As a direct result of the feedback we have been given since launch, relating to the pricing structure for the Feedback Scheme service, we have decided upon setting clear bands for businesses in multiple locations, and also introducing some substantial new discounts for larger organisations.

Further to this while ‘£5.99 per month per location’ was being well received as affordable by many small businesses, for some sole traders particularly this figure was still prohibitive, and so we’ve lowered the single location licence to a payment of just £59+VAT per year, so to ensure that Feedback Scheme membership is absolutely affordable to any business, with a view to its adoption as a UK standard over the next couple of years.

The new price bands and rates took effect at 1pm on Tuesday, 20th January 2015 and you can view more information if you click here.

Feedback Scheme will endeavour to continue to listen to feedback ourselves when speaking to organisations in the UK, and make changes accordingly to the scheme going forward.

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A brand new scheme being launched this week aims to provide UK consumers with a single familiar system with which to easily make complaints to companies across the UK, when they are unhappy with a service.

Using Feedback Scheme is completely free for the customer, they simply enter the name of the business and its location. There are no long questionnaires, the customer simply gives their feedback in their words, before sending it direct to a local manager within the business. A customer can then monitor when their feedback has been read, and receive a response, all the while keeping their own email address confidential.

Feedback Scheme founder Jamie Snape said, “Until now every company was forced to setup it’s own feedback website which they print hopefully on the bottom of their till receipts. If the customer does decide to visit the site they tend to be greeted by long questionnaires which often just go to a head-office administrator, and that’s not really what the consumer wants. If unhappy with a service a customer wants to be able to quickly and easily communicate this to the local manager within the business, and have them action change on the ground. Now with Feedback Scheme it’s possible, one familiar website to communicate complaints to lots of companies right across the UK.”

Consumers have often been left feeling frustrated in the past when they encounter bad service, leading some of them to vent online using review sites or posting on social media. This often damages the business by harming it’s hard-earned reputation. Feedback Scheme also gives the customer an easy alternative to just writing negative reviews, allowing them to actually help rather than damage the business, by sending their experiences privately to a manager who can then in turn respond to the customer.

Jamie Snape continued, “Many consumers who are upset about a service will have valid reasons to be so, but from this week if they see that the business is a Feedback Scheme member they will know that they are really open to hearing negative views, indeed welcome them so they can improve their business.”

Feedback Scheme aims to be used by the majority of restaurants, pubs, hotels and shops within 24 months of launch, making it much easier for UK consumers by being universal. The cost of membership for businesses has been set to a nominal fee to achieve becoming the UK standard for sending feedback for businesses large and small.

Jamie Snape concluded, “I fully expect Feedback Scheme membership will quickly become something people just expect to see from any UK business of quality, as put simply it will demonstrate they actually care about what their customers think, and will want to quickly rectify any problems locally.”

— ENDS —
Photography : Feedback Scheme founder Jamie Snape demonstrates the new Feedback Scheme system on laptop and mobile.

The biggest brands in the world are all now setting their sights on the smallest marketplace in the world, the marketplace of one. With the development of Customer Experience Management, large companies are turning to CXM systems with the aim of treating each and every customer as a unique market, and by understanding each customer, their marketing can then be tailored to appeal to and ‘wow’ each and every individual.

By analysing a customer’s order history, you can begin to anticipate their order future. When combined with insights gleaned from the analysis of ‘big data’ it allows large companies to give their customers a tailored service, where often they seem almost able to predict other products or services the customer would also like, which at its very best almost knows their future needs, and as importantly seldom delivers to them information which is irrelevant or of little interest.

Big data analysis allows companies to see for example that of all its customers that ordered product A and product F, 30% went on to order Product Z, and therefore Product Z might be pro-actively suggested to the remaining 70% that ordered A and F since a significant trend was detected. This of course is a very simplistic example, and in reality the data might yield much more subtle trend information that can be used.

Coupled with analysis of customer data is seeking VoC (Voice of the Customer) as often as possible, and from as many touchpoints as they are able i.e. their website, call centres, stores etc. The implementation of a customer feedback scheme is now viewed by many big corporations as imperative and an integral part of CXM, and its importance is also increasingly being seen by SMEs seeking to really get to know their customers.

An effective feedback scheme allows companies to understand the ‘mood’ of their customers, and see where the CX has fallen short in the eyes of the customer themselves. Since they are usually closed loop feedback schemes, they are also used to be pro-active and perform customer rescues as required.

With the exception of new business or product launches, the days of fixed message mass marketing campaigns from large companies seem set to diminish. Technology is now beginning to allow them to be replaced by marketing tailored to the individual but at volume, leading to a massively increased ROI since the information being received by each customer is more relevant, and more likely to result in a take-up.

Small businesses now look set for their biggest challenge yet, having survived thus far in the face of supermarket giants expanding and discounting into a range of non-food markets such as books, clothes and even car tyres, and then also competition from global online retailers such as Amazon. This latest test from large organisations is in their deployment of the latest advanced CXM (Customers Experience Management) systems to deliver an amazing customer experience.

As we move into the new age of the customer, driven by CXM, we’re fast leaving behind a time when a business could merely pay lip service to customers care, when a call to customer service involved them being passed from advisor to advisor, and being put on hold so many times that a week later the customer still found themselves humming the hold music.

Social media has given a vast audience to any customer left disgruntled by a service or product, meaning a hard earned reputation built up over years could be shattered in no time at all. More than this a new breed of organisation has emerged that has done the simple maths, and realised that moving a marketing budget across to CX (Customer Experience) is in fact the best way to attract new business, listening and reacting to customer feedback, marketing to the individual, and then using the word of mouth generated after ‘wowing’ their existing customers to grow their business, and of course in turn, vastly reducing the churn rate of previously dissatisfied customers too.

To compete in terms of customer service in the years to come, SMEs must leverage the one advantage to their size, that being the staff and owners in the business can really get to know their customers on a personal level, and building real relationships with each. Further to this using a feedback scheme will be essential to act as a barometer in terms of how customers really feel about their business at any given time, running throughout the lifecycle of the relationship with the customer. The customer isn’t always right, but should be made to feel they are, and any business failing to listen to their feedback scheme and focus on how their customers feel, will find they gradually fall behind in this the new age of the customer.

If you work in the hospitality industry, perhaps running a B&B, hotel or restaurant, then one of your biggest issues for the last two or three years has probably been the damage that can be caused to your business by negative online reviews.

Whilst you may work hard to ensure a quality service, the likelihood is that from time-to-time you still get negative reviews, as what is considered excellent by one customer, will be viewed as unacceptable by another. The truth is that guests or customers often aren’t best placed to critique an establishment, since they are not an inspector who is spending their days inspecting similarly priced venues in the same locality, therefore their ‘yardstick’ may have been set at an unrealistic level.

So if you are in hospitality, perhaps running a guesthouse, hotel, pub or restaurant, what can you do to protect your business reputation against the often unjustified negative online reviews? Well in reality it is often tough to get existing negative reviews removed. Some sites do offer a system whereby you get points for each positive review, and so collect enough and you can exchange them for having a negative comment removed, but this is often not an available option and so the best solution long-term has to be to avoid getting them in the first place.

It’s impossible to get everything right, for every customer, all of the time…but you should always aim to. However when things do go wrong, to avoid negative reviews firstly provide an easy to use feedback scheme, making it more likely unhappy customers will feedback to you rather than vent their displeasure on a review site as people these days are busy and would seldom have time to do both. Then when you do get negative feedback it’s essential you fight the impulse to be defensive, you must challenge yourself to make the customer happy, remembering often they will then become a bigger advocate for your business than one that was happy in the first place.

Secondly, since you are putting in place a feedback scheme and acting upon the feedback i.e. implementing closed loop feedback, why not go all the way to adopting a customer experience focus within your business, and really set out to ‘wow’ your customers with your service levels. If you do you will find the word of mouth benefits will easily outweigh the extra time, money and effort invested, and also you yourself will feel far more positive about and indeed rightly proud of your business.