Customers Want to Help Your Business, So Why Not Let Them?

Businesses dance around customer feedback invitations the way friends and family members do when asking for rides to the airport. They never feel confident their requests will be accepted and thus drown their proposals in awkwardness and occasional offers of compensation.

But successfully acquiring customer feedback typically does not require sweaty palms, a slice of food court pizza, gas money and a firm statement of indebtedness. It does not demand a willingness to prey on the guilty conscience.

And as a result of the misconception, far too many customer management professionals are focusing on the wrong thing—determining how to slyly coax customers into survey participation—instead of the important thing: actually engaging those customers who provide feedback.

[eventPDF]

Ignoring the potential for incentives to skew the data collected in customer surveys (which requires a lengthy analysis in and of itself), the more relevant reality is that many customers simply do not require compensation to share their feedback.

According to a survey conducted by CMB Consumer Pulse, the majority of customers have an inherent affinity for providing feedback that needs no further seduction. Garnering a positive response from 57% of those surveyed, "to share a good experience" is the most significant driver of customer participation in satisfaction surveys. With 50% support, "to improve the company" is the second most important driver.

For these customers, the satisfaction survey represents a logical, necessary phase of the customer experience. Believing their relationship with a brand continues beyond a single transaction, they want to provide the guidance needed to improve the quality of the experience they receive from that brand. Their "compensation" comes when their feedback is translated into action.

Though incentives can be compelling motivators—45% say discounts can motivate survey participation, while 40% say they enjoy being entered into a raffle—it remains the case that pure interest in bettering the relationship with the brand plays the chief role. In addition to providing the aforementioned support for "to share a good experience" and "to improve the company," sizable percentages also identified "to praise a specific employee" (39%), "to receive better service or products from the company" (37%) and "to register a complaint" (35%). All three factors outweigh "for a free gift" (28%).

Businesses need to recognize how anxious customers are to share meaningful feedback and structure their satisfaction surveys around the collection of actionable insights. If they instead see the customer feedback process as an obligation everyone hates (just like driving someone to the airport), they will focus too prominently on the incentive and not enough on the substance and modeling of the survey (believing that if they can drive customers to provide any feedback, they have done their jobs). They see the KPI for a satisfaction survey as "response rate" rather than "response quality."

That is a costly mistake that will not only hinder the business’ ability to leverage the voice of the customer for improvement’s sake but also damage customers’ future willingness to engage.

While some customers relish the opportunity to vent about bad experiences and gush over good ones, it goes without saying that many customers who enthusiastically share feedback expect more from the company than mere "listening." These customers want to know that the sounds of their voices resonate throughout the company, and they want a response that sufficiently proves it.

Instead of worrying about a clever incentive that drives response rate, brands should be looking at a truly crippling lack of response—their own. According to the Consumer Pulse survey, only 35% received a response the last time they provided customer feedback, and only 39% of them were satisfied with the response.

That is a reality that can truly damage the customer experience. Customers see satisfaction surveys as an immensely important springboard for improving brand relationships. They want to see that brands are recognizing—and responding to—their positive and negative feedback.

When companies refrain from responding, it not only sends the message that surveys are irrelevant but also, more broadly, shows that the company is not actually structuring its business model on the needs and wants of its customers.

A customer-centric brand jumps at the chance to engage with survey respondents because doing so provides access to a more vivid, three-dimensional picture of its current success and failures. It better contextualizes how well their internal strategies are translating into a desirable customer experience.

The majority of brands evidently do not possess that customer centricity. They do not understand the importance of empowering the customer and see no value in even assuring the customer that his thoughts were read or heard. They, evidently, are content to let the customer believe that their relationship begins and ends when the credit card is swiped.

With expectations of customer service on the rise, it is no longer sufficient to operate in formality. It is on longer sufficient to use incentive tactics to get enough customer insights to fill an Excel spreadsheet no one will ever open. Legitimate customer engagement is king, and the brands that can demonstrate how much they value that engagement are the ones who will reign supreme.

Best of all, customers, more often than not, see inherent value in establishing that communication chain with brands. There is no burden or uphill battle when it comes to getting the feedback, and so the only barrier to true customer centricity is the philosophical acceptance of engagement as a pathway to a successful customer experience.

Your customers want to talk. They want to help you. It’s time to let them do so.