Benefit from customer feedback
Article Date: Nov 01 2005
Address negative feedback immediately
As director of the painting and decorating division of construction company Axis Europe, Joe Ibrahim wanted to find a way of measuring how his business was performing and created a customer feedback programme as one way of finding out.
‘We devised a questionnaire for clients and we kept it tightly focused on the areas we wanted to measure,’ he explains. ’One question, for example, was, "Did the painters tidy up to your satisfaction?" The possible answers we offered clients were simple: either "yes" or "no" or a satisfaction rating which ranged from one to ten and used faces going from scowls to smiles.
‘Any strong negative feedback is immediately investigated, but otherwise we look at all the feedback from the jobs we've done half-yearly, present the findings on pie charts and search for any trends.’
The responses have not all been complimentary. Initially around a third of Axis’ clients said contractors were not tidying up enough after themselves, so this was addressed as a matter of urgency.
To use feedback as a way of improving the division, Ibrahim has monthly meetings with staff where they discuss customer satisfaction, performance and where the company is going.
For anyone setting up their own feedback project, Ibrahim suggests starting simply and developing your methods as you go along. ‘You won’t get everything right straight away, but you should always address negative feedback immediately as it can actually win business for you in the long term. Make it as easy as possible for customers to provide feedback, but don’t be disappointed when not everyone is keen to; 30 per cent is a good return.’
