Snippets: the opinion of the silent ones

In a previous post we spoke about how important it is to reach non-complaining customers, who are typically the majority of them.

One way to do it is to offer more accessible and convenient channels. With this companies stay in the Listening mode of engagement described here, but enhance it.

To complement the information 'Listening' provides, companies typically supplement it with an 'Asking' mode of engagement in which they actively reach out to customers. This is a viable solution, of course, but no silver bullet - many customers will not reply to your surveys.

One way to solve the low response rates issue is to stay within the same domain and try to enhance the solution. This is what Mark Ratekin does in this excellent piece: https://www.mycustomer.com/customer-experience/voice-of-the-customer/can-sinking-customer-survey-response-rates-ever-be-revived. I strongly recommend it as it is full of important tips and tricks for increasing response rates; if you are looking for a concise and well-thought through guide on the topic - you've found it.

The other option is to go one level further and embrace the power of data analytics. This is the third layer in the Modes of engagement framework above. While the previous two modes require an interaction between the company and the customers, be it customer- or company-initiated, in the Predicting mode you do all the work in the background. With the amount of data available for customers in most businesses, and with the state of the data analytics know-how, it is now possible to predict which customers are unhappy with your service, even though they might not have filed a complaint. Just like the Listening mode, it is always-on, and like both Listening and Asking, it allows for a personalization of the response. The major difference, and the tremendous benefit, of the predicting path is that it offers the only way to cover your full customer base. Try it out.

My best wishes for a great day ahead!