Web sites make great feedback forums
All companies experience customer service breakdown. It happens - at least sometimes. The important next step then is to communicate with the customers and correct the problem. Not listening to them, and not correcting the mistakes, can be fatal. This is as true for the corner sandwich shop as it is for Fortune 500 e-commerce sites.
So how does an organization harvest customer feedback and put it to use?
What is emerging as the ideal medium for this exercise is the corporate web site. It offers customers an immediate opportunity to spout off, ask for help, or pay compliments. The cost of providing this venue to customers is a fraction of using traditional methods (mail or telephone) to survey customers.
In a recent AskTog column for Nielsen Norman Group, several valuable tips for collecting and acting on customer feedback online are offered. Thought it was worth paraphrasing for our customers here.
1. Give users an open and obvious way to offer complaints / suggestions.
2. Keep the form short: Just ensure you have their name and email address.
3. Give them room to write.
4. Train responding staff to handle criticisms, requests for help and suggestions appropriately.
5. Pass on the suggestions to your development team. They want them!
A majority of corporate sites today do not possess a valid customer service area that allows for feedback and suggestions.
What makes a Customer Feedback page on the company web site so magical? It is that extremely rare bird: a simple and economical solution to a very costly problem that can have long-term adverse effects for a company's brand image - and bottom line.
Just another good idea to chew on.