Key criteria on the business benefits of customer feedback identified

New white paper defines nine fundamentals for the new ‘always-on’ world of Customer Feedback Management and how organisations can use these to enhance customer engagement and gain competitive advantage

The white paper  ‘Modern CFM: How to Gain Business Benefits from Customer Feedback’, from CustVox AG, and written by its chief customer officer Jukka Hekanaho and CEO Federico Cesconi, explains how CFM should best be constructed in order to bring clear business benefits and maximise the customer experience.

Based on cross-industry studies and vast experience in designing and implementing CFM solutions, Hekanaho and Cesconi define the nine key CFM criteria that collectively enable organisations to effectively use customer feedback to enhance customer experiences. The nine key criteria are:

1. Do not overload the customer. Ask only feedback which is relevant to a customer’s situation.
2. Make giving feedback easy and natural.
3. Build a 360 degree view. All touch points, all kinds of customers, and all kinds of situations.
4. Collect all types of data, including free text answers and voice recordings.
5. Never discard feedback.
6. Produce actionable insights of the feedback.
7. React to feedback and do it fast. The customer is waiting.
8. Use feedback for continuous enterprise improvement.
9. Measure and manage the whole CFM process, especially the outcomes.

“Voice of the Customer (VOC) and Customer Feedback Management (CFM) are core components of any customer-centric business strategy aiming to improve customer experiences. The ability to continuously capture, analyse and act on the VOC gives a business direct insight into how their customer service works and a lever to improve the customer experience,” says Jukka Hekanaho.

He adds: “In just a few years, customer feedback has evolved from a static, one-shot, standard market research survey, to a practice that is enabled by multi-channel touch points in real-time. In today’s fast-moving and interactive business world, a static approach to customer feedback is not sufficient to give organisations a competitive edge.

What is needed today is a holistic and company-wide practice that captures, analyses, and integrates feedbacks in real-time and over all touch points and customer situations.”