Why you should always respond to negative feedback
According to HBR, prompt and personal customer service pays off big time; customers are willing to pay more, it leads to a higher NPS and the positive afterglow lasts months after the interaction. Especially when responding to upset customers! So you value customer feedback and actively seek it through your email feedback tool. Now, what to do with the data? Most importantly, what to do with those negative comments?
Only one thing… RESPOND! Collaborate with your customer care team and work out a process for closing the loop with those least happy. Your customers may not always expect a personal reply and will be pleasantly surprised.
Use email to develop relationships
First let’s have a look at email as a communication channel. Traditionally it has one primary goal: selling. Your main focus is conversion: prospects into buyers into repeat buyers. However, email can also be a great tool to build trust and long-term relationships.
According to KPMG consumers these days are looking for an “up close and personal” experience so focus on that. According to Salesforce it is money in the bank guaranteed: 84% of customers say being treated like a person is very important to winning their business!
You may want to direct your thinking towards ways to personalize the message. Maybe it means you want to consider starting a dialogue through email. Interesting, but how do you facilitate this? And why would you want to?
Proactively follow up on negative feedback to retain potential churn
It may not seem obvious, but an email feedback tool can open up a dialogue with your customers. They are the only people who can truly tell you what it’s like to be your customer!
Customers are increasingly demanding and easily move onto the next best thing (very likely your competitor). You don’t want that! So, get their opinion by asking them via your emails.
Choose an email feedback tool that allows you to set automated triggers on negative feedback which are sent to your customer care team. Your follow-up can take multiple forms (e.g. email, telephone, ...) but most important in this is, that a timely response is crucial to keeping your customers on board! Your customers may not always expect a personal reply and will be pleasantly surprised. From here onward, continue to collaborate and share results internally in order to identify areas of improvement. You’ll not only uncover your customer’s needs but you’re actively working to meet and exceed them.
Tip the scale from negative to positive feedback
Acknowledging a problem or complaint is one thing, owning it is another. I’ve seen companies implement very successful strategies to close the loop. They’ve been able to increase conversion rates and sales.
The secret to tipping the sentiment scale towards (more) positive is collaboration. Start involving the customer care team as early as possible and make sure to discuss what is possible. Successful companies tell me it’s important to align your goals and most of all speak about each other’s expectations.
How Paula's Choice Skincare follows up on all negative feedback
Paula’s Choice Skincare demonstrates customer experience excellence by sending a reply to every negative comment. They’ve improved their click rate up to 44% and their sales by as much as 29% on a number of campaigns.
Curious to learn how they’re managing CloseAlert?