Asking your customers for feedback can help you learn valuable information about how to grow your business. But what do you do when a customer completes a survey without providing any comments?
It can be difficult to follow up with customers when they haven't supplied any comments to indicate why they scored you the way they did. Faceless and commentless negative scores might also be frustrating or even detrimental emotionally to those who are trying hard to run the business.
Here are a few tips to help better understand this type of feedback and deal with it.
Why don't my customers leave comments?
Inevitably, some customers choose to abandon the survey after selecting a score. Others simply decide that they do not have the desire or time to leave comments but will still click through to the end of the survey. Another possibility is that the customer may not have the time to write all of the comments up front but plans to return to finish the survey later. (Customers can return to the survey and submit comments at any point as long as they have not moved past the comments page.)
Why aren't comments required?
Requiring comments can cause the customer to abandon the survey if they do not want to write something, prompt them to enter something like "none" just to get past the requirement, or even frustrate them. If we, as businesses, are willing to give our customers the opportunity to provide feedback, we feel it's important that we show that we're just as willing to receive that feedback tomorrow as we are today and that we're willing to receive as much or as little as the customer has to offer.
What can I do with feedback that has no comments?
We recommend treating each negative response (feedback with a score between 0-6) with no comments the same way. Even if the customer decides to provide comments later, a negative score is often enough to indicate that the customer has a concern or has had a negative experience and timeliness is an important factor when following up. This is a great opportunity to reach out via phone or email and strengthen the relationship with that customer by showing that you care about their experience. If they were willing to do the survey, chances are that they will be willing to share their comments with you if you ask them directly. This will allow you to still collect the details you need to resolve the problem or address the concerns appropriately.
If you discover that the customer mistakenly submitted the feedback, you can ask the customer about the possibility of completing a new survey to replace the incorrect one. If the customer is willing, you can send a new feedback request manually.
Even reaching out to promoter customers (feedback with a score between 9-10) who haven't left comments can be turned into an opportunity. Ask them what they loved about their experience and if they would be willing to share that positive experience on a social review site like Google.
Additional Questions? Please reach out to Listen360 Support via email at support@listen360.com