Closed-loop Feedback: A Comprehensive Guide

How’d you feel if you’d have to repeat your problems again and again to one agent and another?

And nobody resolves the issue, rather it's only getting escalated.

Your customers might be in the same pool!

So, are you listening to them?

If yes, then that’s great. But not enough.

Listening to the feedback is not enough unless you take action on it.

And that’s where closing the feedback loop comes in.

But, what does closing the feedback loop means?

Closing the feedback loop simply means listening to the customer, taking action on their feedback, and informing them of the action taken.

But, why is it important and how can it help you?

Let's take an example.

Mark recently bought an AC from the Croma store. The store sent a support agent to install the AC at his home. After a few months, the compressor stopped working. So he reached out to the support team. They listened to him, sent an agent home, and fixed the issue within 24 hours. He was very happy with such instant services.

That’s why closing the feedback loop is crucial. It directly boosts customer satisfaction.

And not just that! Closing the feedback loop can help you?

• Increase retention rate?
• Boost customer loyalty
• Improve product and service
• Increase response rate
• Identify the gap between customer experience and customer expectations

So, how to close the feedback loop?

Here’s a step-by-step process to closing the feedback loop.

STEP 1: Collect customer feedback on one platform and listen to their issues.?

STEP 2: Reach out to your detractors and understand their issues in-depth.

STEP 3: Prioritize the top customer issues causing the most friction.?

STEP 4: Assign the issues to the concerned department and brainstorm solutions.?

STEP 5: Take the required actions and inform your customers of the same.?

This is how you close the feedback loop. Now let us look at the types of closed-loop feedback.

Two types of closed-loop feedback?

1. Inner loop?
2. Outer loop

Inner loop

Mike wanted to return a pair of trousers that he ordered a few days ago. But the delivery boy didn’t come. So Mike reached out to customer support. He explained his problem to the agent. The agent understood his problem and scheduled the pick-up again at Mike’s choice of time. He was happy with the action taken by the agent as his product was picked up in the evening.?

This is called the inner customer feedback loop.

In the inner customer feedback loop, the agent instantly can give resolution to the customers on their own.

But, why is the inner customer feedback loop important??

• Promotes individual employees' and teams’ learning
• Gives ownership to the employees to make the right decisions for customers
• Boosts customer engagement and morale
• Results in happy customers

So, how to make it successful?

Best practices that make the inner customer feedback loop successful

• Identify for which department the feedback is coming and then give ownership to them.
• Share the feedback instantly with slack or email or use a feedback platform.
• Call detractors quickly or set up an SLA to call them within 48-72 hours for their feedback.
• Share positive feedback with the team to keep them motivated.
• Record everything and discuss it in weekly or monthly meetings.?

Points to remember?

• Share the feedback instantly to the concerned department
• Train employees regularly on how to close the feedback loop.
• Reach out to your detractors immediately or set up an SLA to know their feedback within 48-72 hours.
• To take follow-up calls, and appoint owners of touchpoints responsible for their team.

Now comes the question of ownership. Who should own it?

Who should own the inner customer feedback loop?

The customer feedback can vary so if the feedback is about?

• Service, agents, or their managers, then SERVICE TEAM will be responsible.
• Product, product manager, or UX designers, then PRODUCT TEAM will be responsible.
• For all kinds of customer issues, loop CX TEAM.
• And SENIOR MANAGEMENT knows all types of customer issues and how we are responding to them.

Now you know everything about the inner customer feedback loop.

But what happens when the individual agents ain’t able to resolve the customers’ issues on their own?

Here comes the Outer Customer Feedback Loop.

Outer loop

All those complex issues that the agents cannot resolve themselves and require significant structural changes that need approval from the head of the department or C-Suite are resolved under the outer customer feedback loop.?

Stakeholders are involved and huge investments are required in issues like system changes, policy updates, pricing, product features, etc keeping customer expectations in mind.

For example, Florida is unable to pay for the pair of stud earrings that she added to her cart. When she reached out to the support team for the same, the agent asked her to wait for some time and shared this issue with the technical head. The tech team looked into the issue, analyzed that other people are also facing the same, and resolved it from the core. This is called the outer loop as the agent cannot resolve these kind of issues themselves.

So, what is the importance of the outer customer feedback loop?

• The outer loop focuses on the issues that the agents can't resolve on their own.
• The customer tends to trust companies that listen to the customers’ issues.
• It makes the organization truly customer-centric.

Moving forward to how to make it successful.

Best practices to make the outer customer feedback loop successful

• Collect feedback from all the surveys and inner loop, common customer complaints raised by the support team, and the voice of front-line employees.?
• Identify the common themes of the issues and assign them to the concerned department.
• Ask questions like what will be the initiative’s impact on the customers and business, how much effort is required to implement the initiative, etc. to prioritize the actions of improvement with the respective team.?
• After prioritizing, create action plans.?
• At last, communicate with the employees and customers.?

Here’s an example of Olay closing its feedback loop.

Key points to keep in mind

• Significant investment is required
• Demands deep analysis and a firm decision to invest resources
• Identifies, prioritizes, allocates resources, and manages customer-friendly changes?
• Requires Project Managers to share reports about the progress of improvements with involved teams.
• Involves all the functions across organizations

Now that you know everything about the inner and outer customer feedback loops, there’s a? difference in closing the loop in B2B and B2C.?

Difference between closed-loop feedback in B2B and B2C

To close the feedback loop in B2B, product managers or customer success professionals reach out to the customers to know what issues they’re facing. Once they identify those issues, they prioritize them and add them to the product roadmap.

On the other hand, in B2C, the customer count is very high! So, calling all of them is not an option.?

• Instead, gather all open-ended feedback from all the channels.?
• Identify the common issues with negative or low NPS/CSAT scores.?
• Reach out to 5-10 customers (who explained their issues in detail) to understand the root cause of trending issues.?
• Brainstorm ideas, prioritize, and create action plans with your team.?
• And most importantly, inform your customers that you have heard them and taken action.

Remember: Take feedback only when you actually plan to USE it.

And to give a good customer experience, always LISTEN to your customers, UNDERSTAND their problems, and take ACTION on them. That’s all about closed-loop feedback.

• Want to know more? Head to our handy guide here!