Honest customer feedback. It’s okay if you are scared to ask or hesitate diving into that stack of comment cards. Negative or even neutral feedback can be difficult to accept. We have built our business and poured our time and energy into making it great, but like any successful team, a business needs more than one set of eyes and ears looking for ways to go from good to great (or even great to outstanding) and avoid common problems along the way.

1. Ask
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. When there is a problem with your service, contemplate how to respond. Your perception of the company will determine who you tell about your negative experience. If you trust and value the company, you will tell an employee or manager. If you do not like the company, or the employee or manager doesn’t take your experience seriously, you will tell friends, neighbors, relatives, the Internet… or anyone who mentions your field or business.

Your customers respond the same way. If they care about your business enough to tell you when you have made a mistake, you know you are doing some things right. Between the customers that tell you every mistake and the ones who say nothing and quit, there are customers that are testing you. They are waiting to see if you care enough to ask.

There are several effective ways to solicit feedback from customers. The best information comes from a mixture of methods – direct and indirect, anonymous and identifiable.

Direct: Ask your customers in casual conversation how their experience has been lately. Ask if their dog is coming home seeming healthy, clean, well-exercised, calm… or ask more general questions about the quality of their experience with their dogs when they come home from your facility. From that information, you can tell if they feel that their dog is getting enough exercise and is well supervised.

Indirect: Ask your staff in staff meetings or casual conversations what comments customers have made that week. Have they noticed any changes in the behavior of a customer or a sudden change in schedule? Did any clients make an off-hand comment that may be a clue to a bigger problem? More often than not, staff members will respond, “Well, they did say…” Staff may be waiting to be asked just as much as clients or are nervous about passing on potentially negative information.

Anonymous: Some clients want to tell you how they feel but are not willing to engage in a face-to-face conversation. For these clients, an anonymous survey or comment card provides a channel of communication that would otherwise be out of reach. For a digital option, many companies provide free surveys that can be sent out in emails or linked from your company website or social media sites. This feedback can be the hardest to read but the most important to bring out into the open.

Identifiable: Other clients prefer to think through their experience with you and provide written feedback. They may say everything is fine in conversation but be willing to write down their concerns. They may want to provide their information so that you are able to follow up with them directly, or the issue might be specific to their dog. Surveys can be sent home with dogs’ report cards at the end of the week or month.

Takeaways: Ask clients for feedback in many different ways, keeping in mind to choose methods that are quick and easy.

2. Listen
As soon as you have received customer feedback, the clock starts ticking to show that you are listening. When a customer takes the time to tell you their feelings face-to-face, in a survey, or on a comment card, they are watching for results. Few among us like filling out surveys – we do so with the hope that the person collecting the data will use it to better our experiences. Did you waste their time or are you really reading and paying attention to their concerns? Whether they say so or not, clients will notice and remember your response.

3. Reward
One way to show your customers that you are listening to their feedback during the period it takes you to analyze and respond to their concerns is to provide rewards. Rewards show that you value their time, comments, and participation. When you reach your goal for responses, bring coffee and pastries for clients while they drop off their dogs with a sign thanking them for helping you reach your goal. Pass out merchandise to clients as a reward – tote bags, hats, sweatshirts – clients love them, and they are inexpensive marketing tools for you. Simple steps of thanking your clients communicate to them that you appreciate their time and contributions.

4. Implement
When you compile data from client feedback, sort it into actionable steps. Feedback will come in several categories: personal concerns, quick fixes, multistep changes, and impractical suggestions. Personal concerns include a problem affecting a specific dog or clients’ needs. Those concerns should be addressed one-on-one in a way the client will feel comfortable with. Use your knowledge of the client to make an informed decision about how to best reach out to each person. Quick fixes should be addressed immediately and decisively. They are likely small changes but will mean timely visible progress to clients. Multistep changes require an action plan and may involve more members of your staff. Break down the problem into pieces and develop a solution. As you put the solution into practice, communicate your goal and benchmarks to your staff and clients. Impractical solutions will also appear in suggestions from clients. Many of these suggestions are financially impractical, like adding a built-in swimming pool when you are renting a facility on a short-term lease. They should be politely acknowledged and dismissed as “we’ll keep it in mind.”

Takeaway: Acknowledge feedback in simple ways. When you make a change or progress toward a long-term change, put up a sign or web banner stating that the change came from client suggestions.

5. Repeat
Once you have started asking clients for their feedback, don’t be surprised if they continue to offer their concerns. If so, that is a great sign of your company culture. To keep the feedback loop going, regularly ask clients about their opinions and experiences. Follow with listening, rewards, and implementation.

The real rewards for communicating with your clients come to you and your business. After learning how to manage feedback effectively, watch your customer loyalty, satisfaction, and referrals increase.

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