How Closed-Loop Customer Feedback Improves Customer Experience

How closed-loop customer feedback enables continuous learning and improvement.

Customer feedback programs too often neglect to continue the conversation after customers respond. If you want to win on customer experience and systematically increase customer loyalty you’ve got to maintain ongoing dialogue and continuous engagement with your customers.

Companies that “close the loop” and continue the conversation will experience higher ROI from their customer experience programs.

What Does It Mean to Close the Loop?

Every customer response holds the promise of further conversation and further insight. Closing the loop with customers requires not only gathering responses but then acting on that insight.

For example, if a customer shared that they had a great experience with your company, a manager could reach out and thank her for sharing. Or if the customer share that they had a negative experience, that manager could offer an apology and try to right the wrong with an incentive to buy from the company again in the future (such as a coupon or free shipping).

The first step in closing the loop is sharing the customer feedback directly with employees. So closing the loop works best when companies use a robust feedback platform that enables detailed reporting.

Closing the Loop Requires Commitment

Successfully closing the loop with customers requires commitment from the company and each frontline employee.

Customer experience-focused employees must take the time to

1. Dig to find the root cause of a customer’s problem, or uncover the best practice that led to a great customer experience
2. Contact customers who have provided feedback.

And they must do all of this in the most customer-friendly manner to help customers feel more cared-for than bothered by the attention.

Companies must recognize that this will require and investment of time and money.

Big Benefits of Closing the Loop

Reaching out to customers who have provided feedback is a great way to ensure that issues are addressed expediently. When customers have their problems solved practically right away, this can breed brand loyalty.

This is also a great way to catch at-risk customers before they become detractors and reinforce your brand with customers who had a great experience.

Closing the loop offers benefits to your employees as well. It gives them a unique opportunity to see the company through the eyes of the customer, and engage with customers in a hands-on manner. Not only does this help employees become more engaged with customer service, but it helps those employees see how their roles fit into the larger company strategy.

The Right Platform Makes Closing the Loop Easy

Closed-loop feedback promotes a continuous dialogue with customers and enables continuous learning and improvement for the company and its employees. Closing the loop makes customer feedback more effective and valuable.

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