Feedback & Customer Loyalty

The clients value relies more on the fact that you are going to help them on their business.

Tracie,

Glad to hear that LP is heading in the right direction. :)

Try being proactive after being reactive. Does that make sense? For example, a month or two after a ticket is closed, pick a few random ones and send the customer a note asking “Just checking in to make sure everything is okay with your Lunarpages account” or even better, call them. I guarantee it’ll impress them.

Other things you can do is have an open feedback form (I posted about this on my blog – email me if you’d like the link) or an easy way for customers to provide feedback. I know you guys have something, but I don’t think it’s dead obvious like it needs to be. It needs to be in the customer’s face all the time.

If customers post on the feedback forum or are at a point where they are dealing with retentions, it’s too late. You need to get to them before that happens. Squash the problem before it occurs and it’ll save everyone (customer and company) time and headaches.

Keep up the good work guys! It’s the little things like these that are the toughest to do!

Amy,

That’s why I included the “at least concisely thinking about it” bit. I thought losing sleep over it was kind of cruel. They wouldn’t want to affect your beauty sleep!

Appreciate the compliments! Glad it was helpful!

Great post.

In this day and age, though, simply being reactive to feedback isn’t good enough. Companies need to be proactive in seeking feedback, complaints, and suggestions.

As crazy as it sounds, companies need to ask, or even demand that their customers complain! They need to try and pry every little annoyance out of them. Some of them are easy to fix and can be fixed immediately – others are harder to fix and be considered for later.

Responding to feedback is tough. It simply isn’t about a “Hi, we got your email” type response. That doesn’t cut it anymore, especially in competitive industries. Customers want to hear your pain because they aren’t happy and they want to know what you are going to do about it. They want to see you post about their pain and fix it.

Obviously, that can’t be done for every issue, but the point is customers need to feel that you take their issue just that seriously. They want to know that you, Amy, Chad, and Ron are losing sleep over it, or at least concisely thinking about it. If they know that, they know they are in good hands and that Lunarpages cares.

Perhaps the whole thing could be better described as “Let the person know that her issue and her as a customer are extremely important and Lunarpages is dedicated to making their experience the best it can be.”

Company B seems to be a great organization. Their support is reactive, which is usually “acceptable.” They handle it well, which probably boosts them up a grade or two. Company A isn’t even reactive, which makes them “bad.” Imagine if there was a Company C, though, that called you once every few months and said “Tracie, I’m just calling to make sure you are happy with Company C. We value your business and want to make sure you are 100% satisfied.” Wouldn’t that be a “great” company?

Customer service, in its best, is proactive instead of reactive. If they can make the process like that, where Lunarpages is actively trying to improve and letting customers know about its efforts, they will grow to appreciate the company more.

You don’t necessarily have to be perfect, but the customers want to know that you are on the case and that you are trying. If they know that, they will be happy. If they are happy, they’ll continue to refer you to their friends, family, and colleagues.

That was much more philosophical than my average writings. Hopefully it made sense!