20 Nov 2018
Avoid common customer satisfaction management pitfalls that lead to project failure. Learn the stages of unsuccessful implementation to ensure your feedback initiatives drive real business value.
While obtaining feedback is essential today, be careful not to fall into customer satisfaction management traps that will doom your project.
Somewhere in a company right now, a meeting might be underway as they decide to start collecting feedback and measuring customer satisfaction. They agree it's practically a necessity these days, make a decision, and divide tasks. The meeting participants leave the boardroom motivated.
Fast forward a year or two, and it's not unlikely that the same team is meeting again, figuring out what went wrong that the project was discontinued. Arguments might be heard that it simply doesn't work in their industry, that their customers are different and don't have time to write feedback, or that the timing wasn't right. Read about the stages of failed implementation of customer satisfaction management so your company doesn't follow the path of the example described above.
Many companies decide to start collecting customer feedback without considering how they will obtain it, let alone what they will do with it. Someone needs to ensure the feedback reaches the right people. If it's merely archived and nothing happens based on it, collecting it is pointless.
Of course, it's not difficult to quickly write a few questions and enter them into an online survey tool. But just because it's easy doesn't mean it's right! You'll need to make some decisions about what you want to do with the information you gather. Who will use it and how, why do they need it, what are the goals? Consider what you want to achieve and formulate the questions you need answers to. Only then is the right time to start.
Feedback starts to accumulate. Initially, the responsible person still reads it, then just monitors the results and metrics. They prepare attractive graphs for the next meeting and move on to the next task. For some companies, simply measuring customer satisfaction might be enough. However, the main advantage lies in the "fine print" of the feedback, in its text. Customers often have suggestions for the company that are easy to implement but have a strong impact on increasing customer satisfaction. If no one reads them, many opportunities are missed.
Initially, it's interesting to read what customers think about the company. Management also shows interest in the results when listening to presentations at meetings. Then other priorities emerge. New projects require more attention, and soon no one is interested in the results of the already implemented customer satisfaction measurement project. Even if they are presented, it's just another formality at the meeting before getting down to business. Fortunately, all is not lost. If you highlight a useful piece of feedback at a meeting and ensure it's implemented, it will always be something new and interesting for colleagues.
Company management reviews costs and sees that money is still being invested in obtaining feedback, even though they have obtained "enough." They have the results, so why not stop collecting and invest the money elsewhere (or just save it)? This is a critical moment that requires swift action. Find a customer suggestion that can be quickly implemented, and do it. At the next meeting, show the results and prove to those present that continuous customer satisfaction monitoring is essential, otherwise, you will start losing them. Management must recognize the concrete benefits and continue customer satisfaction management in the future. If you have already started collecting feedback and recognize yourself in one of the described stages, take action before it's too late. There is no worse investment than one whose contribution is not utilized. For all those who are still considering measuring customer satisfaction, discuss these stages and be careful not to let them happen in your company.