Why kiosks make better service feedback platforms
While growth in the use of feedback kiosks in the UK remains slow, the tool proves to be the most relevant and most effective for collecting customers’ feedback.
Today’s successful service providers understand the great importance and necessity of getting service feedback from their customers using the best tools and at the right time. They appreciate that the survival of their business depends largely on such parameters. Despite this, it isn’t uncommon to notice the large gap that exists in the UK market between the necessity for effective customer feedback using appropriate tools and the rather outdated approaches some businesses continue to use. Consumers’ fast-evolving communication habits and the busyness of our daily lives means businesses who continue to use such outdated methods for gathering service feedback are possibly losing out on a great and easy-to-use tool that can help them make a good statement of seriousness about service, while enabling them to effectively measure service delivery performance.
Why dip your head in the sand when you can keep your neck straight up?
While service feedback tools have evolved greatly in the last decade and offer quite modern and easy-to-use platforms such as digital feedback kiosks, several businesses remain stuck in somewhat ineffective ways to connect with customers in order to gather insights, understand their needs and learn how to best serve them – simply put, they dip their heads in the sand. One such approach is what I’d describe as the ‘dangling promise’. It is that growing trend of making a cash promise in exchange for customers’ feedback – this is a method common with large retailers across the UK. And while some are quite enticing, fundamental questions about their effectiveness remain: are those approaches truly effective? And are customers genuine about their feedback under such circumstances? The answers are quite simple: A dangling promise doesn’t drive genuine feedback from customers, and as such it isn’t an effective approach. But that doesn’t seem to deter businesses from wasting thousands of pounds every year doing it. Reality is, if businesses want genuine service feedback from their customers, no promise can influence it.
Another traditional method used by some retailers is the ‘Peekaboo A4 request’. A dangling promise’ on an A4 page that usually find itself amongst dozens of advertisements around the till point, triggering much effort to identify them. Businesses who use this method must understand that while the British customer is renowned for waiting patiently in long queues, such methods won’t move them while they wait, and expecting any feedback from a ‘Peekaboo A4 request’ is thus as useless as a dangling promise. It simply doesn’t work, and less than 5% of customers react to it.
Electronic (email) service feedback requests have also become quite popular in recent years. Industries using it the most include hospitality, retail and general service providers. This method has several caveats ranging from the email request likely ending into a spam box to falling to the bottom of its intended recipients’ priority list. Fact is, the busyness of our daily lives means prioritization has become paramount. Unless the service experience was a memorable one, it is usually almost a bygone memory. And that means it is 60% less probable to get a customer reaction from it. The question is therefore, can digital service feedback kiosks make the difference where so many gaps of opportunity exist for retailers?
Effective customer feedback uses the right tools to record customers’ insights and opinions at the point of service and in near real-time. Not too early, not too late. Kiosks help achieve just that!
Service Feedback Kiosks are proving to make a great difference to businesses that opt for it. They offer the versatility, innovation and intuitiveness that make a statement of seriousness about improving service delivery and quality. Their attractive designs also trigger the immediate customer attention, interest and reaction that paper-based and email options for service requests cannot. Even better, their adaptability and ease of use means they can be availed to customers when and where it matters most, and for different types of feedback: service level feedback, product quality reviews, employee engagement, etc.
Businesses can also receive customers’ views without the threats that some online platforms come with, and kiosks’ modern technology connects with twenty-first century’s evolving consumer habits. Starting at around £2.00 a day, feedback service kiosks are a very affordable and effective tool for management (and staff alike) to analyse customer insights and gauge Net Promoter Score (NPS) data in near real-time. Retailers who don’t use them today could be losing on a strategic tool to help improve their service levels.
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jesse.palle@rateme-now.com
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