Course Outcomes

This customer feedback management course will:

  • Outline the value of evaluating performance.
  • Help participants choose what to measure.
  • Review best practices for gathering opinions and feedback.
  • Offer language for responding to positive and negative customer reviews.
  • Discuss best practices for keeping track of changes over time.

Course Overview

“You like me!  You really like me!”  To quote Sally Field, there is nothing better than feeling “the love” from people who evaluate our work.  As service providers, most of us inherently know that delighted customers spread the word, show their loyalty, and can add to the bottom line or in the case of government providers, generate value for the taxpayer. This course focuses on customer feedback: deciding what to measure, choosing when to measure, knowing how to measure, responding to feedback, and tracking changes over time. The program is best suited to participants who can affect how data is gathered, measured, addressed, and monitored.

Program Objectives

At the program’s conclusion, participants should be able to:

  • Articulate the aspects of service that are important to their organization and why they should be measured.
  • Describe best practices for designing and collecting survey data.
  • Design a survey.
  • Explain alternatives to traditional questionnaires.
  • Demonstrate how to professionally respond to positive and negative feedback.
  • Know where to look for feedback online.
  • Create a plan for tracking changes over time.

The following outline highlights some of the course’s key learning points. As part of your training program, we will modify content as needed to meet your business objectives. Upon request, we will provide you with a copy of the participant materials prior to the session(s).

Course Outline

What to Measure: Determining Values

This introductory discussion focuses on the services the participants provide, why they matter, and what is important for the organization to measure.  Working through a series of exercises, the class will articulate their top service values.  Next, group members will determine what those values look like at their best, worst, and levels in between.

Best Practices: Understanding What Works Best

Our next seminar segment explores best practices in survey design and data collection.  During this part of the workshop, we will discuss such topics as questionnaire length, question structure, response construction, the use of required questions, when to send a survey, how to position requests for feedback, and other issues related to designing a solid feedback mechanism.

Ready, Set, Write: Designing a Survey

Armed with information about good survey design, in this part of the workshop participants will work in teams to design a questionnaire to measure their performance against the organization’s service values.  Following the initial design, each group will explain its survey, evaluate it against a checklist, and receive general feedback from the class.

Survey Alternatives: Using Focus Groups and Other Options

Sometimes surveys are not a preferred method for collecting data.  This part of the seminar looks at challenges related to the use of surveys, such as survey fatigue, and alternatives for collecting information.  Through a series of interactive discussions, group members will learn how and when to conduct focus groups, one-on-one interviews, usability tests, and other options outside the realm of questionnaires.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Responding to Feedback

When you ask for feedback, chances are you are going to get it.  If your organization is like most, some of it will be good, and some of it won’t.  Regardless of what you read or hear, it is important to respond professionally.  During this part of the program, we will look at a model for handling positive and negative evaluations and language that communicates to customers that their opinions matter and ultimately influence how we do business.

Unrequested Information: Monitoring the Internet of Opinion

In the age of Facebook, Yelp, Google reviews, Glassdoor, and other sites that encourage users to share their experiences with others, it is important to monitor and respond to what’s going on online.  This seminar segment shares information about places to look for feedback and best practices for responding to unsolicited opinions.

Dashboards and Control Centers: Keeping Data Organized

Too much of a good thing can quickly turn into a bad thing.  This is particularly true of survey data.  In this final part of the course, we will look at the importance of organizing information, dashboards, and collecting and comparing key measures over time.

At the program’s conclusion, participants should understand how to measure opinions, methods for soliciting feedback, and best practices for responding to information shared by customers.