Customer data leaving you frustrated? We often find ourselves with lots of numbers representing our customer feedback, but few actionable insights to create the ultimate customer experience. Knowing where to look to find these insights and how to communicate findings in a clear way will not only gain support internally, but will also place the customer at the center of your company’s culture.
We All Have Those Moments
Feel a bit uninspired about a task? In Greek mythology, one guy lived in this state perpetually: Sisyphus. Zeus punished him to roll a giant boulder up a mountain for eternity, only to watch it roll back down to the bottom after reaching the top. He had no hope of success, and nothing to show for his hard work. Sisyphus’s life consisted of nothing but useless efforts and ceaseless frustration.
You don't want to be this guy:
How to Avoid the Sisyphus State
You really care, so you send out carefully crafted surveys. You want to listen, so you monitor and collect data. But you might feel like there is more to be learned, and that you are ultimately missing something. Your customers are satisfied and could even be considered loyal. But are they engaged? After all your hard work gathering customer feedback data, are you still left with unanswered questions?
Here are two tips that can further guide you to enlightenment, and deliver powerful recommendations to senior leadership:
1. Listen to Your Employees: Your Silent Warriors
Sometimes we forget about the middle man – the frontline employees. If Sisyphus stopped staring at that huge rock and looked around, he might have found some help. Your employees are your most valuable resource, and measuring their own engagement is important to understanding what sort of experience they are delivering to your customers. The benefits are twofold!
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Front-Stage Improvements: If you measure employee engagement, you’ll get meaningful data and uncover potential barriers to delivering a great customer experience. Employees know the daily struggle that customers face on the front end, and can act as an early warning system, to help you understand where you should allocate more resources or attention.
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Back-Stage Improvements: Employees want to be heard and valued. What better way to include them than to actively involve them in improving the customer experience? Sharing insights from customer surveys can also spark conversations around the office, which can keep customer engagement top-of-mind for employees.
“Businesses often forget about the culture, and ultimately, they suffer for it because you can’t deliver good service from unhappy employees”
– Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
2. Find the "One Thing" to Reinforce Customer Centricity.
How great would it be if you could narrow down your focus to ONE action? How often is your to-do list only one line long?
Having a one-thing mindset will help your entire company focus on making waves in improving the customer experience.
Having a lot of data is great, and the insights that client satisfaction surveys give us are invaluable, but a good insight is nothing without great execution. Maybe if Sisyphus had taken a step back and focused on a clear way to stop the rock from rolling rather than counting all the reasons why the rock was rolling, he may have found himself in a slightly happier place.
Summing It All Up
So how can you avoid frustration and data that gets you nowhere?
Take a look at your surroundings and listen everywhere, not just through a customer survey. Consider identifying a singular, simple area of focus to bring your company closer to an actionable solution.
Ready to make some moves? Click on the link below to learn how to get the most out of your customer feedback.
~Becca Johnson
- "Achieving balance" by James Jordan courtesy of CC BY-ND 2.0
- "Myth of Sisyphus" by vintagedept courtesy of CC BY 2.0
