If you’ve ever received an email asking for feedback on a call that you made 3 months ago, you know how frustrating it is. Even if you thought that the call was amazing at the time, how are you expected to remember the details of the conversation?
Any information that may have been useful to the company has disappeared from your mind and they’ve lost the perfect opportunity to gather your feedback and use it.
Capturing feedback in real-time isn’t just important in making sure that your customers can remember their interactions with you. Answering in real-time also lets customers know that their responses are valued and stops any negative feedback from spreading through word of mouth or any online channels.
Improve the accuracy of the feedback
It’s still disputed by psychologists as to how much information we can store, for how long and how accurate our brains are at recalling this information after periods of time. Some research even suggests that it is possible to plant false memories into people’s minds which cause lasting effects on their behaviour.
The bottom line is that not only are our memories flawed but that they also have an influence on our behaviour. By asking for feedback soon after the customer has interacted with your company, you’re not only ensuring that the information is reliable, but that the overall memory that they have of your brand is positive. This makes them more likely to return to you in the long run.
Show customers that their feedback is valued
According to Customer Thermometer, 68% of customers leave a business because they believe that the company is indifferent to them and their opinions. By asking for feedback straight away you’re showing customers that you have an interest in what they say and value their opinion. This will make them feel more involved in the company as a whole and make them more likely to remain as loyal customers.
Improve service more quickly
Put simply, if you receive your feedback quickly then you can act on it a lot faster. If a waiter receives a complaint from a customer, they will resolve it straight away and get the chef to resolve the issue with the food. Within your business you should strive to be as reactive as this.
If you know that there is a problem within your contact centre, you can head down there and try and resolve it immediately, before another customer has the same problem. Make sure that all department managers have access to incoming feedback so that they can resolve any issues quickly.
Stop the spread of negativity on social media
It’s very rare that customers ring down to the front desk of a hotel to complain. These days, they’re more likely to complain on social media, which is exactly what baseball player Chipper Jones did when his air conditioning and TV broke and he found that his bed was uncomfortable in the Grand Hyatt Hotel New York.
The Marketing Coordinator found this complaint on Twitter straight away and actioned it for the Front Office Managers to resolve. The TV and air con was fixed and Chipper Jones posted that the issues had been fixed. This not only meant that a customer’s problem was resolved, but that his social media complaint was nipped in the bud and was prevented from escalating.
By keeping tabs on your social media and responding to any complaints quickly, it not only makes the customer happy but means that the problem won’t get even worse or influence other potential customers.
Help you make other marketing decisions
Many companies are now using real-time experience tracking so that they can figure out what type of advertisements work and which don’t. When Schweppes brought Abbey Well they did exactly that and found out within a week that the most successful advertisements had a “Schwim Free” offer that allowed those with Abbey Well bottle caps free entry to swimming pools on a Monday. Over the next year, sales grew by 35%.
By using real-time feedback on a range of tester adverts, you can quickly figure out which ones work and which don’t and implement this into a long term marketing strategy. It’s likely that there’ll be similarities between the adverts that work and as a result you’ll be able to develop effective campaigns more quickly in the future.
There’s not just one benefit to real-time feedback
Real-time feedback isn’t just useful in the moment, by utilising strategy in a range of different ways it can help you to improve a business in the long term by bringing insightful feedback to each department.
