I came across a blog post1 the other day that discussed the cost a company incurs because of poor customer service. One of the surprising statistics that stuck out to me was that 97% of customers don't complain or vent their frustrations, even when they are unhappy with a product or service. I should clarify that they are certainly venting to their friends, families, work associates and the pizza deliveryman about how horrendous this product or that service is... But they're not voicing their complaint to the company responsible.
Why aren't businesses hearing from these individuals more often? Can you imagine how much of a positive impact their feedback could have? In order to receive that crucial resident input from the silent majority, your apartment communities must establish practices that show you do in fact want honest feedback from the people you serve each day.
Once you've made the decision that you want this feedback, regardless of how harsh it may be, there needs to be an effortless avenue for residents to provide their input. You have to make it as easy as possible. Integrated ratings & reviews, net promoter scores, and comment forms are a few simple, online avenues for a customer to let you know how good or bad you are doing as a company.
Once you have the data, you have to leverage it. It's actually worse to ask people to provide feedback and then do nothing about it, than it is to never ask for feedback at all. When residents take the time to express how they feel about the place they live, management is responsible to listen and respond. Take the insight that's collected and use it to help drive business decisions.
Lastly, follow-up with those customers who have left you feedback, whether it's good or bad. Let them know how much you appreciate the time they took to share. If they've shared a complaint, let them know what the company is doing to help resolve an issue or prevent a negative experience from happening in the future.
For every complaint that a customer submits, there's likely a substantial population of silent side-liners that share their sentiments. You probably can't capture feedback from every single resident, but you can definitely gather more than what you have right now, and that will provide greater insight as to what your entire customer base is thinking.
So what does your company do to help engage the silent 97%? Let us know in the comments below.
By: Blake Webster
1http://digitalprinting.blogs.xerox.com/2014/03/11/how-much-does-bad-customer-service-cost/