Customer feedback failiings harming customer satisfaction - study

Because a huge 90% of all customer feedback is never formally captured, the majority of UK brands are routinely failing to exploit input effectively in order to improve customer satisfaction levels.

According to software-as-a-service provider Managemycomplaints.com, this failure to record such invaluable information means that many organisations are simply unaware of the size scale and impact of their "feedback footprint" and are operating in a "feedback vacuum".

MMC marketing manager Andrew Aldred said: "Feedback can come from anywhere – the reception desk, the shop floor, online. However, most companies are failing to capture all of that feedback – good and bad. They are also missing out on the opportunity to make the most of the good feedback they are getting to help create a bigger and better feedback footprint."

As a result, Aldred recommended that marketers take a number of steps to try and improve the situation. The first was to obtain a "consumer’s eye view" of on- and offline feedback by undertaking a simple search of their brand and related brand terms using websites such as Google, Twitter and relevant industry review sites such as TripAdvisor in order to gain an immediate "snapshot" of the current state of play.

The second was not to rely exclusively on the information provided by customer comment cards and surveys, particularly because many consumers were suffering from survey fatigue. Instead, Aldred also recommended capturing ad hoc verbatim comments about the business and storing and analysing them centrally.

A third activity was to explore the potential of social media, while not forgetting to use offline input to provide more material to support and fuel online feedback, which taken together had the potential to generate big benefits. Simply asking customers to share their positive thoughts online was also an easy and cost-effective way to simply boost the amount of input available, Aldred said.