Voice of the client (VOC) feedback: Why you need to THINK about what is being said

There are few better ways to build stronger relationships with your clients than to seek their feedback: on your performance, on your service offering overall, and on your responsiveness.

But when reviewing client feedback, I tell my clients/partners to apply the THINK approach to their analysis. So for this week's BD Tips Wednesday I thought I would share a high-level overview of the THINK approach to VoC feedback.

THINK

If you hadn't already guesses it, 'THINK' is an acronym that stands for:

• True
• Helpful
• Interesting
• Necessary
• Kind

It derives from an approach taken in public schools here in New South Wales, Australia around the way students are taught to interact and communicate with their fellow students.

But I have found it a helpful tool to use when considering client feedback. My approach has been to adopt this and ask:

Was the feedback True?

Whether positive or negative, you need to ask yourself the sobering question of whether the feedback provided was true?

Here, I'm not asking you to defend yourself against what has been said - at least, not yet; but to reasonably [apply the man on the Clapham omnibus test] determine whether the feedback was true or has an element of truth to it?

Is the feedback Helpful?

To be useful in the future development of your practice, the feedback needs to be helpful. If the feedback is not overly helpful, then there's not too much you can do with it.

Also, in my experience if a client is not willing to give helpful, actionable feedback, then it is almost certainly negative to the extent that you have all but lost the relationship.

Was the feedback Interesting?

Both positive and negative feedback can be enlightening. It can highlight both where you are doing something really good and progressive that you had not really thought of in that light; or, alternatively, it can bring to light a defect in your service offering, team, etc that you were not aware existed.

In a large part, this is why garnishing client feedback as part of a VoC program is so important!

Is the feedback Necessary?

The necessary question falls off the back of the interesting one. Knowing what you now know, was it necessary for you to find out what you now know?

In my experience the answer to this question is almost always: "yes".

Was the feedback Kind?

To be actionable, feedback needs to be constructive. It is very easy to give negative, unhelpful and, at times, spiteful feedback on a bad service delivery.

As anyone who listens to my conversations with utility providers can vouch, I'm not immune to this problem. But I accept the feedback I provide is never going to be actioned and is therefore all but useless (as an aside, did you know that you cannot give a Net Promoter Score feedback of 'zero/0'? Neither did I until I was speaking with a utility provider recently).

But, for a service delivery, I try to ensure my feedback is on point, polite, honest and immediately actionable. The service provider is putting it on the line, and the least I can do is respect that.

Bringing it all together

Okay then, we all agree that VoC feedback is an essential lifeline for service providers*. With that in mind, give some thought to applying a THINK approach to any feedback given (whether that is you giving the feedback or you analyzing feedback).

As always, get in touch if you need help with your business development strategy and activities.

Richard & GSJ

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*only we clearly don't, because less than 50% of professional service providers have a formal VoC program