March 4, 2025 • 14 mins
Ready to take your customer experience to the next level? In this episode, we dive deep into the essentials of establishing a proactive feedback strategy that not only gathers insights from customers but also transforms those insights into meaningful actions. Jeannie Walters shares her expertise on the significance of understanding customer sentiment and how to strategically implement feedback to enhance business results.
We explore the common pitfalls companies face when they collect data without a cohesive strategy. Furthermore, we discuss the necessity of a robust feedback loop, where organizations not only analyze customer behaviors but actively inform customers about changes being made based on their input. Trust is essential in fostering a customer-centric culture, and knowing how to close that loop can turn casual customers into loyal advocates.
Are you ready to learn how to refine your customer experience strategy? Tune in for actionable insights that can help you strengthen relationships with your customers, turn insights into actions, and truly understand what your customers are telling you.
Resources Mentioned:
Take the CXI Compass™ assessment -- cxicompass.com
Experience Investigators Website -- experienceinvestigators.com
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie on LinkedIn! www.linkedin.com/in/jeanniewalters/)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
MC (00:00):
Experience Action.
Let's stop just talking aboutcustomer experience, employee
experience and the experience ofleaders.
Let's turn ideas into action.
Your host, Jeannie Walters, isan award-winning customer
experience expert, internationalkeynote speaker and founder of
Experience Investigators, astrategic consulting firm
(00:20):
helping companies increase salesand customer retention through
elevated customer experiences.
Ready set action.
Jeannie Walters (00:31):
You all know what we do here at the
Experience Action Podcast.
You ask questions aboutcustomer experience and I do my
best to answer.
Let's listen to the latest andgreatest question.
Listener Question (00:45):
Hi Jeannie, I'm fairly new to CX.
How can I know what mycustomers think?
Jeannie Walters (00:49):
First of all, congratulations.
You're new to CX.
That means that you haveentered this world of customer
experience, where you get toexplore and investigate, as I
like to say, to reallyunderstand what our customer is
expecting.
What are they trying to tell usand how can we better respond
to them?
How can we better proactivelyand intentionally design their
(01:12):
journey to give them exactlywhat they need in the moment
that they need it, and in doingso, that drives winning business
results.
So welcome, we're so gladyou're here.
So when I hear this question,what I think about immediately
(01:34):
is the need for a feedbackstrategy.
A lot of times, what I seeorganizations do is say we need
to listen to customers and theyjust start doing it.
They just start having so manyquestions on their surveys, they
start having polls, they areasking on social media, they're
adding feedback everywhere theycan, without really a cohesive
and centralized strategy aboutnot just how to do it and not
(01:55):
just what to ask, but whythey're doing it in the first
place.
So the first thing I want youto do is think about what is it
you want to know?
What is it that you can impact?
If we are just asking questionsof hey, what do you want
customer, and we can't reallymake those changes, then we're
(02:16):
wasting everybody's time.
It's super important to reallythink about customer experience
as this holistic approach tounderstanding how can we meet
and exceed our customerexpectations while delivering on
behalf of our organization.
That means sometimes we have tomake choices.
(02:36):
Customers might complain aboutcertain technology or certain
processes, but we might not bein a situation where we can
change those very quickly.
So what that means is we'regoing to have to make some
decisions.
What do we really want to know?
What can we change?
So, of course, there are severalways to collect feedback from
(02:59):
our customers.
Now, feedback is a little bitof a misnomer because of course,
it's what they're telling us.
That's feedback.
But feedback is also found inhow they behave.
What actions are they taking?
What are they telling us withtheir dollars spent or not with
us?
What are they telling us withtheir next purchase?
(03:19):
What are they telling usthrough their behavior and
actions?
What are they telling usthrough their behavior and
actions?
So here are a few ideas to getyou started.
Number one figure out where arethose places in the journey
that you might already haveoperational data or behavioral
analytics that tell you a littlebit about what customers want
from the jump.
(03:40):
If you have a contact center ora customer service organization
and you can tap into what arepeople calling about?
Where are they getting stuck?
What are they complaining about?
What can your frontline peopletell you?
They hear a lot directly fromcustomers.
Talk to them.
And then, of course, if youwant to gather feedback directly
from customers, go ahead andlook into.
(04:02):
Can you start some surveyprograms?
Can you offer a fewquestionnaires?
Can you even do what we callintercept interviews, where in
the moment of the actualexperience, you can say hey, I'd
love to know what you thinkabout this.
There are several ways toapproach this.
I also love one-on-oneinterviews, following up, saying
(04:23):
what did you like, what did younot like, how can we learn more
?
How can we better serve you?
Then there's social mediamonitoring.
This is when they're talkingpublicly, either about your
organization or simply about theproduct, the service, the
industry that you are serving.
That can give you a lot ofinsights on what are they saying
(04:44):
when you're not there.
There are so many tools that cando some of these or all of
these for you.
You can start small.
You can use some of the freeoptions out there and pilot a
smaller group and see if they'regoing to respond and if you're
getting the information that youexpect.
You can lean into some of theeducation out there about how to
(05:06):
develop a great survey, how toincorporate this in a larger CX
strategy.
We, of course, have tons ofresources for you at our
learning center atexperienceinvestigatorscom.
And then I would also look atkind of what analytics and data
are already available to you.
Do you have website analytics?
(05:26):
Can you track what are theydoing in the site?
Are they taking the nextlogical step or are they getting
stuck?
What about purchase histories?
Or understanding how people aremaking those decisions around
purchase and around how muchthey're spending with your
organization and around how muchthey're spending with your
(05:46):
organization?
All of those can be reallyhelpful in understanding what
customers are not necessarilyeven trying to tell you.
They're just living their lives.
They're just trying to getthings done, but through their
behavior, action and feedbackthey are telling their story.
We have to tap into that.
So we always think of this in amore strategic way.
(06:06):
I want you to think about afeedback strategy before you
jump in too far, because ifyou're only doing these ad hoc
ways of listening and if youdon't have a connective strategy
to really help peopleunderstand what to do with this
information, then you might getstuck in the role of what I call
being a number narrator.
This is when you're reportingout on metrics, week after week,
(06:30):
month after month.
You're saying this number isgoing up, this number is going
down.
People are telling us they likethis, they don't like this.
But if nothing is done withthat information, there's really
no point in collecting it andreporting out on it and, in fact
, the fate of the CXprofessional: sometimes the
messenger is blamed for themessage.
(06:51):
Be very, very careful aboutthat.
Make sure that you have a clearpoint of view on what we need
to do with the insights, thelearnings that we get from
collecting this feedback and notjust saying here it is.
Here's how I think of thefeedback strategy.
(07:11):
We need to incorporate it inthe larger customer experience
strategy.
What is our intention with ourcustomer experience.
What is the proactive way thatwe're designing the journey so
that they will not only feelsupported and valued in all the
things we want customers to feel, but also how can we help them
take that next step with ourorganization in a confident way?
We want them to renew thecontract, we want them to refer
(07:34):
to their friends, we want themto feel good about their
purchases and make another onewith our organizations.
At the end of the day, we areall in business, so we have to
stop only talking about what'sin it for the customers and make
sure that we understand thatconnection of if we do this well
, that is a gain for ourorganization.
(07:54):
Are you getting a lot ofcomplaints?
Are you getting a lot ofservice calls?
Do you have to make a lot ofrefunds?
Those are metrics as well thatyou can look at as feedback, and
are there things you can do toprevent those things?
Are there things you can do tomake that so that everybody in
the organization understandswhat to do so we don't have so
(08:16):
many requests for refunds?
That's a win for yourorganization as well.
So think big about what you'retrying to do and then start
drilling down into okay, how canwe put this feedback together
in a way that makes sense?
First, I want you to think aboutmeeting customers where they
are.
We sometimes expect people todrop everything and when they
(08:39):
get a survey emailed to them,think oh good, I get to tell
this company everything thatthey want to know.
We are all survey fatigued atthis point.
We have overdone it folks andcustomers feel that we feel that
as customers, some customerswill never give you that
feedback.
Some customers will always giveyou that feedback, and those
(09:02):
spectrums are the ones whosometimes get a lot of the
attention.
In the middle there is thisbell curve of customer who
sometimes will tell you how theyfeel, because they either are
really upset about something orreally delighted.
And then there are people whoare really in the middle and
(09:23):
they're telling you things thatmaybe aren't so useful.
What are we supposed to do withall those neutral responses?
So this is why it's soimportant to think about what is
the actual feedback that youwant and that you can use.
So, for example, if you'repiloting a new technology or a
new digital experience, youmight want to specifically get
transactional feedback in thatmoment.
(09:44):
Offer it in the moment and sayyou know what?
Here's an in-app prompt and wejust want to know how did you
feel about this experience?
Was it easy or not?
There are so many differentways to do this, so look into
what metrics will serve you thebest and what mechanism will
also serve you and the customerthe best.
(10:05):
So think about where you canmeet them, where they are to
make it as easy as possible forthem, but also really zeroing in
on the feedback that you want,then I want you to prioritize
those real-time insights.
If you start seeing a pattern,if you start seeing a lot of
customers are giving youfeedback at a certain point in
(10:26):
the journey, then make someurgency around that.
Report that out in a way thatpeople can connect with.
Why does this matter to us?
Well, if we don't fix this,they might not continue on the
journey.
Our customer lifetime valuewill go down.
They will go to our competitors.
Create that sense of urgencyaround building that business
(10:47):
case for whatever improvementyou want to make there and make
sure that people understand theimpact of that once it's made.
Just like we want with ourcustomers to close the loop, we
also want to close the loop withour colleagues and the
different teams who work onthese improvements.
So closing the loop has to bepart of your strategy.
(11:09):
When customers give us feedback,we need to give them some
reassurance right away that weheard them and then, if we use
that feedback, we want them toknow this is how we're
addressing that.
If we don't take those steps,they feel like they're yelling
into a void.
They will not trust the nexttime we ask them for feedback,
because they're not gettingfeedback on the fact that this
(11:31):
is important and valued andwe're using it on their behalf.
We also want to look forpatterns, not just responses.
This is where tools like AI canreally really help.
AI is very good atunderstanding and looking at
patterns faster than we can ashumans, so let's take advantage
(11:52):
of that.
Let's look for those patternsaround.
Okay, it seems like people arestarting to get frustrated
earlier in the journey than theyused to.
What's going on, and then youcan start reverse engineering,
looking for those root causesthat you can correct so that you
can prevent the frustration tobegin with.
At the end of the day, this isreally about understanding why
(12:14):
you are asking for feedback,understanding what you're going
to do with it before you evenask for it, and taking those
very important steps once youhave the feedback.
You want to turn the insightsinto action.
You want to make sure thatyou're closing the loop, both
inside and externally with yourcustomers and, ultimately, you
(12:35):
want to make sure you arecontinuously improving the
customer journey, and that's howyou get the business results
that you are looking for.
So again, I want to welcome youto the customer experience
community.
You will find CX professionalson the whole are pretty generous
with understanding that we'reall in this together.
(12:57):
We're all advocating for ourcustomers and there's no one
perfect way to do this.
So lean into that, look fordifferent communities and
resources, because we are all inthis together and, as I like to
say about the mission of myorganization, we're doing this
to create fewer ruined days forcustomers, and that's no small
(13:19):
thing.
So congratulations, and if youor anyone out there want to
learn more about where you mightbe on your customer experience
strategy journey, check out ourCXI Compass.
This is a tool, takes a fewminutes, it's free, you can fill
out a few questions and thenwe'll give you a little bit of a
(13:39):
report on where to prioritize,based on our CXI Navigator
Framework.
There are four sections thatare equally important and
sometimes we're really good atone of them and we might need
some attention to another.
So check that out atcxicompasscom, or you can visit
it through our site atexperienceinvestigatorscom.
(14:01):
Thank you for this question.
Thank you for all you do outthere and keep them coming.
Don't forget you can leave me aquestion at askjeannievip and
you might just hear answered onthe Experience Action Podcast.
Thanks for being here.
I'll see you next time.
To learn more about ourstrategic approach to experience
(14:22):
, check out free resources atexperienceinvestigatorscom,
where you can sign up for ournewsletter, our Year of CX
program and more.
And please follow me, JeannieWalters, on LinkedIn.
Experience Action.
Let's stop just talking aboutcustomer experience, employee
experience and the experience ofleaders.
Let's turn ideas into action.
Your host, Jeannie Walters, isan award-winning customer
experience expert, internationalkeynote speaker and founder of
Experience Investigators, astrategic consulting firm
(00:20):
helping companies increase salesand customer retention through
elevated customer experiences.
Ready set action.
Jeannie Walters (00:31):
You all know what we do here at the
Experience Action Podcast.
You ask questions aboutcustomer experience and I do my
best to answer.
Let's listen to the latest andgreatest question.
Listener Question (00:45):
Hi Jeannie, I'm fairly new to CX.
How can I know what mycustomers think?
Jeannie Walters (00:49):
First of all, congratulations.
You're new to CX.
That means that you haveentered this world of customer
experience, where you get toexplore and investigate, as I
like to say, to reallyunderstand what our customer is
expecting.
What are they trying to tell usand how can we better respond
to them?
How can we better proactivelyand intentionally design their
(01:12):
journey to give them exactlywhat they need in the moment
that they need it, and in doingso, that drives winning business
results.
So welcome, we're so gladyou're here.
So when I hear this question,what I think about immediately
(01:34):
is the need for a feedbackstrategy.
A lot of times, what I seeorganizations do is say we need
to listen to customers and theyjust start doing it.
They just start having so manyquestions on their surveys, they
start having polls, they areasking on social media, they're
adding feedback everywhere theycan, without really a cohesive
and centralized strategy aboutnot just how to do it and not
(01:55):
just what to ask, but whythey're doing it in the first
place.
So the first thing I want youto do is think about what is it
you want to know?
What is it that you can impact?
If we are just asking questionsof hey, what do you want
customer, and we can't reallymake those changes, then we're
(02:16):
wasting everybody's time.
It's super important to reallythink about customer experience
as this holistic approach tounderstanding how can we meet
and exceed our customerexpectations while delivering on
behalf of our organization.
That means sometimes we have tomake choices.
(02:36):
Customers might complain aboutcertain technology or certain
processes, but we might not bein a situation where we can
change those very quickly.
So what that means is we'regoing to have to make some
decisions.
What do we really want to know?
What can we change?
So, of course, there are severalways to collect feedback from
(02:59):
our customers.
Now, feedback is a little bitof a misnomer because of course,
it's what they're telling us.
That's feedback.
But feedback is also found inhow they behave.
What actions are they taking?
What are they telling us withtheir dollars spent or not with
us?
What are they telling us withtheir next purchase?
(03:19):
What are they telling usthrough their behavior and
actions?
What are they telling usthrough their behavior and
actions?
So here are a few ideas to getyou started.
Number one figure out where arethose places in the journey
that you might already haveoperational data or behavioral
analytics that tell you a littlebit about what customers want
from the jump.
(03:40):
If you have a contact center ora customer service organization
and you can tap into what arepeople calling about?
Where are they getting stuck?
What are they complaining about?
What can your frontline peopletell you?
They hear a lot directly fromcustomers.
Talk to them.
And then, of course, if youwant to gather feedback directly
from customers, go ahead andlook into.
(04:02):
Can you start some surveyprograms?
Can you offer a fewquestionnaires?
Can you even do what we callintercept interviews, where in
the moment of the actualexperience, you can say hey, I'd
love to know what you thinkabout this.
There are several ways toapproach this.
I also love one-on-oneinterviews, following up, saying
(04:23):
what did you like, what did younot like, how can we learn more
?
How can we better serve you?
Then there's social mediamonitoring.
This is when they're talkingpublicly, either about your
organization or simply about theproduct, the service, the
industry that you are serving.
That can give you a lot ofinsights on what are they saying
(04:44):
when you're not there.
There are so many tools that cando some of these or all of
these for you.
You can start small.
You can use some of the freeoptions out there and pilot a
smaller group and see if they'regoing to respond and if you're
getting the information that youexpect.
You can lean into some of theeducation out there about how to
(05:06):
develop a great survey, how toincorporate this in a larger CX
strategy.
We, of course, have tons ofresources for you at our
learning center atexperienceinvestigatorscom.
And then I would also look atkind of what analytics and data
are already available to you.
Do you have website analytics?
(05:26):
Can you track what are theydoing in the site?
Are they taking the nextlogical step or are they getting
stuck?
What about purchase histories?
Or understanding how people aremaking those decisions around
purchase and around how muchthey're spending with your
organization and around how muchthey're spending with your
(05:46):
organization?
All of those can be reallyhelpful in understanding what
customers are not necessarilyeven trying to tell you.
They're just living their lives.
They're just trying to getthings done, but through their
behavior, action and feedbackthey are telling their story.
We have to tap into that.
So we always think of this in amore strategic way.
(06:06):
I want you to think about afeedback strategy before you
jump in too far, because ifyou're only doing these ad hoc
ways of listening and if youdon't have a connective strategy
to really help peopleunderstand what to do with this
information, then you might getstuck in the role of what I call
being a number narrator.
This is when you're reportingout on metrics, week after week,
(06:30):
month after month.
You're saying this number isgoing up, this number is going
down.
People are telling us they likethis, they don't like this.
But if nothing is done withthat information, there's really
no point in collecting it andreporting out on it and, in fact
, the fate of the CXprofessional: sometimes the
messenger is blamed for themessage.
(06:51):
Be very, very careful aboutthat.
Make sure that you have a clearpoint of view on what we need
to do with the insights, thelearnings that we get from
collecting this feedback and notjust saying here it is.
Here's how I think of thefeedback strategy.
(07:11):
We need to incorporate it inthe larger customer experience
strategy.
What is our intention with ourcustomer experience.
What is the proactive way thatwe're designing the journey so
that they will not only feelsupported and valued in all the
things we want customers to feel, but also how can we help them
take that next step with ourorganization in a confident way?
We want them to renew thecontract, we want them to refer
(07:34):
to their friends, we want themto feel good about their
purchases and make another onewith our organizations.
At the end of the day, we areall in business, so we have to
stop only talking about what'sin it for the customers and make
sure that we understand thatconnection of if we do this well
, that is a gain for ourorganization.
(07:54):
Are you getting a lot ofcomplaints?
Are you getting a lot ofservice calls?
Do you have to make a lot ofrefunds?
Those are metrics as well thatyou can look at as feedback, and
are there things you can do toprevent those things?
Are there things you can do tomake that so that everybody in
the organization understandswhat to do so we don't have so
(08:16):
many requests for refunds?
That's a win for yourorganization as well.
So think big about what you'retrying to do and then start
drilling down into okay, how canwe put this feedback together
in a way that makes sense?
First, I want you to think aboutmeeting customers where they
are.
We sometimes expect people todrop everything and when they
(08:39):
get a survey emailed to them,think oh good, I get to tell
this company everything thatthey want to know.
We are all survey fatigued atthis point.
We have overdone it folks andcustomers feel that we feel that
as customers, some customerswill never give you that
feedback.
Some customers will always giveyou that feedback, and those
(09:02):
spectrums are the ones whosometimes get a lot of the
attention.
In the middle there is thisbell curve of customer who
sometimes will tell you how theyfeel, because they either are
really upset about something orreally delighted.
And then there are people whoare really in the middle and
(09:23):
they're telling you things thatmaybe aren't so useful.
What are we supposed to do withall those neutral responses?
So this is why it's soimportant to think about what is
the actual feedback that youwant and that you can use.
So, for example, if you'repiloting a new technology or a
new digital experience, youmight want to specifically get
transactional feedback in thatmoment.
(09:44):
Offer it in the moment and sayyou know what?
Here's an in-app prompt and wejust want to know how did you
feel about this experience?
Was it easy or not?
There are so many differentways to do this, so look into
what metrics will serve you thebest and what mechanism will
also serve you and the customerthe best.
(10:05):
So think about where you canmeet them, where they are to
make it as easy as possible forthem, but also really zeroing in
on the feedback that you want,then I want you to prioritize
those real-time insights.
If you start seeing a pattern,if you start seeing a lot of
customers are giving youfeedback at a certain point in
(10:26):
the journey, then make someurgency around that.
Report that out in a way thatpeople can connect with.
Why does this matter to us?
Well, if we don't fix this,they might not continue on the
journey.
Our customer lifetime valuewill go down.
They will go to our competitors.
Create that sense of urgencyaround building that business
(10:47):
case for whatever improvementyou want to make there and make
sure that people understand theimpact of that once it's made.
Just like we want with ourcustomers to close the loop, we
also want to close the loop withour colleagues and the
different teams who work onthese improvements.
So closing the loop has to bepart of your strategy.
(11:09):
When customers give us feedback,we need to give them some
reassurance right away that weheard them and then, if we use
that feedback, we want them toknow this is how we're
addressing that.
If we don't take those steps,they feel like they're yelling
into a void.
They will not trust the nexttime we ask them for feedback,
because they're not gettingfeedback on the fact that this
(11:31):
is important and valued andwe're using it on their behalf.
We also want to look forpatterns, not just responses.
This is where tools like AI canreally really help.
AI is very good atunderstanding and looking at
patterns faster than we can ashumans, so let's take advantage
(11:52):
of that.
Let's look for those patternsaround.
Okay, it seems like people arestarting to get frustrated
earlier in the journey than theyused to.
What's going on, and then youcan start reverse engineering,
looking for those root causesthat you can correct so that you
can prevent the frustration tobegin with.
At the end of the day, this isreally about understanding why
(12:14):
you are asking for feedback,understanding what you're going
to do with it before you evenask for it, and taking those
very important steps once youhave the feedback.
You want to turn the insightsinto action.
You want to make sure thatyou're closing the loop, both
inside and externally with yourcustomers and, ultimately, you
(12:35):
want to make sure you arecontinuously improving the
customer journey, and that's howyou get the business results
that you are looking for.
So again, I want to welcome youto the customer experience
community.
You will find CX professionalson the whole are pretty generous
with understanding that we'reall in this together.
(12:57):
We're all advocating for ourcustomers and there's no one
perfect way to do this.
So lean into that, look fordifferent communities and
resources, because we are all inthis together and, as I like to
say about the mission of myorganization, we're doing this
to create fewer ruined days forcustomers, and that's no small
(13:19):
thing.
So congratulations, and if youor anyone out there want to
learn more about where you mightbe on your customer experience
strategy journey, check out ourCXI Compass.
This is a tool, takes a fewminutes, it's free, you can fill
out a few questions and thenwe'll give you a little bit of a
(13:39):
report on where to prioritize,based on our CXI Navigator
Framework.
There are four sections thatare equally important and
sometimes we're really good atone of them and we might need
some attention to another.
So check that out atcxicompasscom, or you can visit
it through our site atexperienceinvestigatorscom.
(14:01):
Thank you for this question.
Thank you for all you do outthere and keep them coming.
Don't forget you can leave me aquestion at askjeannievip and
you might just hear answered onthe Experience Action Podcast.
Thanks for being here.
I'll see you next time.
To learn more about ourstrategic approach to experience
(14:22):
, check out free resources atexperienceinvestigatorscom,
where you can sign up for ournewsletter, our Year of CX
program and more.
And please follow me, JeannieWalters, on LinkedIn.
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