Try to be as objective as possible when giving feedback, and avoid making value judgments. For example, instead of saying "you're doing a great job," say "I noticed that you're doing X, Y, and Z, and I think it's great." This will help the person receiving feedback to understand what they're doing well, and help them to continue doing those things. Similarly, avoid phrases like "you're doing a terrible job" when giving negative feedback. Instead, try to focus on specific areas that need improvement, and offer suggestions on how to improve them.
For negative feedback, apologizing, accepting responsibility, or remaining calm under pressure are good starters, but are not enough. You will calm down the customer/employee when you can clearly demonstrate that you understand their problem, why it is important to them, and how you will resolve it. You can demonstrate this by taking action right away. Getting them involved step-by-step, including involving them physically if the issue is physical, will help them become part of the solution rather than remain impatient or upset while you solve the problem.
Take all feedback as proof of employees' confidence in you as a leader. If people on your team trust you and feel comfortable enough to give you well-intended, constructive, negative feedback, it means that you have created a good work environment. Take a deep breath and identify the core issue they are talking about, don't let emotions get in the way. All feedback will bring some type of improvement. Listen to what they are saying and identify the exact problem, detach it from yourself, and solve it with the help of the team.
One tip on the process of giving and receiving feedback from employees is to listen. Do not get defensive if it is negative feedback. Negative or positive feedback is good in that you can learn what processes may work and which ones may not work for employees. Feedback can allow you to improve certain areas that you may not know needed improvement. It can also bring fresh new ideas to a certain process that you may have been doing the same for years but could use some changes. Embrace feedback, whether good or bad, from your employees!
To whom it may concern. I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend thus far! Happy to chime in as this is a great topic. I own a business with more than 30 full-time, remote employees. Most of us have a natural tendency to be defensive when we receive negative feedback. But if we want to effectively deal with feedback, it's important to try to be open-minded and not immediately dismiss what the other person is saying. Instead, try to understand their perspective and see if there's any validity to their feedback. It's also helpful to provide meaningful feedback in return. This shows that you're taking the time to truly listen and consider what the other person is saying. By doing this, you're more likely to come up with a productive solution that satisfies both parties. if you have any other questions, you can write me on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/condriska/ Best, Connor Ondriska Co-founder at SpanishVIP https://spanishvip.com
Head of Brand and Communications at Helcim at Helcim
Answered 4 years ago
How a company reacts to the feedback it receives is a decisive factor in its success. In my years of experience, I have created a mental note whenever I study feedback for the firm. First of all, I check the legitimacy of the feedback and whether the problems mentioned in the feedback are present or not. I have a team I've found to be the harshest critics of the company, and as they go through customer or employee feedback, they can tell exactly which problems are present and which aren't. Positive feedback is an opportunity to improve and an assurance that you are going the right way. Negative feedback is essential to finding solutions and fixes to refine your services.
Do your best to understand the reasons behind the feedback before jumping to any rash conclusions. In business and in life, it is often our egos that get in the way of hearing the truth behind any statement. Our egos are both fragile and easily inflated which is why the best practices at receiving feedback all involve taking a moment to process the information before our baser instincts jump to conclusions.
Responding to a negative review with defensiveness and frustration may be tempting, but this almost always backfires. Telling your customer why "they are wrong" will only create more friction, so it's best to keep the drama off the feedback page. This type of response will not only frustrate your customer but might also tarnish your reputation online. A better idea is to work off a negative review response template to help create a more measured response. You will be able to respond appropriately and thoughtfully and keep your brand reputation intact. Pro Tip: Remember that your template must acknowledge the problem and show the customer that you are working hard to correct the issue.
One tip that is extremely helpful to know regarding the process of giving and receiving feedback from customers and employees is to never get easily offended or over excited from positive and negative feedback. It's important to always stay receptive with feedback but any employee must also be accepting and calm when accepting it. There are countless examples of customers, and even co-workers, giving negative feedback and comments to employees in the workplace and many of these scenarios can be handled properly with a calm and professional demeanor. You should always listen to the positive or negative feedback, assess aspect of your work the feedback was about, and politely question the person giving feedback with professional questions that can ask what specific example or event brought up the negative, or positive, feedback.
Being open is one piece of advice for the exchange of feedback. Receiving feedback entails being open to new thoughts and opposing viewpoints. Giving feedback entails addressing the behavior at issue at the outset, expressing your feelings in the middle, and indicating your desired outcome at the conclusion. With this style, you can avoid seeming accusatory by not using the pronoun "I" and focusing on behavior instead. One way to deal with feedback is by expressing your feelings. In the case of positive feedback, express your gratitude to your client or employer. You can program an automatic email system to send offers for additional goods or services to people who provide you with positive feedback. You can show concern by acknowledging how frustrating the situation must be for them, expressing your gratitude, or expressing your concern for the issue they are facing. This gives customers or employers the impression that your business is paying attention to their issues.
Feedback should end with providing ideas and guidance. The best way for the feedback process to be complete is to suggest the next steps. Encouraging individuals to keep up the good work and offering suggestions on how to improve upon it is great if they have positive feedback to give. Similarly, with negative feedback, explain how the experience may be improved and encourage employees to suggest actions they can take to bring about good changes or stop mistakes from occurring again. Looking at the next steps and improvising is a great way to deal with feedback. Either way, improvising benefits the company and makes the experience of the customers and employees better!
When giving and receiving feedback, whether it involves customers or employees, positive or negative comments, it's important to remain grounded in your response. We are naturally at risk of being emotionally derailed by feedback, both positive and negative. While all feedback is relevant and valid, it is important that as business leaders we don't become swayed by the things people share with us about our work. Your attitudes toward your own leadership and business strategy has to come from within, and should remain solid no matter what feedback you receive from others. Recognizing and respecting the value of feedback doesn't have to come at the cost of your own confidence and stability as a business owner.
I usually ask my assistant to summarize feedback to me. I think it is important to take negative feedback seriously, but I also don't want it to impact my mood too much, so I try to distance myself from it a little bit. I think it's important to be able to objectively assess what people are saying and decide for yourself whether or not it's valid. I also think it's important to remember that not everyone is going to like what you do, no matter how good it is, and that's okay. I try to take the feedback constructively and use it to improve my work, but I don't dwell on it.
Ultimately, feedback is data companies can use to improve products, internal processes, or services. Whether praising or criticizing, all feedback is useful for deciding how to progress, improve, and move forward. When we notice a pattern in our collected data about a way we could potentially improve our business, we investigate it and experiment with new methods. For employees, that might look like improved workflows, communications, or expectations; for customers, we always opt to maximize user satisfaction. The real secret is to use whatever feedback you receive to get better. Every data point is an opportunity. Businesses should prioritize changing what isn’t working and reinforcing what is.
Online review sites have made it especially easy for people to share feedback about your business. Our rule of thumb at Winona is to always respond to the comments (whether positive or negative). It’s never good to ignore bad reviews. Rather, use them as an opportunity to reply in a way that reflects well on your brand.
SMS surveys have made all the difference in our feedback rates. Customers are more likely to click a quick link in a text to send back surveys, especially when we offer a discount code as a “thank you” for completion. Once someone sends a survey response, we have a support member look at their answers. While we automate the SMS survey campaign, a teammate monitors responses and personally reaches out after a survey is complete. If their feedback was positive, we send them a personalized message of thanks. If their feedback weighs negative, we send them another SMS to try to make things right. With email feedback campaigns, we find fewer customers taking that time to respond, but the personalized feel of SMS gives customers just enough encouragement.
When dealing with negative feedback at work being polite can only go so far. Make sure to track the difficult treatment if it comes from a colleague. If needed, you will be able to use the information documented to explain to your superior why it has been difficult working alongside the employee. If it comes from a customer, remain calm and share the problem with your supervisor and see how you should handle it. Most often they will direct you to the best way to handle the customer. Either way, make sure to always relay the information to a superior to see how it should be handled.
Every customer and employee has their own unique needs and ideas of what makes an ideal company or workplace, and it’s rare for a business to be able to make everyone perfectly happy. Instead, you want to make changes that will have a positive impact on the largest percentage of your workforce or customer base. The best way to identify those changes is to look at the feedback responses as a group, looking for patterns or similarities across the feedback from different individuals that can guide you toward the improvements that will lead to meaningful change for the most people. The same goes for positive feedback—you want to focus on patterns, not individual responses. For example, if one employee says they love your work environment but 10 say it has problems, don’t use that one positive comment to justify not making changes (and, if the situation is reversed, you don’t need to change things that are working well for most people if one employee or customer has a problem with it).
When analyzing your customer feedback and implementing it with your employees it is important to categorize your data in order to see the common threads. Some of the different areas of feedback you are likely to receive from customers are in customer service, user experience, and product experience. Once the trends in each of these areas have been identified, you can turn that feedback into actionable steps. Continue to provide avenues for receiving feedback, such as through customer surveys, to see how any changes directly affect feedback trends in each other the categories.
Your employees are the bones of your business --without them, there is no structure and no strength-- so it's important to listen to their feedback and act on it. When employee feedback is negative, don't go on the defensive about the company's business practices or the offensive by finding reasons to dismiss the employee's perspective. Instead, go on the collaborative, hear them out and use their valuable insight to draft a solution to the problem. Negative customer feedback isn't quite as costly, but it's still essential to respond correctly, so use the same technique of choosing collaboration over defense or offense. The point, after all, is to get the customer back on your side.