Customer Experience

Responding to Negative Feedback

The negative feedback arena is vast because it embraces customers and employees — the lifeblood of every business — but is it an essential consideration with all else going on? “Essential” is an understatement; crucial is more to the point. Reacting to peoples’ comments about missteps in your operations can be a blessing in disguise. Why? Because it connects directly to the two most significant ROI obstructions — customer and employee churn. Negative feedback is generally the tip of a massive discontent iceberg creating employee resignations and spurring loyal customers to jump across to the competitors’ brands. As they say, there’s no smoke without a fire. Ignore the former, and the latter can rage out of control. Now, to be clear, negative feedback from both employees and customers doesn’t necessarily come together. Indeed, it may be one or the other. It’s entirely possible to have a happy staff environment while customers abandon ship left, right, and center — or vice versa. Whether it’s double trouble or one-dimensional, the more you know about it, the better. The more resolutely you respond to negative feedback, the greater are your chances of sustaining a bottom line that meets stakeholders’ expectations. The implications of ignoring negative customer feedback U.S. companies are losing a staggering $35.3 billion annually due to customers shifting to a competitive brand for avoidable reasons. Even scarier, American Express discovered that 33% of one’s customer base is exceptionally fickle. It takes only one disappointing customer experience (CX) to get them to […]