Feedback Culture: How Uber Mastered the Feedback Loop

The information economy has made feedback from customers and employees an integral part of successful businesses today. We’ve shifted away from knowledge-hoarding and demand-driving, and toward satisfaction and engagement. A feedback culture is emerging and is transforming how successful companies operate.

This shift has produced new challenges and opportunities for customers and businesses alike. It is more important than ever to focus company efforts and resources on increasing satisfaction, because not doing so has immediate, and often public, negative consequences. When employees are unsatisfied, they can negatively impact customers and other employees, or leave your organization with a hole to fill when they leave. When customers are unsatisfied, they can take to social media and share their angst. Monitoring and acting on employee and customer feedback is essential for every company today.

Feedback Culture: The Key to Employee and Customer Satisfaction

The combination of this new feedback culture with new combined with new technology has enabled customers to share their opinions about their experiences with companies. Customers can rate, evaluate and “like” almost anything they buy, which enables companies to create better buying experiences, product offerings and customer service experiences.

When employees are enabled and encouraged to give feedback, companies get a better idea of employee engagement levels, performance, and even organizational strengths and weaknesses. Companies can use this data to make targeted improvements and engage employees more actively. Fostering a constructive employee feedback system and responding to that feedback also motivates employees to trust their employer.

Ratings are a key part of the new way feedback is being utilized. Today, we can rate almost anything. Even our ratings can often be rated.

Today’s customers and employees are empowered and mobile. An example of a company that understood this fact and effectively used it to its benefit is Uber.

How Uber Mastered Feedback

Uber took the idea of ratings and ran with it to create a feedback loop that benefits both drivers and customers.

One of the first companies to connect riders with drivers through a mobile app, Uber uses the rating system both ways. Customers rate their drivers, and drivers rate their customers.

This two-way feedback system benefits both sides of the satisfaction equation in many ways.

First, it allows the company to quickly and expediently identify problem drivers. Uber creates an average rating for each driver based on collected customer feedback. If a driver’s rating slips below a certain average, the driver is prompted to improve their service. If the driver’s average does not improve within a certain period of time, the driver is let go from Uber.

The second part of Uber’s feedback equation is equally important, however. This two-way rating system also protects Uber drivers from problem customers. If a customer is abusive or aggressive, for example, the driver can rate them poorly. This rating is visible to other Uber drivers, who may choose not to pick up that problem passenger in the future.

This is a great example of how building a feedback culture has changed the economic landscape. Not just by putting more power in the hands of buyers, but also by protecting employees.

How Are You Using Feedback Today?

Opening the door to employee and customer feedback is the best way to create a beneficial dialogue that promotes continuous improvement for your company. Are you creating a feedback culture to improve your customer and employee experiences?