Carol Lee Andersen on How to Gain and Use Employee and Customer Feedback

Are your employees fulfilled, appreciated, and understood? Shep interviews Carol Lee Andersen, the President of Questback North America, about the importance of listening to not just your customers, but also to your employees. And, she shares the advantages and occasional difficulties of doing so. First Up: Shep starts off by introducing Tiny Pulse, a company that has created a simple software program to gain an ongoing “pulse” of your employees with quick, short, and simple surveys for employees. This frames the discussion for the entire episode on customer and employee feedback. He discusses a key fact about collecting feedback – you need to use it, or you will leave employees and customers dissatisfied. Featured Interview: Shep begins the show by asking Carol Lee about Questback’s history. Carol Lee explains that the company got started with a quest for gaining feedback. They discuss the importance of customer and employee feedback, and stress the importance of not only collecting the feedback but also taking action – you must do something with it. Otherwise, your employees and customers will suffer what Carol Lee calls feedback fatigue, which is when customers or employees fill out too many surveys and don’t see anything come out of it. She goes on to explain that when you collect feedback from employees and actually use it, employees feel valued; they feel they are being listened to, and that in turn creates trust. Otherwise, if an employee feels their concerns are falling on deaf ears, then the employee can feel unfulfilled, unconvinced, and even disengaged. They conclude the show with Carol Lee’s final thoughts which are; think before you act, use the appropriate tools, get some advice from the right people, and be thoughtful in your process. Top Takeaways: • Engage Your Employees – Create dialog with your employees. Even if the feedback is unsolicited, if your employees want to provide you with feedback – take it! Employees can frequently pick up on potential issues before they become a big problem. • Avoid Feedback Fatigue – If you collect data you must do something with it. Collecting feedback and not doing anything with it is worse than not collecting at all. If you collect it and take action on the feedback, then employees and customers feel they are being listened to, and that creates trust. • Think Before You Act – Feedback has to be deployed strategically to succeed. It is not enough to have highly engaged employees, you want highly engaged employees that are working towards the same goal. About: Carol Lee Andersen is president of Questback North America and voted as one of the Top 150 Most Powerful Women in New Zealand. She leads a diverse team in crafting and delivering a feedback platform that helps enterprises make better decisions, mitigate risk and avoid costly failures through redefining relationships with the most important people: customers and employees. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices