I read a great piece yesterday entitled “Five Ways to Learn Nothing From Your Customers’ Feedback” and truly found it important and useful not just from “customers” feedback but it is beyond time to realize that our employees are our biggest customers and the learnings from this article should be applied to employees as well. Here are five takeaways from the HBR article that we need to all learn from as we shift our HR and our Workplace 2020 strategy from one that is inward facing vs. outward facing going forward.
1 .Organizations that take feedback and turn it into scores, percentages and averages – AND STOP THERE! – It is crucial to link specific feedback to specific behavior and not mask that behind a vague set of numbers. While the overall score might look good, the GOLD comes from the tying and linking specific comments to specific actions aligned with your overall Workplace 2020 strategy. We need to not get lost in a series of numbers and analysis and communicate in specifics and prescriptive actions, both positive and negative, that will help all of the organization learn from customers (yes, I am talking employees) feedback.
2. Holding, and not communicating the feedback – Time is of the essence when it comes to feedback. We live in an era where our measure should be NOW and not a measure of the PAST. Sentiment and real-time access to feedback, customer “employee” comments and the reporting in real-time without any “holding” of the feedback until it is scrubbed, analyzed and cleaned up. The time that it takes to perform those functions are the “magic moments” or “moments of truth” where something can be done to take action. If not shown and visualized in a timely, real time manner, it is nothing but watered down HISTORY.
3. Most customer feedback (as you know now by reading this,employee feedback) is delivered in a manner that eliminates the human voice. While we all agree it is easier to score and deliver results based on scoring, analytics and ratings – it completely LOSES THE HUMAN VOICE. We are asking questions that we think that we want to know but in most cases not asking the important questions that are on the employees minds. While there is room for feedback in some employee surveys, they are at the bottom of the survey and for the most part, ignored when scoring. WE CANNOT LOSE THE HUMAN VOICE even though trying to focus on numbers and metrics (see #1). Let your employees share feedback in open, honest and transparent ways and you will be guaranteed actionable items that will make a difference delivering services in the long run.
4. If there is A LOT AT STAKE BY GETTING A GOOD SCORE, more than likely you will get a good score and you might as well make up the numbers yourself. Aligning compensation to numbers will often lead to behaviors that are maniacal to reach the numbers and are not overall customer-focused. By putting too much focus on compensation, we subject ourselves to a debate about the basis of the score every time either compensation is too high or the overall scores are too low.
5. Never, Never, Never close the loop with customers (employees). Most feedback historically has been conducted in a manner that is anonymous. The data was collected in “market research mode” where no one could specifically follow up with employees to address issues directly. We did this thinking that people would not give feedback if it was not kept secret. In today’s world of transparency and sharing, people want to be heard. They want their feedback to be acknowledged. They want to know the last time they invested in sharing feedback was acted on. CLOSING THE LOOP is essential to build lasting relationships and it is an invaluable opportunity to dig deeper into details of overall customer sentiment.
A few closing comments that tie back to the top 5 mentioned above:
We live in an era that Workplace 2020 will cause a need to rethink how we imagine, delivery and measure customer and employee feedback in a real-time/transparent manner. The best technology will not solve for this; your thought leadership and a changing of the lens to drive a outward in view vs a inward out strategy is a must moving into 2014. If you need help thinking through this, never be afraid to ask.
Another infusion of knowledge…
Article source:Jason Averbook - Creating a Customer/Employee Feedback Strategy – What NOT To DO!»
Check out more of Jason Averbrook's work at hisblog
1 .Organizations that take feedback and turn it into scores, percentages and averages – AND STOP THERE! – It is crucial to link specific feedback to specific behavior and not mask that behind a vague set of numbers. While the overall score might look good, the GOLD comes from the tying and linking specific comments to specific actions aligned with your overall Workplace 2020 strategy. We need to not get lost in a series of numbers and analysis and communicate in specifics and prescriptive actions, both positive and negative, that will help all of the organization learn from customers (yes, I am talking employees) feedback.2. Holding, and not communicating the feedback – Time is of the essence when it comes to feedback. We live in an era where our measure should be NOW and not a measure of the PAST. Sentiment and real-time access to feedback, customer “employee” comments and the reporting in real-time without any “holding” of the feedback until it is scrubbed, analyzed and cleaned up. The time that it takes to perform those functions are the “magic moments” or “moments of truth” where something can be done to take action. If not shown and visualized in a timely, real time manner, it is nothing but watered down HISTORY.
3. Most customer feedback (as you know now by reading this,employee feedback) is delivered in a manner that eliminates the human voice. While we all agree it is easier to score and deliver results based on scoring, analytics and ratings – it completely LOSES THE HUMAN VOICE. We are asking questions that we think that we want to know but in most cases not asking the important questions that are on the employees minds. While there is room for feedback in some employee surveys, they are at the bottom of the survey and for the most part, ignored when scoring. WE CANNOT LOSE THE HUMAN VOICE even though trying to focus on numbers and metrics (see #1). Let your employees share feedback in open, honest and transparent ways and you will be guaranteed actionable items that will make a difference delivering services in the long run.
4. If there is A LOT AT STAKE BY GETTING A GOOD SCORE, more than likely you will get a good score and you might as well make up the numbers yourself. Aligning compensation to numbers will often lead to behaviors that are maniacal to reach the numbers and are not overall customer-focused. By putting too much focus on compensation, we subject ourselves to a debate about the basis of the score every time either compensation is too high or the overall scores are too low.
5. Never, Never, Never close the loop with customers (employees). Most feedback historically has been conducted in a manner that is anonymous. The data was collected in “market research mode” where no one could specifically follow up with employees to address issues directly. We did this thinking that people would not give feedback if it was not kept secret. In today’s world of transparency and sharing, people want to be heard. They want their feedback to be acknowledged. They want to know the last time they invested in sharing feedback was acted on. CLOSING THE LOOP is essential to build lasting relationships and it is an invaluable opportunity to dig deeper into details of overall customer sentiment.
A few closing comments that tie back to the top 5 mentioned above:
- Don’t follow the traditional approach to customer satisfaction measurement
- Make feedback a daily part of your daily operations
- Delivery feedback directly to employees on a real-time, transparent basis
- Focus your company’s listening efforts not on measuring more precisely, but on learning more throughout
We live in an era that Workplace 2020 will cause a need to rethink how we imagine, delivery and measure customer and employee feedback in a real-time/transparent manner. The best technology will not solve for this; your thought leadership and a changing of the lens to drive a outward in view vs a inward out strategy is a must moving into 2014. If you need help thinking through this, never be afraid to ask.
Another infusion of knowledge…
Article source:Jason Averbook - Creating a Customer/Employee Feedback Strategy – What NOT To DO!»
Check out more of Jason Averbrook's work at hisblog
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