Ken Blanchard famously said, “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” Yet many of the business leaders I work with are starving for honest customer input.
The best businesses have a formal system to get consistent feedback from customers and use it to improve. I’ve helped several businesses do this and have seen the change it can make when we are confronted with actual customer opinions.
This gets challenging as businesses grow and the leaders are further removed from customer interactions. The best leaders want regular feedback from customers, especially the negative kind.
I came across a great example of this when reading Built From Scratch: How a Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion, the book co-authored by two Home Depot founders.
Home Depot was founded on a commitment to the customer, which required the leaders to make sure they knew whether or not they were delivering on that promise.
In the early days, they put a big, freestanding sandwich board at the exit of each store. On the board was a silhouette of a person and this message:
“Are you satisfied? If not, contact the store manager, or call me, Ben Hill, director of consumer affairs, at 800-553-3199.”
Here’s the brilliant part: “Ben Hill” was fictional. The number went to their Atlanta headquarters, and whenever somebody called asking for Ben Hill, that was code red. The call got expedited to the highest-ranking person available. No matter what they were doing, they stopped and took the call.
This system accomplished three things:
- It kept company leaders aware of problems
- It created accountability for store managers
- It ensured consistent resolution of customer complaints
What’s your feedback system? If you don’t have one (or it’s not working), let’s schedule a 15-minute call to design something that fits your business. Just hit me up through the connect page.