Customer Feedback

This is why your customer feedback program doesn't work

Ever wonder why, as you scoll endlessly down your favorite social media platform, there’s another random, unrelated video playing?  Or worse, there’s some random person taking up half the screen making overly exaggerated faces in reaction to what’s playing. What’s the point of all of this?

The answer is simple.

People have ever-decreasing attention spans!

You almost hit the back button, didn’t you?  Please don’t let me have to take out the jumping obstacle course video!

Which one, you say?

THIS ONE!!!

Still here? That's because it works!

Ok, but what does this have to do with customer feedback programs?

EVERYTHING!

It’s the reason why they don’t return your surveys or click the shiny button on your emails. They simply assume that you want to give them too much of their time! Short form videos like the ones above are, on average 34 seconds long and yet, creative methods still need to be employed to keep people from swiping to the next video.

We need to rethink the way follow-up and feedback programs are done because the number of people who are willing to take more than a few minutes to talk to you is decreasing. 

So what can be done?

First, let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater (who comes up with these idioms anyways?) Despite the dwindling number of people with longer attention spans, they’re still out there, and when you find them, take advantage of the gift of their time!

For the others, our approach needs to be:

  • Make unscheduled calls
    The key here is that it needs to be unscheduled for them. Keeping calls unscheduled eliminates having to commit to talking to you and fretting or forgetting that they have a scheduled appointment in the first place. In addition, by having less time to prepare calculated responses, you have an opportunity to learn things they may not have meant to tell you
  • Collect “hot takes”
    These are personal opinions, usually strong ones, about certain topics. These often have nuggets of great insight because feedback that stems from a visceral reaction are important signals to listen to because it affected them deeply. Hot takes often don’t come from long, protracted conversations, rather, they come from short ones.  Remember, when a thought has had time to cool down, they’re no longer “hot takes”!
  • Use a third party
    This part of the approach is often overlooked and the task of doing follow-ups or collecting feedback falls to the sales/ marketing/product intern. While these individuals may be capable, and even excellent, at doing their job, there’s one thing that will prevent them from getting the best responses — they aren’t separate from your organization. Let’s face it, nobody wants to tell you bad news!  In fact, they’ll tell anyone else BUT YOU!  

Find Out What They're Really Thinking

There isn’t a way to download their thoughts for analysis and, really, good luck with trying to get them to agree to putting their thoughts on a memory stick! Fortunately, the solution is much simpler: ask them! It truly is a bit of a lost art because surveys have taken the place of phone calls and AI has taken the place of human connection.  While these things have their place, nothing beats the time-tested, low-tech phone call.

 

But wait, didn’t you say that they probably won’t
be completely transparent  with you anyways?

 

Excellent question! Follow-ups are better than no follow-ups, but the best kind of follow-ups are third-party follow-ups!

Third Party Touch Follows Up For You

Using a Third Party is the best way to get around the natural inhibition to tell people things that they don’t want to hear. People are more willing to tell strangers how they really feel about someone else.  Hairdressers and barbers all over the world know this phenomenon and offer their patrons a bit of a therapy session in addition to their hair artistry.

While we don’t do hair, we offer a sympathetic ear.  Rapport, empathy, and chemistry — these are things that AI can never have. We are still about humans talking to humans, asking the questions you want to ask, so that you can get the answers you really need. Our short-form Touchpoint format allows you to make unscheduled, short calls to collect hot takes from a third party.

How It Works

1
Tell us what you want to know

Define your objectives and give us a list of up to three questions to ask

2
Tell us who you want to ask

Give us your list of people who you'd like for us to reach out to

3
We'll reach out

We'll take it from here. Our professional representatives will contact the individuals on your list to go over your questions

4
We'll report back to you

Once we've collected responses, we'll get back to you with either the raw results, or if you'd like us to analyze the results for you, we can do that as well!

Questions & Answers

  • 1. What is a Touchpoint?

    A Touchpoint is a request to reach a contact to ask them up to three questions.  It is the unit we use to count your usage and is counted whether or not we are able to successfully reach your contact.  While we do try several times to connect with your contact, we can't force them to pick up the phone!

  • 2. Why just three questions?

    We find that this format enables us to make unscheduled calls where we can promise that we won't take much of your contact's time. This increases their likelhood of agreeing to talk and to provide more candid responses that are closer to what they really feel, rather than what they want to tell you they feel.

  • 3. How do you reach out to contacts?

    In the list you provide to us, you provide their contact information and their preferred method of communication. We'll use whichever method you indicate is their preferred method.

  • 4. Who makes calls to contacts?

    Our team does! You can be sure that your contacts will be talking to a real live human being because, let's face it, nobody likes talking to a machine. 

  • 5. How does a typical call go?

    A typical call lasts about 5 minutes. We introduce ourselves as an unbiased third party calling on your behalf to gain some insights on their interaction with your company. Next, we ask for a few minutes of their time to go over your questions. During our conversation, we take notes. Once we finish up, we thank them for their time.

  • 6. What kind of reporting can I expect?

    We have a reporting section that allows yout to view all of the Touchpoints that we're done with regardless of whether we got to talk to them or not.  If we did, we'll tell you what they said. You can also download the list as a spreadsheet so that you can slice and dice to your heart's content!

  • 7. Can I cancel at anytime?

    Yes, of course!  Our usage-based pricing means that you'll only need to pay for the current month, plus any Touchpoints above your allocation. We don't apply any extra fees or cancellation charges.

Pricing

Our usage-based pricing structure can save you money as you grow.
Insights for the price of buying a cup of coffee. That’s a great deal.

 Per Touchpoint
Up to 25$8.49
Up to 50$7.99
Up to 100$7.49
100 or more$6.49

Get the answers you need

High engagement rates. Higher value hot-takes.

Ready to gain valuable insights and improve customer satisfaction? Sign up today and start collecting actionable feedback from your customers so that you can have the information you need to continuously improve your business.

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