Service Untitled

Chances are, your customer service department receives positive remarks and feedback from customers on at least a semi-regular basis (I hope you do, at least). But what do you do with these messages? You have a few options:

1) Delete them. This is the worst thing you can do. You should read through positive feedback and take the time to process it. Understanding what you do well is as important as understanding where you need to improve.

2) Reply to the customer. If a customer takes the time to send in positive feedback, reply to their message, letter, etc. and thank them for the kind words and for their business. If you do something special with the feedback, let them know what it is.

3) Tell the employees involved. If a customer mentions an employee specifically, let that employee know. Praise them, add the positive feedback to their file for the next review period, etc. Employees like to hear about customers writing in to say what a good job they do.

4) Tell the company. At a lot of restaurants, the beginning of staff meetings is often used to read good and bad letters the restaurant has received and to praise employees who do a particularly good job. Forwarding positive feedback around the company is great for morale. It recognizes specific employees who are doing well and lets other employees know that customers do care and are appreciative.

The ways the emails/letters can be distributed varies. I’ve seen everything from just forwarding them to the company mailing list to posting them all on a wall somewhere in the call center. I personally think printing them out and posting them somewhere is more personal and interesting. Look around your office and examine your company and see what you can do with the positive feedback you receive. Make it unique and of course, make it visually appealing. This is a great example from the Headsets.com office.

5) Do 2, 3, and 4. The best companies seem to do 2, 3, and 4. Positive feedback from customers is a big deal and should be treated as such. The companies that just dismiss it or smile and move on are missing out.