Chapter 4: Assembling the Right Pieces

In the last three chapters of our playbook, we covered why customer feedback is important, how to write questions to maximize the impact of that feedback, and how to get customers to provide feedback. For the fourth chapter, we’re going to discuss how to assemble all the pieces of your business to achieve success. It’s important that everyone within your organization is set up to act on the data you’re receiving as part of your customer feedback program. We’ll dig into having a champion, establishing the right culture, aligning with current processes of your organization, and how to motivate employees, from hourly to upper management to create a successful program. Enjoy!

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Let’s create a better experience

What we’ll explore:

ü  Establishing the right culture ü  Aligning with current

programs and processes ü  Motivating for Success

Sole property of Elevate | October 2014

-Joe Stanton CEO - Elevate

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The Importance of a Champion

“Everyone is responsible and no one is to blame.”

-Will Schultz

Every successful initiative needs to have one go-to person for the team to rally behind. Best practices to achieve max success:

-  Match accountability with authority. Too much of one or the other creates imbalance.

-  Provide support for the entire team. Neglecting one area will also create dysfunction.

-  Establish one central point person who dedicates time to customer feedback and is responsible for making related changes.

-  All team members can advise, but ultimately one person decides. This is especially important in franchise organizations.

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Establishing the Right Culture

Establishing the Right Culture

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Messages Must Come From the Top Down

Top-down communication ensures success. Encourage communication throughout the organization by:

-  Scheduling kick-off announcements and specify individual expectations.

-  Composing personal notes to recognize exceptional performers, even down to the store level. You can even implement feedback scores into employee recognition and reward programs.

-  Using automated communication for efficiency and consistency.

-  Telling stories, sharing comments and utilizing data to develop a foundation for consistent communication.

“Communicate everything you can to your associates. The more they know, the more they care.”

-Sam Walton

Establishing the Right Culture

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Ingrained in Business

Put customer feedback to work. Use feedback in team meetings so everyone has the opportunity to listen and participate.

-  Weekly team meetings: Discuss comments from customers– both good and bad- to determine what needs improvement.

-  Monthly manager meetings: Track your team’s progress against its goals. Are you allowing your employees to perform their best work?

-  Quarterly business reviews: Set your goals. Measure your performance. Re-evaluate when necessary.

Establishing the Right Culture

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Decision Making

-  Refrain from using the phrase “I think.” Instead, say “we know” because your team is aware of the issue and understands how a customer would feel in the situation.

-  The facts always win. Use data to

understand how people perceive your business, regardless of inside biases.

-  Customer comments shape a story.

Use them to make change and pave the way forward in your organization.

Stop focusing on internal issues and start viewing your organization like a customer does.

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Aligning with Current Programs and Processes

Aligning with Current Programs and Processes

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Use Results to Create a More Informed Metric Established programs bring credibility. The key is to bring all programs and processes together.

Aligning with Current Programs and Processes

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Use Data to Support Other Business Areas

For example, you can:

-  Mine customer comments for potential compliance problems to avoid messy legal issues.

-  Understand questions consumers may have regarding new products or services.

-  Better understand where the focus should lie in employee field training.

Data isn’t just helpful for customer service.

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Motivating for Success

Motivating for success

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Reward Behaviors You Want to See

Nonfinancial incentives are rated as more effective motivators than the highest financial incentives.2

Examples of behavior worth rewarding include:

-  Following invitation protocols - getting enough surveys

-  Following up with upset customers in a timely fashion

-  Routinely sharing feedback with employees

-  Accessing the reports

-  Completing training sessions or webinars

-  Signing up for educational materials - blogs, email courses, etc.

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Increase in base pay

Performance based bonuses

Opportunities to lead

Attention from leaders

Praise & recognition

Some leaders make the mistake of only rewarding end results. It’s important not to overlook the positive behavior that leads to those desirable outcomes.

Nonfinancial incentives Financial incentives

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Coming Next

In Chapter 5, we’ll explore … ü  Customer feedback as a way of life ü  It’s all about routine

ü  Data driven decision making ü  Business planning from the customer’s

perspective

ü  Integrate with other tools for deeper understanding

Chapter 5 coming soon!

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Learn more about Elevate…

Sources:

1.  Elevate Customer Data 2.  McKinsey & Company

Elevate is the easiest and most affordable way for restaurants and retailers to survey customers who recently dined in one of their restaurants or shopped in one of their stores. It allows all sizes of restaurants and retailers to: -  Get immediate feedback from real customers; -  Follow up with upset customers to get them to come back; and -  Have better conversations about performance. -  Channel feedback into the organization versus onto review sites. Start your free 30 day trial today. It takes less than 10 minutes to get signed up. There are no setup fees and no contracts. Learn more about Elevate by visiting www.elevateresearch.com. Connect with us:

Sole property of Elevate | November 2014

let’s create a better experience

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