Turning Feedback Into Action

I love Trefoils. Thin Mints are a close second (and apparently the top seller nationwide). Every year my family looks forward to Girl Scout cookies. We buy a bunch of cookies, yet they have a tendency to disappear very quickly.   

My family has a tradition of girl scouting. My mother was a scout, I was a scout, and my nieces are girl scouts. Given that tradition combined with my love of Trefoils, one could say that I am Truly Loyal. 

Imagine my excitement to learn there is a new Customer Loyalty badge for Girl Scouts. "Girls told us they want more challenge, and we've responded with substantive, focused, fun new badge offerings that will prepare girls for lifelong success," said Kathy Cloninger, Chief Executive Officer, Girl Scouts of the USA. 

The new badge is part of the Senior Scout Cookie Business badge. According to the Girl Scout website, their Cookie Program prepares girls for their future by developing business building skills such as goal setting, decision making, and people skills.

To earn a badge, a scout goes through a five-step test to prove her knowledge on the topic. In this case, she will know how to build her cookie business by increasing customer loyalty. 

Although I wasn’t able to find the specific requirements for earning the customer loyalty badge, I was reminded of a Walker client who developed a training program for their employees.  At the end of the training, each participant needed to prove their knowledge on the topic.  A certification exam was used to “earn the badge” for Customer Loyalty. Incorporating the exam into the training ensures employees understand both the importance of customer feedback and how to act on that information. 

I can’t wait for Girl Scout cookie time to see how the Customer Loyalty effort impacts their Cookie Program! In the meantime, should you consider a Customer Loyalty badge for your associates?

Kitty Radcliff
Vice President

Today an Indianapolis Star article began with, “The machines ARE taking over.” 

According to the article, mobile phone use continues to grow, to the point there are now more mobile devices than human beings in the United States. In fact, some estimate mobile phone penetration is already at more than 80% globally.

Steve Largent, president of CTIA reinforces the importance of mobile devices, “Clearly, we’re using wireless more every day, and the consensus of experts is that demand will continue to skyrocket by more than 50 times within the next five years.”

As customer strategists, we need to pay attention. We have to consider the ramifications on how we gather customer feedback now and in the future. It is very likely that some of your customers are already using (or trying to use) smart phones for your Customer Listening effort. 

Take the impact of mobile devices into account for your 2012 Customer Program program to improve the customer experience: 

·         Make certain the survey system recognizes when a mobile device is being used.  

·         Ensure the survey format adjusts so that mobile users find it easier to navigate through the questionnaire.

·         Consider survey length and assess the need to have alternate paths depending on the type of technology being used. 

Some early research suggests that drop off rates are in line with traditional online respondents, however, given the nature of mobile phone use and potential connectivity issues, I recommend that you consider the experience from your customer’s perspective.   It’s even more critical to make sure the survey is relevant and keeps your customer engaged.

Our technology at Walker recognizes mobile users and has the ability to adjust the survey/research accordingly. Your Walker account team can help you with survey content. What are you waiting for? 

Kitty Radcliff
Vice President, Consulting Services 

Communication is critical for any Voice-of-the-Customer initiative.  Getting customers to participate, sharing information & insights, and making improvements in the customer experience – all require communication. 

Once you have defined the audience (see this blog), the next step is to craft the message.   Ideally the message will make your key point without overwhelming the audience with information. 

We recommend this simple, yet effective process to craft the message: 

1. First, identify the single most important thing you want to convey. That’s the primary message.
2. Then, think about any secondary messages that might be part of the communication. What are the other things – though not at as important, but still need to be mentioned?
3. Lastly, refine your message. Think about whether the communication will prompt the action you want. Also, be sure you’re not covering too many points.  Edit as needed.

A carefully crafted message will communicate your key point and prompt action.    

Kitty Radcliff
Vice President, Consulting Services 

 Take a look at this email example - does it look at all familiar?

Ok, maybe my example is a bit extreme, but is it that farfetched? Sometimes a customer experience team will simply send a message to everyone in the organization with all of the information and details included.   Sure, that’s easy. But, a mass message can get lengthy and is typically not as successful as sending a targeted message to a specific group. (If there is too much information or a long list of action items the critical message gets lost.)

We recommend that you focus communications to have the most impact. To do that, you first need to define the audience. Consider the following: 

1.    Who are the potential audiences for this communication?

2.    What are they focused on from a strategic perspective? 

3.    What actions do you hope will result from the communication? 

Understanding what is important to the potential audiences, along with what you really want them to do, can help narrow in on who you need to target.  Going through this process to define the audience is the first step in communicating for action! 

Kitty Radcliff
Vice President, Consulting Services 

Once again, Willow Creek Association put on a tremendous Global Leadership Summit last week. As soon as Len Schlesinger started his presentation, I knew I was in for a whirlwind of new ideas and different ways of thinking. As President of Babson College (ranked #1 business school for entrepreneurship by U.S. News & World Report); former Harvard Professor; and noted author, he is an entrepreneurial genius. 

In the 1990’s, he and his co-authors helped us better understand how to build profitability in a service business via The Service Profit Chain (1997). Per Harvard Business Review, the service-profit chain established relationships between profitability, customer loyalty, and employee satisfaction, loyalty, and productivity.

More recently, Len Schlesinger has been focused on using entrepreneurship in all kinds of settings to create economic and social value. His book Action Trumps Everything (2010) makes the case that conventional approaches to problem-solving don’t work as well in an uncertain world.

Instead, a very simple framework used by successful entrepreneurs can be more effective: Act. Learn. Repeat.

1)      Act: Take a small step forward.

2)      Learn: Pause to see what you have learned by doing so.

3)      Repeat: Incorporate that learning into what you do next.

At Walker, we know that taking action can be one of the biggest challenges faced by customer strategists. I suspect that is due in part to our tendency to set aggressive, stretch goals that may at times seem unachievable. This can lead to inaction. But, what if we didn’t try to solve world hunger from the onset? 

What if we make a decision to just do something that might have a small impact? 

1)      Act: Take a small step. 

2)      Learn: After taking that first step, see what customers think and say about it in your customer feedback program. 

3)      Repeat: Then, incorporate that learning into your action plan and take another step forward.

Do we make the idea of taking action more difficult than it needs to be? 

Kitty Radcliff
Vice President, Consulting Services 

Did you see that right away? You know, the extra “e” in details? If you did, you’ll appreciate this… If you didn’t see it, then you may need to really take this message to heart! 

I am one of those people who can get side tracked when I see a typo or similar kind of mistake. As soon as I see it, I want to fix it. 

Imagine my horror when I saw a typo on a communication for a company that specializes in helping their customers use perfect English in marketing materials and other business writing. 

The typo was ironic, and obviously not what they wanted prospective customers to see.   

For you and me, a typo in our customer strategy communications might simply be embarrassing. For this company, the typo could have negatively impacted their business. 

Fortunately their typo has been fixed. They are now presenting the message they want to send clients and prospects in their communications. Are you?

Kitty Radcliff
Vice President 

Be FAT. Flexible. Adaptable. Teachable. That’s all they asked of us – a group of people participating on a mission trip to Haiti. That’s all they asked, but it wasn’t always easy.

We came together from all walks of life – families, students, doctors, nurses, managers, a lawyer, and consultants. Individually, none of us would be able to handle the task before us. Together, we could make a difference for Nehemiah Vision Ministries and the people of Haiti. We could make an impact; we just needed to be FAT. 

Flexible: We didn’t know what we would be doing when we applied for the trip. (It ended up being medical mission providing people living in IDP camps with much needed medical treatment and medicine.) 

Adaptable: We needed to adapt to whatever situation we were in. The campus was completely full when we arrived. Some of us slept in bunk beds, others on cots. I didn’t expect to sleep on the top bunk, but I did! (Even though it had been more years than I want to admit since I slept on a top bunk…)

Teachable: We did things we have never done before – helping the medical professionals, building shelves, organizing a thrift shop, and cooking dinner for over 100 people. You just had to be willing to learn and pitch in.

Those same traits – being FAT – are important for our Customer Experience Teams too. 

We Need to be Flexible: In my experience, every customer listening initiative ends up having some surprises or hiccups along the way. It’s important to not be too rigid. The process may need to change, the schedule may need to change, survey questions may need to change or the way we share information and insights may need to change.   

We Need to be Adaptable: We need to adapt to the situation, which might mean adapting improvement priorities, action plans, and customer strategies. 

We Need to be Teachable: We need to be willing to learn new skills, to leverage new technologies, and to consider new ways to improve the customer experience. 

I sure hope all of my team members think I’m FAT!

Kitty Radcliff
Vice President 

At this time of year we often have a chance to reflect and celebrate milestones in our lives.  In May, many celebrated as high school seniors began the transition to college by attending their high school graduation ceremony. June is still the most popular month for weddings, where we celebrate the blessed union of the happy couple. That also means many couples celebrate their wedding anniversary in June (usually with more fanfare for key milestones like the 50^th anniversary).

Have you taken the time to celebrate the key milestones of your customer strategy initiatives? Recently one of my clients reflected on the evolution of their effort to delight customers. Some key events along the way have lead to their current success, including:

-        Making the decision to gather customer feedback

-        Implementing an event-based program, followed shortly thereafter with a relationship assessment

-        Making some progress, but realizing there was not broad application

-        Recognizing the need for a partner to help design a best-in-class solution

-        Getting other departments involved with the redesign effort

-        Engaging an executive sponsor to ensure strategic focus

-        Using technology to get the word out

-        Be prepared to take action through ownership and accountability

As the nasty red blob heads your way, the national weather service already has a plan in place to communicate with you – and to reinforce the message about the impending storm.  Likewise, a communication plan should be a key element of your Customer Strategy.  An often overlooked step in communicating with customers, partners, and employees is to reinforce the message. This step is every bit as important as defining your audience, crafting the message, and choosing the right vehicle(s). 

It struck me as a powerful storm came through Indiana this past week - another in the increasing list of dangerous storms that have hit the U.S. recently. This particular storm was determined to be a “potentially dangerous situation” and had a history of tornados. Local weather forecasters did everything possible to get the word out and convey the need to take shelter.

The message was reinforced in many ways throughout the event. Television stations broadcasted the live radar. Radio stations reported on the situation across the state. Tornado sirens sounded in neighborhoods. Websites communicated the information online. And, news stations sent text and email alerts.  It was critical that people were aware and prepared. 

As a customer strategist, you need to do your due diligence to ensure your message is reinforced. Whatever you do, don’t just deliver your message and walk away. The message needs to be consistent and reinforced in order to really have an impact. Consider some of the following best practices:

-          Use multiple communication vehicles

-          Send follow-up messages

-          Provide status or progress reports

-          Ensure leadership actively supports the effort (when appropriate)

Positive reinforcement just might make the difference in taking action and achieving your goals – what are you waiting for? 

Kitty Radcliff
Vice President 

My 16 year old stepson recently posted this video on his Facebook page about Marcel the Shell with Shoes On:  www.youtube.com/watch 

To tell the truth, I thought it was odd the first time I watch it. The questions that came to mind include "Why did he post the video? Does he actually like the video? Or, is it just that it is different?" 

Then I watched it again. Wait a minute – that was funny. Oh, that part was a bit disturbing. One more time.  Hmm... This is actually very funny.

What in the world does this have to do with customer listening? In addition to simply enjoying the humor, there are a few lessons we can apply to our role as customer strategists:      

·         Be aware that your team members bring different skills and experiences to the table. I would likely never have seen this video if it wasn’t for having Drew in my life.

·         Be open to different ways of thinking. For me, that meant watching the video multiple times to get past my initial reaction to be able to recognize the brilliance of the humor.

·         Be creative.  Marcel's pet is a piece of lint, which is a creative solution to not having a pet.  How might you adapt or change up your processes/procedures to do things in new ways?

Jenny Slate, the voice and genius, behind Marcel clearly has a different perspective and take on things. 

What can you learn from the different perspectives of others on your Customer Experience Team?

Kitty Radcliff
Vice President 

Walker is participating in the local ISC Corporate Challenge this weekend, with events ranging from competitive runs to a team tug-of-war. Several colleagues and I have been training for the five mile competitive run. 

As the event approaches, it seems appropriate to ask myself:

•  Am I ready? Yes! I have the right gear.
   
• Am I set? Yes! I have trained to run at least five miles.
   
• Will I go? Yes! I will be off and running when the gun goes off signaling the start of the race.

Recently I met with an organization that had some tough questions in their quest to create customer value. Is their mission and strategy on track? Are they focused on the right things? Should they offer new services? Should they eliminate some services? We developed and implemented a customer listening program that answered these questions.

After all of their preparation, they should have been ready to take action. But they weren’t. Not really. 

When presented with the reality that some services were not as highly valued as anticipated, a few team members started redefining, recalibrating, and reworking the results. They are not ready to go forward and make changes. The team leaders had not anticipated resistance to change. It is a real barrier and they now need to regroup. 

Is your team ready to overcome potential challenges and barriers to acting on customer information?

Kitty Radcliff
Vice President 

Besides customers, there is nothing more important to customer strategists than our teams. Think of all the different things we do – plan, gather information, review it, communicate, refine customer strategies, and take action. We can’t do it alone. Our team needs to be organized for action. 

Unfortunately we can underestimate the need to coordinate with other people. This article by Dan Heath and Chip Heath in Fast Company reinforces why we often do not work well as a team. No one wants to "drop the baton" but it can happen if the team isn't coordinating with each other.

Be assured, it’s possible for teams to function well. I recently learned about W. L. Gore & Associates (known for GORE-TEX® fabric as well as many other products). They have been named to FORTUNE magazine’s list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” for the past 13 years.  (They are currently ranked #13). Their team approach is a big factor in their success. 

Terri Kelly, President and CEO notes "We recognize the importance of fostering a work environment where people feel motivated, engaged and passionate about the work they do." Time is spent conveying team objectives, as well as matching associates with projects that fit their skills. Watch this short video to get a better feel for how they operate: 



What a great reminder to foster teamwork with your Customer Advocacy Network!

Kitty Radcliff
Vice President 

Recently I had the privilege of visiting a client about their customer feedback program. A flight to Dallas and car rental was in order to make my way to their facility.
 
Perfect flight.  Perfect service.  Horrible car.  On the highway I realized there was no visibility when I wanted to change lanes. “Blind spot” is an understatement. I couldn’t see a thing. My colleague had to check the traffic to see if it was safe to change lanes. Truly it is amazing we didn’t get in an accident.

Afterwards, the car rental company sent a survey about the experience. Being in the customer strategy business, I shared my thoughts – the positive about the service and the negative about the car. The customer service area sent an email back in response. In theory this is good practice; I also encourage my clients to follow up on certain survey responses. 

However, no one took the time to review my feedback prior to sending that email. I had already provided input on why I was dissatisfied with the vehicle. Instead of asking me to reply to the email “If you would like to provide more feedback on why your rental was unsatisfactory” I wish they would have asked what the obstacles were to seeing out the driver’s side or how tall I am to understand if there are limitations to who should drive that type of car.   

At the end of the day, fortunately we made it home safely. I provided feedback to prevent an accident for someone else because they couldn't see other traffic. My hope is the rental car company cares enough to get past the task of follow-up -- to drive change and ensure the safety of other customers.  

Kitty Radcliff
Vice President
 

I’ll confess. Sometimes I add a task to my to-do list, something I actually just completed, simply to get the satisfaction of immediately crossing it off. I sometimes have those days that, no matter how hard I try, I feel I am not accomplishing anything on my list. So to help keep me motivated, I write it down and cross it off. 
 

I have to believe I am not the only one who sometimes needs a mental boost in the middle of a hectic day, week or project. It’s difficult at times to believe you are making progress when the list just seems to grow (or never get smaller).  There are times I have to remember that I may not accomplish one large task, but if I break it down into smaller steps that I can accomplish, I can then cross it off.

It is important for any individual or team tackling a large project to keep an eye on the end goal. However, it’s just as important to recognize the small steps that must be taken to reach that goal. When developing action plans based on customer feedback, keep the ultimate change in the forefront; however make sure to break down each step necessary to reach that goal. Document those and, if necessary, break those down into smaller actions for the team to tackle and cross off the list. Continuing to feel as though strides towards making a change are happening, will help keep everyone motivated and dedicated to the project. 

While at times a team (or I) may feel they are not able to accomplish anything on their list, most likely there is some task that has been or can be done to move one step closer to reaching the end goal (and crossing it off the list).

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
-John Wooden

Lauri Jones

Senior Analyst

One struggle that seems common among most companies that gather feedback from their customers is how to best understand and use unstructured feedback (often called verbatim comments). On one hand, these comments are often the best way to truly understand an individual situation, as some customers will provide paragraphs of information describing their issues, concerns, and improvement suggestions. People love these comments. However, sometimes users of feedback will latch onto one or two comments and consider those representative of the entire customer universe, which can be dangerous, and flat out incorrect.

The best use of feedback is a balanced approach using both quantitative feedback to understand trends, strengths, weaknesses, and areas driving future behaviors, while leveraging the qualitative feedback to drill deeper once the focus has been narrowed. Traditionally that has required sifting through comments to categorize them by theme, and then identify meaningful ones based on the kind of customer, their experiences, and the prominence of their voice in the eyes of executives. However, we’re entering an age where much more can be done with customer commentary.

Technologies have emerged recently, with some initial human-based teaching and support, will automatically categorize customer comments. What’s more, software can also convert the comment into a quantitative form of feedback based on the tone of the comment (positive, neutral, or negative).  Linking this to other information about customers (revenue, profitability, loyalty, and other items), may potentially open many doors that have not been visible in the past.

The one shortcoming of these technologies to this point has been the ability to properly handle sarcasm, a common tactic that humans use, particularly when displeased with something to add even more of a negative tone to a comment. Most humans can pick up and interpret quickly, while machines have been prone to taking the comments at face value, and thus misinterpreting them.

So, a comment like:

“Great idea, now try again with a real product development team!”

... would likely be determined by a computer program as a positive comment, but you and I know this is a slam on a company’s product development team.

Most of you have probably seen the recent advertisements from Domino’s Pizza announcing their pizza turnaround. They owned up to the fact that people just didn’t like their pizza and used feedback from customers to change their pizza recipe. To learn more, check out my colleague’s blog on this topic from January. 

I will be honest, prior to hearing about this change at Domino’s, it had probably been 10 years or more since I had even thought of calling Domino’s for delivery. But, I was intrigued by their creative advertising and confidence that if people gave them a second chance, the pizza would speak for itself. Our family gave it a shot and we really did like the pizza. In our opinion, it really was much better!

My family is not the only ones that have been drawn in by the new approach. Domino’s recently announced their Q1 earnings and they are posting a record quarter of growth based on same store sales in the U.S. What a great example of using the voice of the customer to shape business strategies and drive growth! 

The Walker Book Club is currently reading the Dan and Chip Heath book titled Switch.  (They wrote the book “Made to Stick.”)  One recommendation that resonates with me is to “Find the Bright Spots” aka the successful efforts worth emulating.
 
Perhaps the issue seems too big or has too many intertwined problems to easily find an effective solution.  In their malnourishment example, analysis points to poverty, sanitation, nutrition, and other potential causes that are not easily solvable.  Instead, they show that by investigating what mothers of healthy children were doing - the bright spots - they discovered key difference makers and implemented cooking classes for other mothers as a result. 

Finding bright spots and understanding what makes them different can help set the stage for change.  Thinking about your customer loyalty program, a bright spot could be:

• The Customer Service Representative who consistently resolves customer issues on the first call, when others require multiple contacts.
• The Account Manager who understands the business impact of following up on opportunities generated from their customer program and does it when others do not.
• The geo that improves customer perceptions, when all other geos have declining trends.

You may be aware of the bright spots in your program.  But, how much time do you spend to uncover the differences between the bright spots and the not so bright (or dark) spots?  What makes the bright spots bright?  And, what do you do once you understand the differences? 

Now, compare that to how much time and energy you spend trying to fix problems. I’m just saying… 

Kitty Radcliff
Vice President

Fast Company has an exclusive excerpt from the book. You can read it here.
 

I heard an interesting comment the other day that I’ll paraphrase here:

"Words are like containers. You put a bunch of meaning into your words; all wrapped up into a container and give the container to another person. That person opens the container, the words come out and you believe they hear the same meaning from those words that you put into them. But do they?”

 
How many times have I made a comment or statement that, in my mind, was completely innocent but the person I said it to, heard something different. The way they heard it gave them information that was different from what was intended, or caused them to take a different course of action than where I thought it would take them.

How does this relate to Customer Listening? Here are a few ways:

1. Writing the survey: Are the questions written pulled from the customers’ terminology or from the company’s viewpoint? Understanding how customers view interactions or describe interactions or experiences are important to understand and use so the subsequent feedback is truly from their viewpoint.
2. Internal and external communications: Are the communications long, full of detail and describing the process only, or are they concise, to the point, and describe the benefits of participating in the process? Not all communications can be succint, however, if they convey the right message of how the time and effort will pay off in the end, the subsequent action may be more positive.
3. Results dissemination: Are the results clear and concise, providing the account teams or functional teams absolute direction on what they should focus on to improve customers’ perceptions? When closing the loop with customers, are the top actions being undertaken clearly defined and described so customers know what is being done? 

Despite best efforts, I’m sure there will continue to be the occasional misinterpretation or misunderstanding of our words. However the more thought, consideration, and multiple viewpoints that go into survey design, communications, and results sharing may help prevent some of those misunderstandings and provide clearer courses of action for everyone to take to improve the customer experience.

Lauri Jones

Senior Analyst