Navigating the Feedback Frontier

Feedback is an invaluable tool in helping your organization better serve its customers and partners, and find out what really matters to prioritize improvement efforts. The challenge is figuring out how to collect it and use it effectively. The goal of this blog is to share a few ideas and help you get started on your Satisfaction journey.

The Big Why

Before embarking on a CSAT/PSAT effort, first it’s important to ask yourself “Why?”.  Without defining a “why” it will be more difficult to focus on how to use feedback effectively and you’ll receive feedback about things that don’t matter.  Make sure you can answer these questions:

• What will I do with partner feedback once I receive it?  
• Will it be measured regularly and used as a part of other processes?
• Is there someone who will be responsible for all of this?
• How will we implement what we learn from feedback, i.e. do we have a communications loop established for acting on feedback?
• What interactions or processes will benefit from feedback and are they even measurable?

Asking for feedback is asking your customer or partner for some of their time, and not having a system in place to utilize the feedback is wasting everyone’s time.

What Came First, the Program or the Tech?

Without some program thinking, a great technology solution will wither on the vine.  But despair not!  Some basic structure can help your organization get a multitude more value out of your CSAT/PSAT investment.  Here’s a few basics domains to consider:

• Have someone in charge who is accountable for executing of the measurement and processing of results
• Define a thoughtful approach to technology design and data management of CSAT/PSAT data
• What training or notifications are required for everyone involved in the CSAT/PSAT program?
• Will there be an incentive program or performance management effort utilizing feedback as evaluation criteria?
• Executive analysis and presentation of findings on a periodic basis
• An iteration/review cycle for overall program design and innovation

Technical Solutions

Salesforce offers a number of technical solutions for collecting customer feedback.  A few are outlined here which can be implemented to achieve your goals.

• Using basic Flow and email, it’s possible to send text or HTML messages to customers to collect ad-hoc feedback.  Questions like “What’s one thing we could do better?”
• Utilize a number of Appexchange powered solutions to provide all manner of survey and collection management.  Check it out here! 
• Leverage Salesforce Surveys which is a native add-on that can deeply integrate surveys into your existing business processes
• If you have Experience Cloud, it’s possible to add feedback type components to page layouts such that when users are in the system they can offer contextual feedback, log bugs, or share Net Promoter Score type interactions.
• Modify your case process/collection to include customer feedback via agent training or email template configuration.
• Many PSAT/CSAT results can be measured via standard Salesforce reports, attached to relevant records, or use CRM Analytics if you have the license.  CRM Analytics is a very powerful and interactive way to review customer feedback.
• AI tools are coming on the market to help perform some automatic feedback management like sentiment analysis of Case data.

Putting it all together

PSAT/CSAT is a critical part of a service based company and a well implemented program will pay dividends in increasing customer experience, loyalty, and your brand’s image.  Salesforce is a great tool to serve as the basis for such a program, and aligned with thoughtful implementation it can become your company’s superpower.  Red Argyle is experienced in helping consult on strategy and help implement the technology to make your CSAT/PSAT program best in class. Whether you’re just starting your journey or looking to refine your existing CSAT/PSAT programs, we’re here to help you every step of the way. Discover how our tailored strategies and Salesforce solutions can transform your feedback into actionable insights, driving improvement and fostering lasting customer loyalty.

Don’t let valuable feedback slip through the cracks. Contact us today to learn how we can empower your business to achieve excellence in customer satisfaction.