I never gamble. I have nothing against what casinos call "gaming;" it is a source of entertainment for tens of thousands of people, it just isn't my thing. That isn't to say I don't put myself in situations when I play the odds. Like when I call a company's customer service department. The gamble? Will I get a real human being or the human equivalent of a computer? So far I am hitting about 10%. Only one out of ten calls results in me engaging with a real person in a way that feels genuine. The other 90% do involve a human, but for the lack of real connection, the person may as well be a computer. The result is that I don't feel the need to help that company out. I don't want to offer feedback, and I certainly don't want to steer friends and colleagues in their direction.
Many companies have taken to having their pre-recorded phone menu include, "We value your feedback. Would you be willing to participate in a sixty second survey at the completion of your phone call?" Their mistake is asking me to agree to a survey before my interaction with the representative. Most people don't decide to give feedback based on their desire to be heard. They decide based on the nature of their interaction with your staff. A much higher level of survey participation occurs if the staff member asks the customer to complete a survey after the interaction. A company call tell as much about the quality of their service by how many people participate in the survey as they can by the survey results themselves.
If I am unmoved by the quality of the service, I feel no urge to provide feedback. Say I am having a problem with your company and I call customer service. I will start out the conversation feeling stressed and angry. If your rep solves the problem, but lacks a genuine personality, I feel no urge to provide feedback. If your rep leaves me in a better mood than when the call started, I feel compelled to tell his or her boss what a great job the rep did. If I end the call feeling worse than when it started, you can bet I want to make my feelings known to management. In short, if a small percentage of people even choose to even participate in a post-call survey, you aren't serving them well. Instead of adopting a "no news is good news" philosophy, these companies should see the lack of survey participation as a warning sign in and of itself. In such a case, a company will only hear feedback from those who feel great or those who feel lousy. As in politics, the two extremes of the spectrum are the first and loudest to be heard, but aren't necessarily the most accurate. This kind of feedback inspires decisions that are not truly helpful. You want feedback that is thoughtful and cool-headed. You don't get that by asking people to offer their thoughts before they have even been served. You get it by providing a real human connection, then asking for feedback.
Too many companies try to script concern into the interaction. If I hear one more phone rep read from a script, "We're so sorry you are experiencing difficulties. We will do everything we can to help resolve the issue" I going to lose it. Not long ago I called the billing department of a company because a payment had been miss-applied to my account. Within two minutes of the phone call, the customer service rep repeated that same phrase three times. It was so obviously being read off a script it was meaningless to me. At the end of the phone call she said (also in a scripted delivery), "At our company we value your opinion. If you would like to offer feedback through a short survey, please stay on the line." It felt like I was talking to a computer. When was the last time you felt compelled to offer feedback to a computer?
The mere fact that I chose not to participate in the survey should have been a signal to the company that they are doing something wrong. Forget the actual feedback they receive when people choose to complete a survey. If a low percentage accepts the invitation, you aren't connecting with them enough that they even care to share their opinions with you. A retail company I worked with employs online surveys plus solicits feedback after phone calls. Every call is scripted. They get very little feedback. However, one day one of the managers ran across a customer in the store who needed help finding something. Rather than simply point in the direction of the item, the manager walked the customer to the exact spot. On the walk through the store the manager chatted with the customer, eventually asking if there was anything the customer thought would improve the store. From that one conversation, the manager returned with a page full of ideas; a list of great suggestions that neither he nor his staff had thought of on their own. He said to me, "I can't understand, if the customer really wanted these things from us, why hasn't she said something before now?"
The answer is obvious; no one really asked her about her thoughts. She was willing to share her views because she was interacting with a real human being; a person who expressed a genuine interest in her. A scripted or pre-recorded request to participate in a survey doesn't feel like a genuine invitation, it feels like a request for me to do your thinking for you. A request from an honest-to-goodness human being is one I will respond to. After a particularly good experience at a restaurant, the server brought back my receipt and said, "I would appreciate any comments you have. Once again, my name is Jack. If you could go to the website listed here on the receipt and leave any comments you have it will help me to do a better job in the future. I would really appreciate it."
That request from Jack was from the heart. How could I refuse it? When-ever I get that kind of request, I take it seriously. Seriously enough that I don't just zip through the survey so I can get the 15% discount off my next purchase. I really do want to help Jack, so I give positive comments as well as suggestions for improvement. I am committed to Jack's success, so take the process seriously.
If your company is serious about customer feedback, stop asking them to provide it with a pre-recorded request before they interact with you. Drop the scripted messages of fake concern about our problem and let your staff talk like they are real human beings. Let them treat each customer as unique. After you deliver genuine, person-to-person service, then make an honest request for the customer's thoughts. Lastly, do the most difficult thing possible when reviewing the feedback. Don't make excuses for any of the negative feedback. If a customer is upset, no amount of reasoning on your end will take the stress away. You either fix the problem or lose future/return customers. Scripts and recordings are too easy, and prohibit thinking with the higher brain. The practice dulls the employee's ability to really think and problem-solve, and disconnects the customer. Train your staff to use their higher brain, and get a better customer connection as a reward.
Stevie Ray is a nationally recognized corporate speaker and trainer, helping companies improve communication skills, customer service, leadership, and team management. He can be reached at www.stevierays.org or
stevie@stevierays.org.
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