Your new washing machine is delivered. The delivery guys are two hours late and leave mud in the hallway. They don’t take the old machine with them. That same evening you receive an email: how satisfied are you with the delivery? You give a 4 and write down what went wrong. After that, you hear nothing. No phone call, no apology, absolutely nothing. When you need a dryer a year later, you go to a different store. Meanwhile, at the store, a report is on the table. Customers give an average of an 8, so in the MT meeting, everyone nods with satisfaction. Your 4 is in there too, but nobody looks at it. This is how it goes at many companies. Measuring works fine, but little is done with the answers. A shame, because feedback is only valuable if you act on it.
Why feedback ends up in a drawer It is usually not a lack of willingness. Research firm Forrester asked teams that conduct customer research how they work. Almost all of them (96 percent) regularly collect and analyze surveys. Yet only 42 percent say that colleagues actively ask for the results themselves. So the report is there, but not everyone is waiting for it. Where does it go wrong? Usually in one of these four areas:
The average hides the people. An 8 sounds good, but underneath are also customers who gave a 3 or a 4.
Nobody takes ownership. Everyone finds the numbers interesting, but nobody has the task to actually do something with them.
Too many action points emerge. A list of ten areas for improvement feels ambitious, but usually, none of them get done.
It takes too long. By the time the quarterly report is ready, the angry customer has already moved to a competitor. And the customer themselves? They only notice that nothing happens. Anyone who gives an honest answer twice and never hears back will skip the third survey.
Call the customer who gave a 4 The quickest win is with the customer who just gave a low score. Call that customer within 48 hours. And above all, listen: explaining how things work can be done later. Take the washing machine example. Someone from the store calls the next morning, apologizes, and asks exactly what happened. Then they arrange for the old machine to be picked up later that week after all. Such a conversation takes fifteen minutes. You won't always solve everything, but the customer notices that someone is listening. That can make the difference between leaving and staying. And staying pays off. Finding a new customer is much more expensive than keeping an existing one. According to Harvard Business Review, depending on the research and industry, it is 5 to 25 times more expensive. Do agree in advance on who makes the call. Preferably someone who can actually fix things, like the team leader of the branch where things went wrong. And make sure you see it immediately when a low score comes in, not just in the quarterly report.
Choose two points and assign a name Besides individual customers, you also see patterns in the answers. For example, customers constantly complain about late deliveries or an invoice that nobody understands. It’s tempting to tackle everything at once. Don't do that. Choose a maximum of two points per quarter that you will actually change. Assign a name and a date to each point. So not "customer service will improve the invoice", but "Sanne will arrange a clear invoice, no later than March 1st". A point without a name belongs to no one, and a point without a date always gets postponed. Discuss these two points in every MT meeting until they are truly finished. Don't ask what the current score is, but what has changed this month. That way, it doesn't just stop at satisfied nodding.
Measure again and tell what you changed After a few months, check if it yielded any results. Are the delivery guys arriving on time now? Do customers understand the new invoice? You don't need a massive study for that. See if the topic comes up less often in the open-ended answers. Or ask a short question to customers who just had a delivery. Are things still not improving? Figure out why before taking on a new point. Are things improving? Then tell your customers. Start with the people who complained about it: they pointed out the problem to you, so they should be the first to know. A short email is enough: what they said and what you changed because of it. Afterwards, put it in your newsletter or on your website too. This shows customers that their answers actually lead to something.
In short A great score means little if nothing happens afterwards. The customer who gave a 4 will be long gone by then. Following up on customer feedback doesn't have to be complicated. Call dissatisfied customers within 48 hours. Choose a maximum of two improvement points per quarter, with a name and a deadline. Check after a few months to see if things are going better. And tell your customers what you have changed. GrowPromoter gives you an immediate alert when a customer is dissatisfied and turns open answers into themes. Schedule a 30-minute demo if you want to see how that works.
Frequently asked questionsHow quickly should you call a dissatisfied customer? Preferably within 48 hours. The customer still remembers exactly what happened, and you can often still make things right. If you wait a few weeks, the customer might already be shopping elsewhere.Why only two improvement points per quarter? Because then you will actually finish them. With ten points at once, everything is left half-done. When one point is finished, you simply pick up the next one.What do you do if you cannot resolve a complaint? Be honest about it. Explain why it isn't possible right now and what you can do. For most customers, an honest answer is better than hearing nothing at all.
