Step 3

Feedback is vital to understand clients’ needs and it is considered as the most reliable source of knowledge that has immediate impact on the financial wealth of the company, as it is linked to many benefits, such as increased market share, lower costs or higher revenue. More importantly, customer insights are also reliable enough to leverage data and drive business decisions forward. Depending on when customers are standing in a journey and how they feel about it, managers can allocate their budget and resources to the development of these touchpoints where they can get maximum return on engagement.

 

Why customer feedback is so important

·       53% of the marketers put customer feedback as the number one tactic to improve customer experience

·       78% of people prefer brands that collect and accept customer feedback

·       82% of people trust the voice of customers more than messages that come from a brand

·       85% of people say they’re likely to provide feedback when they’ve had a good experience and 81% provide it when they’ve had a bad experience, which is more than 1.7 times the rate at which people leave feedback after having had a ‘normal experience’ (48%)

·       Barclays estimates that optimising for the Feedback Economy could yield 3.2-billion-dollar opportunity by 2028 in the UK alone

·       91% of people believe that companies should fuel innovation by listening to buyers and customers, compared to only 31% who think they should hire a team of experts

 

 

Positive or negative customer feedback is equally essential to business initiatives. Clients who are either happy with the brand or unhappy with it, are the ones who take the time to voice their opinions. On the contrary, the lack of feedback can sometimes be a sign of a silent treatment which can lead to an unexpected churn, if the company interpret it as ‘no news good news’. Making a habit of gathering customer feedback also unites diverse teams and boosts innovation. For example, the way customer feedback is reviewed and managed can be done with all teams involved, such as marketing, sales and customer services. They can all contribute to everything from support to user experience.

 

Besides feedback help companies set and manage customer expectations which is associated with how well a company is willing to listen carefully what the client wants at every stage in their journey and how it reacts to deliver the expected experiences. Expectations are defined by what the customer wants from a product, service or company, based on their past experiences and the knowledge they acquire. Customers hold various types of expectations: (a) explicit, when they clearly communicate what they really want, when to be delivered and what are their expected quality standards b) implicit, unspoken desires based on common norms, past experiences or general understanding, (c), interpersonal, when they expect a specific way to be treated during interactions, (d) digital, specific expectations to online experiences and seamless digital touchpoints, and (e) dynamic, constant changes in expectations as their interactions grow further.

 

More importantly, feedback can help companies clarify the direction of innovation by conveying genuine insights about what customers appreciate or dislike about regarding their experiences. This allows for the validation of the resonance of innovations with customer journeys and enables iterative improvement efforts. Although businesses can pinpoint specific problems or pain points experienced by customers, clarity about these issues can only by achieved through customers’ voices. This underscores the importance of having feedback procedures in place, even in the initial stages of innovation. By integrating customer input early on, teams can prioritise projects likely to positively impact customers and contribute to organisational success. In summary, customer feedback servers as both a critical validation mechanism and a risk management tool for innovations, assessing actual market demand and identifying potential obstacles before significant resources are committed.

 

Effectively managing customer expectations ensures consistent positive milestones in their journey without overpromising or underdelivering, while innovation clarity provides the strategic framework for aligning innovation with customer needs and preferences. However, innovation clarity not only relies on a deep understanding of customer perceptions, needs, desires and pains but also entails setting realistic parameters for innovation initiatives.

 

Consider our portal team in the UK, developing the employee benefits app for our clients’ employees. If the team grasps the importance of managing expectations throughout development to ensure increased adaption rates, they are expected to receive consistent feedback from the Engagement Managers client meetings. If this is not sufficient, they may have to establish more direct communication channels with clients to address concerns and centralise overall customer feedback. All innovation development steps should be informed by customer feedback, guaranteeing the final product meets the clients’ requirements and exceeds the expectations of the employees who are going to use it. This proactive approach not only builds trust with clients but also enhances user satisfaction, leading to successful implementation and loyalty.

 

Customers today expect constant improvement and innovation from the brands they engage with, demanding higher levels of personalisation without compromising quality, consistency and convenience. Companies putting the customer at the centre of their universe can effectively prioritise innovation over those that don’t.

 

Finally, managing customer expectations is essential for fostering long-term relationships and inspiring trust, a critical element in the emotional space of a customer journey. From initial acquaintance with a brand to service usage, support, and all after sales touchpoints, customers anticipate world-class quality, attention to detail, and fulfilling experiences aligning with their expectations. This ensures good word of mouth driving repeated and new business as satisfied customers share their memorable experiences with their network of peers and friends who may require similar services.

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Unveiling the Essence of Customer Expectations

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Expectations can manifest in various forms, shaping interactions across different touchpoint and emphasising the importance of aligning the business practices with their potential to influence experiences with a company:

 

 

Customer Expectations Examples:

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1.     Short wait times: A customer contacting support team and expect to connect with an agent without waiting in a long queue. In our business case, this could involve many of our clients’ employees reaching out the customer service line due to errors in their payslips.

 

2.     Quick resolutions: A customer reporting a technical issue and expect a rapid and accurate solution. That could entail our clients’ employees contacting the customer service team, because they cannot view their payslip uploaded on the portal due to a technical issue that needs urgent resolution in the back end. Alternatively, a client may reach out to Invoicing regarding payroll discrepancies between payroll summary and invoice amounts. In such cases, the client expects Invoicing to rectify the amounts immediately, without considering that Invoicing must engage with the payroll processing team and undertake a series of corrective actions. This is not relevant to their journey. All they care about is getting things solved.

 

3.     Functional self-service: A customer presumes that a company’s website will have a user-friendly interact for finding answers to common questions. Employees and clients expect a self-service feature in the benefits portal with ready Q&As, instructional guides, and any other tools to help them reduce their reliance on direct support channels because these require much time and effort. Nobody wants to call the customer service line.

 

4.     Personalised experiences: A customer who frequently uses an application expects it to make the best suggestions based on their usage patterns and browsing behaviour. Personalisation can work well at every stage on the customer journey. Sales teams can utilise CRM software to monitor clients’ preferences, ensuring that future communications, even from other departments like ONB, who intersect with the sales journey, can optimise the follow up actions and proposals. Likewise, the Customer Service team can leverage similar data and track historical patterns to provide personalised support services. Nobody wants to repeat themselves on the customer service line when addressing an issue; agents need to access historical actions within seconds when speaking with a customer. Similarly, the Invoicing team could streamline the journey for customers by offering customised guides at critical milestones, where clients commonly make mistakes, or by provided automated options for early settlement.

 

 

 

Usually, a customer pain point can be a new opportunity for customer service teams to design an easier process to handle customer problems, but also for marketing and sales teams to manage expectations in each and every touchpoint process. In simple words, things that are promised in the pre-purchase phase, should be delivered in the after-purchase phase. And, because many brands fall into the trap of overpromising that all things will go perfect, they find many customers get disappointed when things go off the way and they get overwhelmed with negative customer reviews. Having been treated this case in a more customer-centric approach, marketing and sales teams could have fully informed the customer for every best and worst-case scenario during their purchase and post purchase journey, but it is the way the company handles the issues and its commitment to improve their journey that prevents negative experiences. A consistent customer feedback management procedure helps us avoid overpromising and underdelivering and allows transparency even when things go wrong.