Talent Management Solutions

Anatomy of a Complete Customer Feedback Program


Implementing an effective customer feedback project requires planning, dedication, and follow-through. The process is not rocket science, however. We have outlined the steps for you below.

Step 1 - Planning and Resource Allocation

Before rushing ahead with a customer survey, it is important to plan the entire project and make sure you have the resources and buy-in to see the project through to completion. These are the things you need to do upfront to ensure success later.
  1. Get senior management support and lay the groundwork for success. If your CEO shows that he is committed to customer satisfaction and communicates the importance of this to all employees, you will have a much easier time getting them to cooperate throughout the life of the project.
  2. Identify and approach the key stakeholders. Make sure all the right people are on board and know what you are up to. Solicit their input and make them a part of the project. The more you involve them, the more they will cooperate with you and provide the support you need for success.
  3. Outline the customer follow-up process. Decide how you want to follow up with customer issues. Who will be responsible for handling dissatisfied customers? How will the process be carried out and how will you ensure there is accountability for this? Be sure to communicate this with the key stakeholders - better yet, have them help you with this step.
  4. Plan how you will use the results. People will be more willing to help you if you let them know that your project will not be a waste of their time. Prepare a time line and let everybody know how you will be using the results of your survey.
Step 2 - Survey Design and Implementation

Proper survey design is the heart of the project. We deal with this topic in much greater detail here. Below is a brief outline of the key steps from design to implementation.
  1. Design your survey. With the help of key stakeholders, create an outline of the product or service that you are collecting feedback on. Identify the key aspects of every step of the process, from initial contact with the customer to completion of the transaction. From this outline, put together a list of survey questions that relate to each. Keep the survey as short as possible, but be sure you are covering all the key components.
  2. Identify follow-up paths. For each component or question in your survey, identify who should be responsible for responding to customer issues. Any time a customer indicates dissatisfaction, you should have a means of following up with that customer to see if there is some way to address the issue.
  3. Communicate to all stakeholders. Before you launch the survey, make sure everybody is on board and knows what he or she is expected to do as part of your feedback project.
  4. Launch your survey. Communicate to your customers via email or by whatever means is most effective for you. Invite them to give feedback and let them know that this is an opportunity for them to address any concerns or problems they had with your company. Let them know that their satisfaction is your top priority and make sure they know that their feedback will make a difference.
Step 3 - Analyzing the Results and Taking Action

Soon after your launch, you will be able to start performing some preliminary analysis of the data and the overall effectiveness of the project. Don't wait to long to look at the details of both of these things.
  1. Initial data analysis. Look for problem areas that show up early in your survey results. If you notice some initial themes developing, you might take the opportunity to address those issues right away. Keep in mind that in many cases, the data will be skewed negatively because dissatisfied customers are generally more likely to offer feedback than satisfied customers.
  2. Follow-up paths Early on, you should make sure that the follow-up paths are working as intended for any dissatisfied customers. Monitor this and make sure the right people are getting back to customers in an attempt to either resolve their issues or gather more information on why they were not happy.
  3. "Final" data analysis Ideally, your customer feedback project will be ongoing, so there may be no real "final" analysis of the results, but after a reasonable length of time, you should perform some more detailed analysis of the results, communicate these results to employees, and start taking action to fix any problems. Be sure to take a close look at the following:
    • Customer comments and trends within those comments. This is your chance to identify the specific areas that are causing dissatisfaction.
    • What matters most to customers. The correlations between "overall satisfaction" and each of the items in your survey will give you valuable insight into the issues that matter most to your customers and will help you focus your change efforts in the areas where they are most needed. For a detailed explanation of this topic, click here.
  4. Measuring progress. After you have implemented changes to improve customer satisfaction, go back a few months later and see whether your customers' satisfaction has improved as a result of your efforts. Make sure you communicate the improvements with employees to let them know that their efforts are paying off. For any areas where there are still problems, keep working on ways to fix those problems. You should repeat this process periodically (e.g. every quarter or 6 months).



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