AND WAITING FOR IT IS A LITTLE LIKE THE SUSPENSE OF YOUR GCSE EXAM RESULTS - DID YOU PASS? DID YOU A*? OR DID YOU FLUNK? BUT WITHOUT KNOWING HOW CAN YOU TRANSFORM?
The old saying of the 'Ostrich head in the sand' can sometimes be a little tempting when gaining feedback on how you are running your business. You set out with your business model of always keeping 'customers at the heart' and so you want to believe you have everything right.
In a previous job we did something called 'reverse mentoring' where a trusted colleague would gain feedback from the team and share it with Jo to allow her to be a better leader. She was flabbergasted to learn something she did which she thought was kind, was actually detrimental. What was this terrible thing? Well -Jo is a creature of habit and at 5pm she would make herself a brew, and it just wouldn't be in her nature to make herself one without offering others.
Jo would use between 5-6pm to clear her inbox but clearly the working day would finish at 5pm. It was Jo's personal choice to stay and she was super happy with it, but actually what she didn't realise was offering to make tea at this time made the colleagues feel pressurised into staying beyond 5pm. So even when you think you are getting it right, you aren't always and without asking, you would never know!
Here are some other reasons why you should ask for customer feedback:
Learn Customer Likes & Dislikes: If you know what's working for your customers and what isn't, you can make adjustments to your product or service to ensure it moves in a positive direction
Asking a Customer Makes Them Feel Valued: It can reassure customers that they are important to you, what they think matters and actually that they can make a difference as you are going to act on their feedback
You Can Adjust Your Strategy: Ultimately in the majority of cases you run a business to make money, it's a commercial operation. If there is a direction you are going in which customers don't like, you can adjust and be more aligned to what will work well based on feedback.
Customer Voice: Your customer is your best market shop front. If they like you, they will tell others. If they don't like you, they will definitely tell others - and probably publicly! Make sure you are picking up anything that you need to put right very early on.
We continue to gain customer feedback here with Circle - both in person during teaching of the Level 3 Diploma in Personal Training, Level 2 Award in Gym Instructing and Level 3 Diploma in Sports Massage Therapy (https://www.circlewellnessacademy.com/circlewellnessacademycourse-personaltraining-nutrition-mentalhealth-massage) - and also through feedback following completion of the course. Trustpilot is a super platform as it is easy, accessible and honest.
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/circlewellnessacademy.com
If you would like to know more about how we have amended our business based on customer feedback please drop me a line.
Danny