What are the most effective ways to get customer feedback in Quality Management frameworks?

In the realm of Quality Management, customer feedback serves as a compass guiding organizations toward higher standards and improved customer satisfaction. The methods employed for gathering feedback should be selected with care, taking into account the nature of the business and its target audience. Once collected, feedback should be analyzed, acted upon, and communicated back to customers, forming a continuous feedback loop that ensures ongoing quality improvement. Customer feedback, when embraced as an integral part of an organization’s processes, contributes to its success, competitiveness, and reputation in the marketplace.

Quality management is key milestone to achieve the remarkable business growth and sustainability and it always drives from Customer feedback, it is not only improve the company quality matrix along with to open the window for Innovation ,Safety and Sustainability

Few things I found helpful From Juran HB. 1. Surveys: Create and distribute surveys to customers, asking for their opinions and suggestions. 2. Feedback Forms: Offer feedback forms on your website or in physical locations for customers to fill out. 3. Interviews: Conduct one-on-one or group interviews with customers to gather detailed insights. 4. Social Media: Monitor social media platforms for comments and messages from customers. 5. Online Reviews: Keep an eye on online review platforms like Yelp, Google Reviews, and TripAdvisor. 6. Customer Support: Gather feedback through customer support interactions and track common issues. 7. Focus Groups: Organize focus groups to delve deeper into customer perceptions and preferences.

In addition to all of the above mentioned, conducting follow-up calls and surveys through phone calls is important in getting customer feedback. Such methods provide rich qualitative data which can yield deeper analysis to understand issues related to dissatisfaction.

In the era of digital,most of the companies assess customer satisfaction of its products and services by instant feedback mechanism through website link. It's a good way to correct any gap rapidly. Apart from them, there should be mechanism to get customer feedback in an informal way ..thus important to engage and communicate with customers and get their views about products and services ..more importantly,seek areas of improvement. Using NPS(Net Promoter Score) framework and questionnaire is also an effective way of getting customer feedback. At the end, I have observed that data arising out of various forms of feedback are collected,however analysis to arrive and execute action points with clear responsibility and timeline is not matured

Based on my experience-One-on-one interviews are highly effective, they can be resource-intensive, so you may not be able to conduct them with a large number of customers. However, they can be invaluable for understanding complex issues and making targeted improvements.

Interviews and focus groups are great tools to deep dive into customer feedback from both internal and external customers and can be well focused by using other what I would call surface methods such as surveys and questionnaires to identify the areas that warrant more in-depth examination. Using less intensive methods to first identify the areas that need more probing helps to save valuable time.

Customer complaint mechanism- Even though this method seems to be a method of collecting failure reports from customers, it is not what it seems like. This helps to create trust on manufacturers/service provider with a simple fact that customer is not going to lose their money, also this creates a strong communication channel with customers to improve the existing QMS and get more business.

A/c to Harvard Business Review study, businesses that actively collect and act on customer feedback experience, on average, a 15-30% increase in customer retention. Customer surveys being the most popular, are utilized by 64% of businesses, according to a survey by Deloitte. Online reviews and ratings, followed by social media monitoring, are also prevalent sources of feedback, contributing to an 18% average increase in revenue, according to Bright Local study. Continuous feedback loops are essential, with 88% of customers more likely to buy from companies that incorporate their feedback into their operations, as revealed by a Customer Think survey. Effective feedback mechanisms are essential for customer satisfaction and business success.

Face to face customer reviews are good and a scoring customer feedback can eliminate the fake or manipulated reviews to a large extent.

Customer reviews and testimonials are uncut and as pure and unedited as it gets. These require swift examination, validation and response since public reviews can auger well for your organization as well as it can cause damage to your reputation, especially when all comments need not be substantial. Frequent monitoring and response to these are critical to the success of this method of customer feedback to ensure that your organization is judged fairly and that feedback is justified and addressed accordingly to show commitment to customer satisfaction and managing the Voice of the Customer.

Joint venture with customer for product customization- This process is applicable for all product and services in range of scale of implementation and it creates maximum impact on customer/user end as we get bird eye view of problems/gaps in the product/services which can be converted into improving the existing QMS process resulting into creating impact in terms of cost and performance.

Simply provide some value either in the form of little discount on products for providing feedback. If any feedback is productive enough reward it with even more valued stuff.

In my experience, software suite and/ or a dedicated customer feedback centers/ offices were crucial to improve the service quality. My experience in airport sector was vast and I have seen feedback from customers at airport enhanced the ASQ- Airport Service Quality. And the feedback questions were designed in a way that it captures the customer journey from entry at the airport till the time of boarding the flight/ from Dis embarkment from aircraft to parking lot at the exit of airport.

Its good to plan the customer feedback loops as it lays the foundation of Continual Improvement perspective of Quality Management System

In my view, customer feedback portals/platforms can be an effective channel to get prompt feedback. This allows for an easy & organized collection of customer opinions, suggestions and complaints for further analysis. It is essential to respond & acknowledge customer feedback promptly to demonstrate your commitment to quality & customer satisfaction.

In project management the contract is the main document to understand customer expectation and needs. This can also be accompanied with a kick off meeting to clarify doubts if any. This two folded approach is good to manage projects based on client requirements.

I've personally found that going shopping and engaging directly with customers can be incredibly insightful. When you observe their attitudes and, if the opportunity arises, interact with them, it provides a real-world perspective that's hard to replicate through formal feedback channels. These interactions offer a unique window into customer preferences, behaviors, and expectations. It's like getting a glimpse behind the scenes of their decision-making process. This kind of firsthand experience can be invaluable for businesses looking to improve their products and services. It's a practical, boots-on-the-ground approach to understanding and meeting customer needs.

In today's digital world, there are many ways to obtain customer feedback, such as through WhatsApp dedicated number, Facebook groups, toll-free number, emails, and sales teams in the area. In case of complaints, it is important to reach out to the customer as quickly as possible to prevent them from switching to a competitor brand.

In quality management, a feedback system should incorporate data analysis to gain valuable insights. Feedback methods should indeed be diverse, considering the variety of products and processes. Focusing solely on effective ways to obtain customer feedback is not enough; it's essential to analyze and interpret that feedback to drive continuous improvement.