Tell It Like It Is – 5 Reasons to Provide Feedback
We have all had experiences when dealing with companies that are either exceptional, or make you wonder how the business is still in existence. While there certainly is an enormous gap between mediocre companies and exceptional companies, there is typically one common thread across them all.
They actually want your feedback. The question is, would you take time out of your busy day to provide it to them, whether you had a great experience, or a not-so-great one. Here are some reasons why it is important, as a consumer, to provide feedback to businesses when you have had an interaction with them.
“While there certainly is an enormous gap between mediocre companies and exceptional companies, there is typically one common thread across them all. They actually want your feedback.”
- It promotes improvements in the customer experience. While some companies do not have sufficient processes or training in place to deal with feedback effectively, exceptional companies do, and they invest a lot of resources in developing them. Providing feedback tells them what to continue doing, what to stop doing, and what to improve on. The next time you, or someone you know, has an interaction with that business, your feedback will likely have shaped how that experience is going to feel. Evernote CEO, Phil Libin, tells inc.com in this article about the different types of feedback, and how companies can handle it.
https://www.inc.com/phil-libin/the-3-kinds-of-customer-feedback.html
“When any customer can just email the CEO, the company becomes pretty attuned to feedback.” Evernote CEO – Phil Libin
- Businesses invest a lot of money in developing a product or service, you can shape how that money gets spent. There are no businesses whose vision is to provide something that is mediocre. In giving feedback, you can feel good about the fact that you could be playing a role in how that product or service evolves, and if you are in a position where you need feedback on something you have done or created, you will appreciate it that much more.
Businesses exist to provide products and services, but more importantly, to provide employment. Feedback can have a significant impact on the life and success of employees, and in many cases, an employee’s compensation is affected by the feedback they receive. Providing constructive criticism can help them improve themselves, while providing positive feedback can reinforce that they are doing the right thing. This is most particularly important to them at performance review time.- Feedback is a catalyst for innovation. When companies receive feedback, they are able to make adjustments and create better and more innovative products and services. Innovation is what provides us, as consumers, with leading edge technologies and ground breaking services. The development of these things cannot be achieved without explicit knowledge of how consumers feel about them.
Feedback helps others with making decisions around products and services. It is about paying it forward. When other people know about your experience, they can make a more informed decision on whether or not they want to interact with the company. This article describes ways to give constructive feedback to a business, whether you loved the experience, or felt it could use a little “polishing”.
How to Give Constructive Feedback to a Company You Love (or Hate)
When companies only receive one form of feedback, positive or negative, it is only providing a portion of the picture. That said, this article that outlines, from a business’ perspective, why feedback is important, talks about the criticality of constructive criticism, and why it could be more important than positive feedback.
“Even though negative feedback may seem painful or unwanted at the time, it can actually help you out more than positive feedback in many cases.” Jennie
So, what are the best ways to provide your feedback? Here are some of the top choices.
- Customer Experience Surveys – Do them, they typically only take minutes
- Online Reviews – Go to online review sites, the company’s website, or use mobile apps that are designed for consumer reviews and enter your feedback of a product or service. Some of the main sites for this are:
- Provide a testimonial. Email it to your contact at the company, enter it on their website, or email it to a general info email address. Testimonials can be a great way to thank a company for providing exceptional service.
Facebook Likes / Comments / Shares. Many people do not realize that you do not see every post from every company page that you ‘Like’. Over time, you will only see the business posts that you interact with, which can be in the form of “Liking”, “Sharing”, or “Commenting” on a post from a company. Doing this is a great form of feedback, and perhaps one of the most prolific forms from a company’s perspective.- Twitter Retweets. Following a company on Twitter and Retweeting their posts is a great way to provide indirect feedback. It indicates that you like what the company does, and support their products and services. It also gives you great access to unique deals and offers that others may not see.
Perhaps you can start by providing some feedback on this blog post, by sharing it, liking it, or doing both…
Luke Bazely is co-founder of Driverseat Inc., a personal transportation company.
