Live Feedback Survey Insights Elevate The Customer Experience

The Customer Experience Matters

When companies ask you to take a live feedback survey after engaging with their customer support, you should take the time to do it. Why is that? Because, customer service is part of your customer experience. With that being said, all too often, companies fail to ask the right questions. When you receive bad customer service, your expectations are not met. Let me tell you about a recent experience I had with Delta Dental. 

My annual invoice arrived and that made me head scratch. It stated I was on autopay, so no action was needed; however, the due date is what stood out. As a well-trained online user, I logged into my Delta Dental account to verify my suspicion. Yes, I was correct. This led me to contact Delta Dental’s customer service. Here is where the customer experience friction begins. The first attempt to speak with a live human was fruitless. Delta Dental’s interactive voice technology, loop after loop, ended up with me being disconnected. Okay, for the second attempt, I took a different approach. There were a couple of friction loops, but I did get to talk to a live human. The problem with the billing discrepancy was due to the software not speaking with how their autopay functions, thus no ability to align due dates. Apparently, I am not the only one calling for this clarity. The customer service agent, though, kept apologizing by repeatedly stating, “I am sorry.”

I told the agent that it sounded fatuous to hear that because no employee should apologize for issues that are beyond their control to resolve. Here is where the live feedback survey comes in.

Engage With Live Feedback To Learn What Really Matters

After the call ended, I took the survey. Why is that? Because as a marketer, I want to understand what a company is fishing for when it comes to feedback. More than likely, Delta Dental thinks it provides superior customer service. However, it creates friction loops and places its customer service representatives in the awkward position of apologizing for correctable issues. There were four questions. Each one had its own rating scale. The first question asked how likely I would be to recommend Delta Dental. The second question asked how easy it was to resolve my matter. The third question wanted to know if the representative solved why I called. Their last question wanted to know if I would hire such a representative if I was hiring customer service representatives. 

Live customer feedback is valuable actionable information. However, what Delta Dental failed to learn is:

A. How to understand its own process of friction to get to a customer service representative, and

B. Customer service representatives are unable to swiftly eliminate mine and others' billing confusion due to internal process issues.

The following are five live feedback example questions that could be asked:

1. How easy was it to speak with one of our customer service representatives about your inquiry/issue?
2. Was the reason you contacted us resolved by the representative, and if unresolved, what needs to happen?
3. Did your representative provide you with positive interactions?
4. Can we follow up by phone or email?
5. Would you recommend Delta Dental to a friend?

The Customer Experience Evokes Emotion

You can define bad customer service as failing to meet a customer’s expectations, and that is poor customer service. The emotional impact of the customer experience cannot be stressed enough. Customers are the lifeblood of all businesses, which translates into revenue. If you’re not focusing on how to improve your customer experience strategies, why not? In view of the fact that customer experience and loyalty go hand-in-hand, what a simple way to delight and differentiate from the competition. But remember, customer service and customer experience are not the same. It’s merely an element of the entire emotional experience.