Interactive Customer Experience (ICX) Summit
ICX Summit: Tapping customer feedback to drive retail wins
How to tap customer feedback to improve the retail brand and make meaningful changes to services and operations was a panel topic at the ICX Summit held in September.
September 25, 2024 by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com
When it comes to customer feedback there is no debate or dispute that it is a top factor in retail success.
Customers are a retailer's best advisors, as Todd R. Daviau, CEO with over 20 years experience, wrote recently in a LinkedIn blog post on why consumer feedback is important in business growth.
But how to collect that feedback, and then how to best analyze and deploy it as a strategic element within the brand's customer experience approach is not simple task.
Those strategies were the focus of a panel talk, "Listen Up: Tapping Customer Feedback to Improve Your Business," at the recent Interactive Customer Experience Summit run by Networld Media Group.
Panelists included Kelli Johnson, marketing manager for Furniture Mart, Tiki Taco CEO Eric Knott, Robin Robison, president at Modern Market Eatery and Alex Tallman, director, retail experience and education for Fleet Feet.
The panel talk, one of dozens during the three-day summit, was moderated by Ben Story, CEO of Avius. Story was one of the founding directors of Avius 20 years ago back in the U.K. and relocated to Florida in 2015.
One point all the panelists agree on is customer feedback is critical, invaluable and necessary for retail success. Not only does it provide insight on what customers want and expect, it can identify what's working and what's not.
The panel shared insight on effective collection strategies, how to leverage that customer data into actionable insights and how to use the feedback to improve product and processes relating to customer experience.
Tips for collecting customer feedback
Modern Market Eatery's Robison believes the best approach to gathering customer feedback is to interact with guests and talk to guests. Robinson has more than 16 years of restaurant experience that includes leadership roles with Red Robin, Bob Evans and Chili's.
"It's a true measure to shape the experience," she said.
Tiki Taco uses a short form survey and Furniture Mart does a customer survey after the purchase and keeps strong track of online reviews.
At Fleet Feet the focus is face-to-face with customers and leaning on store management, given their front-line role with customers, to identify where opportunity is and where the friction points are, said Tallman.
In his role Tallman marries in-store experience innovation with comprehensive training and education programs. He has overseen the transition to a more sophisticated customer feedback tool that leverages AI and NLP to enhance service quality.
Tracking social media feedback
Whether it's an in-house leader or a third-party partner, they key to collecting customer feedback via social media channels is clear, according to Knott. In his role at Tiki Taco Knott is directly responsible for producing results through innovation across operations, technology, real estate and marketing campaigns.
"The person needs a sense of ownership. They need to actually list and take action," he said, adding consistency is critical.
At Furniture Mart there are two dedicated social media strategists collecting customer feedback on a daily basis.
"They are responding [to the feedback] within 24 hours and any issues flow directly to the customer service team," said Johnson. In her role at Furniture Mart, Johnson is responsible for overseeing online reputation management and organic social channels across three divisions.
Modern Market Eatery has deployed a comment aggregator tool and it allows those closest to an issue to respond within 24 hours.
"We have struggled on who should respond," said Robison, eventually deciding to task the general manager as the point person. "They can give the personal touch. You have to make sure you have the right person responding and then give them the technology to help them respond well."
Fleet Feet empowers its local teams to respond to customers.
"We give stores the tools for helping with that. Every employees goes through a training session called customer de-celeration. The focus is restate, relate (validate) and resolve the situation and take a people first approach. It's about connecting on a more human level," said Tallman.
Robinson advocates the use of "BLAST," which is an acronym for Believe, Listen, Apologize, Solve and Thanks. "You want to thank that customer for the feedback," she said.
The value of customer data
Collecting, aggregating and assessing customer feedback is not simple or quick or easy, according to the panelists. But the reward — the return on investment — can be tremendous and invaluable.
"By listening to the guests you can tell where to focus your time and attention. Guests tell you what opportunities you have inside your business," said Knott. In the situation of a disappointing experience a brand should try to win the guest back before they go and share the bad experience, he added.
Collecting customer feedback, said Johnson, represents an opportunity to reach and engage, solve and issue and make it right.
"Customer experience is big and we implement solutions based on feedback. It's about how do we reduce and eliminate issues," she said.
Robison shared the effort is also all about discovering "the root case of a great experience," as well as the "not so great experience."
"Is it in the restaurant or is it in delivery? What needs to be learned? The feedback should dictate that. It is hard to take all that in but if you can it can help guide the customer experience."
After all, said Knott, a brand's sales reflect how well the brand is listening to their guests.
About Judy Mottl
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