Feedback honesty: Do I really want to know what people think?

In any business, feedback from customers is essential to growth and success. However, not all feedback is positive, and it can be hard to receive negative comments about your hard work. In this article, we will explore the importance of feedback honesty and how to use it to improve your business without letting it affect your ego.

“A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.” – Michael LeBoeuf

But what happens when they are not satisfied? This is a hard one. You pour your heart into your business. Refining, shaping it, giving it more of your time than anything else and pinning your hopes/dreams on its success and then … someone doesn’t like it.

Yep, they don’t like it. 

Ok, so what do you do? 

Three options for feedback honesty

1. Ignore it and hope it goes away 
2. Respond and argue with the customer 
3. Humble yourself and try to use it in the pursuit of your goals.

Option 1 is a horrible idea. It won’t go away. Business is built on reputation. If you ignore an issue when it’s small, it is just going to fester and get worse as you grow (or even worse stunt your growth!). So put on your big-person pants and go to Option 2. 

Option 2 shows a little more maturity than Option 1 but not by much. Yes, definitely respond, but DO NOT ARGUE with a customer. Ever. There are whole books written on this topic. As soon as you make the issue personal, you have just lost the battle, so move on to Option 3. 

Option 3 summed up is humble yourself. It takes a huge amount of guts, trust or sheer ego to give negative feedback in our society and you will not know the motivation of the person you are getting feedback from. You need negative feedback to grow. It can be used to improve your products and services more effectively than 10 positive feedbacks. Don’t make it personal and see it as a gift. And then make sure what has happened doesn’t ever happen again.  

My final pearl of wisdom is never hide the issue, our society values transparency. A bad review on Google, Facebook or Amazon properly handled is worth more than a single good review as it shows the character of a business. 

Good luck with showing your character 😊
Amy Thompson (Head Monkey)