Business

The capital in feedback for your company

The Caffè Nero 'Voice of Nero' initiative is a great example of how companies can learn from inviting feedback
The Caffè Nero 'Voice of Nero' initiative is a great example of how companies can learn from inviting feedback The Caffè Nero 'Voice of Nero' initiative is a great example of how companies can learn from inviting feedback

AS a service designer, I’m of the mind that feedback is a good thing; that if someone risks verbalising what they’re thinking, it’s to be welcomed and appreciated. Essentially, it’s insight into the customer experience and the opportunity to see the business from their side.

As a business owner, seeing into the heart of your own business from the outside is not easy, or sometimes even possible. The level of personal investment and hard work it takes to run a business, means feedback can feel like criticism.

It is, however, the opportunity to gauge what is and isn’t working and why, which is why great businesses invest a lot in getting feedback with the intent of learning from it. And really great businesses, like Apple, make feedback the driver of their future choices and decisions.

I look for feedback at every turn to help me understand the blind spots that I can never see as a business. Mindful of this, I have always tried to give feedback but it is rarely received well. More often than not, I am told: 'we’ve never had any complaints before’. At which point, I often express that I am gently saying something in that very moment. Regardless, I tend to walk away feeling berated for trying to help, but I do because saying nothing feels wrong.

The reality is that most people are generally reluctant to say anything, but instead make a mental note not to return to that business. They will certainly not recommend others go there. This is the worst case scenario, because if one customer thought this way, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that others did too and didn’t say anything. Essentially, this is a missed opportunity to fix something for the people your business serves. Not to mention future customers.

There are, however, some great examples to learn from. For almost a year Caffè Nero have been running their 'Voice of Nero': an invitation to become part of an exclusive panel of customers whose feedback is sought. Feedback can range from general views to testing a new idea about Nero. Customers who sign up have the opportunity to voice opinion and contribute to shaping the brand.

This is a great example on many levels of what businesses need to be doing. Essentially, in asking feedback in this way, they are illustrating the importance they place on the customer and their experience. And in doing so, as a customer, makes me actually want to feedback. Nero are also a great example of businesses who pay mind to both the experience and transformation economy.

The latter will start to surface more and more in the future, where customers seek more than mere experience. In the future they will wish to connect on the most personal level, and have a meaningful relationship with the brand that results in a dialogue and co-creation.

It’s not just good business practise to seek feedback, in today's economy it is vital to survival. We no longer live in a world where customer tastes are static. The opposite is true, they are changing rapidly, so business survival will depend on keeping apace with customers.

In service design feedback is captured to understand what the customer not only says and does, but also what they think and feel about the business.

Understanding their emotional experience can help get to the heart of problematic blind spots and inform necessary actions to solve an underlying problem. Turning valuable insights into key actions keeps customers engaged and coming back. It enhances the chances of changing something that can really count.

:: Elizabeth Meehan (info@coffeenosugar.co.uk) trained as a service designer in Milan and has a PhD in Sociology from Queen's University. She strives to educate businesses about the changing economy and the challenges this brings.