How to give feedback kindly: Tips for mystery shoppers and other grown-ups.
Janet Wood
Founder of Silent Customer, a mystery shopping company, and WeWeed, an e-commerce and networking directory for gardeners.
Reviewing restaurants is not as easy as most people think!
Finding fault and being critical is easy but this is not what any mystery shopping company look for in their assessors and it is the polar opposite of what we look for in our Silent Customers.
Silent Customers are motivators not critics. Our language and choice of words needs to reflect that.
What’s interesting is that, in our workshops, Managers easily recognise the needlessness of the hurtful way some people write Trip Advisor reviews but fail to recognise the same critical language they use on their staff and indeed their own family.
Giving feedback that is both effective and kind requires both emotional intelligence and learning. Take a look at some of the feedback tips we encourage our Silent Customers to inwardly digest and ask yourself if you use the same language or, if in fact, you may be guilty of ‘Trip Advisoring’ your nearest and dearest from time to time!