A lot of businesses often pay a lot of, let’s just say, time or money to try to convince their customers to give them some valuable feedback, because with that, they can better understand their customers, correct any errors, as sometimes there are business oversights that you just never thought about, and the customers will be the first ones to tell you. And if you want to be able to grow, you need to listen to your customers, which got me thinking, because recently there was an example of a person who was wondering why he was potentially losing so many customers.
So one day, some people actually told him about some of the stuff that he should potentially fix. And while he was sitting there, I guess nodding his head and accepting the feedback, and what looked like he was writing it down, he mentioned he would actually come up with a plan, for example. But the funny thing is, it doesn’t seem like he was taking action immediately, even though it was kind of serious. He was doing what seems like a half-effort job. He’d be doing some stuff here and there, but wasn’t actually addressing the immediate concerns.
So it makes you wonder, when you are given some type of feedback or criticism from your customers, how long do you wait until you take action? Because many times, this could actually make it worse. If the customer knows that they provided you feedback and that you actually took it in, for example, and you didn’t take action, that kind of makes it worse than wondering if the company is actually listening to you, knowing that you already have those notes in front of you. In my opinion, you should be taking action right away, or at least keeping them updated that you are working towards some type of solution.
And I don’t mean, for example, “I’ll get back to you in a week or a month.” There should be some type of frequent update. But nowadays, for example, with social media, showing people some type of progress, what you’re working on, or if you’re trying to get more feedback — but just sitting on it for weeks and months, once people realize you have read their feedback, is just one way to destroy your reputation, in my opinion. If you get the feedback, treat it as gold, in my opinion.