Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that if you want feedback, maybe you don't
Speaker 1: need to create an elaborate survey that people won't really
Speaker 1: feel like filling out. You could just ask for feedback
Speaker 1: in whatever way people want to offer it. After all,
Speaker 1: feedback is a gift, so it may not be wise
Speaker 1: to tightly dictate the terms. So every time I turn around,
Speaker 1: I feel like I am being asked for feedback. The
Speaker 1: venue where I went to Disney on Ice asked me
Speaker 1: to fill out a survey about my visit. My doctor's
Speaker 1: office wants to know how they did. All of this
Speaker 1: can be great. I appreciate the desire for continuous improvement.
Speaker 1: I also know that an online survey can provide an
Speaker 1: efficient way for collecting and synthesizing feedback from many people. However,
Speaker 1: I tend not to fill out online surveys because well,
Speaker 1: they may not be structured in a way that allows
Speaker 1: me to really give my opinion. So that's why I
Speaker 1: was excited to recently receive a refreshingly simple invitation to
Speaker 1: offer feedback. You've recently used our app, this company said,
Speaker 1: and we would welcome any feedback. If there's anything we
Speaker 1: can do to make our app better, just reply and
Speaker 1: let us know. Wow, someone is going to read a
Speaker 1: sentence I write. What I loved about this straightforward request
Speaker 1: is that the company acknowledged that I was doing them
Speaker 1: a favor by giving them feedback, so they weren't going
Speaker 1: to force me to provide feedback in the way that
Speaker 1: was most convenient for them. What's more, this incredibly open
Speaker 1: ended invitation for feedback lets them find out what's most
Speaker 1: important to me. If they asked me a dozen questions
Speaker 1: about how satisfied I was about various aspects of their service,
Speaker 1: they would know my opinions on those topics, but maybe
Speaker 1: none of that would specifically get at how I felt
Speaker 1: about their service. But with the open invitation for any feedback,
Speaker 1: they get to find out what's most important to me.
Speaker 1: I am not going to write about how I felt
Speaker 1: about a dozen different aspects of their service, because the
Speaker 1: truth is I don't feel like making time for that,
Speaker 1: so I'll focus on the one or two pieces of
Speaker 1: feedback that are most important, which means they get to
Speaker 1: find out what it is that influences my opinion of
Speaker 1: them the most. So if you are involved in collecting
Speaker 1: feedback at your workplace or for an organization you volunteer with,
Speaker 1: I want to know how people feel about your services.
Speaker 1: You can consider that One option is just to ask.
Speaker 1: This can be an email inviting feedback, or it could
Speaker 1: be some sort of suggestion box, or it can be
Speaker 1: just a spoken invitation to provide feedback. For instance, at
Speaker 1: the end of a meeting, you could tell people if
Speaker 1: you have any feedback on this topic or how I did,
Speaker 1: please email me or come by my office to share it.
Speaker 1: I'm interested in your thoughts. If you want feedback, don't
Speaker 1: feel like you need to develop a complicated survey. Now.
Speaker 1: I know that people like to put together materials. Noting
Speaker 1: that customer satisfaction rose on this dimension from eighty five
Speaker 1: percent to ninety two percent. I totally get that numbers
Speaker 1: feel meaningful. Everyone likes numbers. But consider that people might
Speaker 1: appreciate the opportunity to provide feedback in their own way,
Speaker 1: and you will get to know how they feel about
Speaker 1: the topics that are most important to them. That is
Speaker 1: worth something, even if you don't get easily digestible statistics.
Speaker 1: Speaking of which, If you have feedback for me, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear it in whatever form it comes. You
Speaker 1: can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our times. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.