One of my concerns with the growth of freelancers and small businesses is the lack of feedback for talent development. In large organizations, talent development and feedback are built in through existing processes. Processes include client surveys, quality audits, training, coaching, performance reviews, peer feedback, etc.
Talent development affects the client experience and quality of service provided. And quality affects client retention, referrals, revenue, and industry perception.
There’s a lack of feedback for many reasons, but primarily because it’s not pursued during and after the client experience. This might be due to a lack of ignorance, know-how, time, or fear. For many founders, their business is part of their identity so any feedback feels very personal. This makes it difficult to receive feedback and when they do ask it may not be constructive. This stems from the client or vendor not wanting to damage the relationship, lack of understanding of the service, or indifference. How do you fix this?
There are multiple ways to collect feedback. Below are my preferred practices and tools.
1. Social Platforms
Using social media to get feedback is one of the easiest ways to start. What are people saying in your comments and DM’s? What resonates with them? What do they want to see more of? What questions are they asking? These are forms of social feedback you can use to develop and refine services, digital products, and content.
- Instagram makes it easy to use polls and questions in stories and posts. Have you tried the poll function in posts?
If you don’t have much interaction, read the comments under posts from peers in your industry. Keep in mind you’re only seeing a tiny glimpse of a situation without context. But it may spur ideas for what the market wants.
2. Surveys
A common missed opportunity is not getting feedback during the experience. It’s easy to be preoccupied with the work and assume everything is going well. This is where leading and serving clients well comes in. Asking for feedback during the experience makes it easier to address concerns instead of letting them build up. Surveys are an easy tool to build into your client experience.
Surveys can be used during and after the client experience to gather feedback. I love surveys because they help quantify feedback and make it measurable. It creates a standard baseline to measure quality against and then raise. For example, if you have an average of 7.5/10 as your baseline, then you can make your goal 8 or 8.5. Once you consistently achieve 8, then you can raise it again. This gives you a place to start.
Anonymous surveys allow clients the opportunity to be more candid. Candid feedback can show the difference between one vocal disgruntled client, two frustrated silent clients, and seven satisfied silent clients. You can create a field at the end of the survey to select if they want to be contacted.
I use surveys throughout my business. I use them to get feedback on coaching sessions, what Notion templates to create, the client’s employee experience, and the client’s client experience. These all provide additional data points for my client and me to improve internal processes and performance.
Previously, when I hosted masterminds I used surveys for research and development. Surveys were sent to participants and subscribers to learn more about their needs.
Recommended Practices
- Keep surveys brief. Make it easy to give constructive feedback.
- Include questions that make it easy to quantify and for the client to respond. Use multiple-choice, ranking, checkboxes, drop-down, sliding scale, etc.
- Allow opportunity for nuanced feedback with open-ended (how, what, why) questions.
- Ask unbiased questions. (ex: Overall, how satisfied or dissatisfied were you with your service?) This allows a more accurate range of feedback for you to learn and grow your business.
One of my favorite and most trusted resources for creating surveys is SurveyMonkey. Whether you are conducting client satisfaction or market research they have a bank of questions to choose from. Right now, I use Tally forms and they automatically sync with my Notion dashboards.
3. Reviews
Reviews on marketplaces (CreativeMarket, Etsy, Facebook) and review sites (theKnot, Google, Yelp) allow clients to leave candid feedback on their experience. Reviews are requested after service is complete. The client rates their experience, shares details, and posts photos, if applicable.
A review provides insight into your client’s experience from their perspective. All reviews, both positive and negative, should receive a response. Positive reviews are an opportunity to reconnect, show gratitude, and find brand ambassadors. Negative reviews are an opportunity to acknowledge frustrations and learn so you can continue to refine the client experience.
Negative reviews are a part of business. You won’t make everyone happy. Most people can tell the difference between an unreasonable raging review and a genuinely frustrating experience by the reviewer’s choice of words. How you choose to respond is an indicator to potential clients of whether you take ownership of creating solutions or become defensive. Potential clients are forming opinions based on the reviews and your response to or lack of. We’ve seen the comments where businesses have been called out for deleting negative reviews.
Reviews provide social proof for the quality of service you provide. Ask for reviews as part of the closing process in your client experience. You can include a link to leave a review in a digital document, payment receipt, or closing guide.
4. Testimonials
Testimonials are ideal for marketing. They are different from reviews and take more effort and time. Testimonials are gathered from clients who loved their experience and are willing to share their story. You can share their story with a case study or video.
The key to gathering testimonials is to make it easy for your client to respond. Include questions for them to answer that address key elements you want to highlight when marketing your business.
Example Questions
- Tell me about a specific time when __________ was able to help you/your business.
- How is ________ different from other __________ service providers?
- How would you describe __________ to a friend?
- What problem were you looking to solve?
- How did working with ____ provide the solution you needed?
- What advice would you give to future clients working with ____?
Testimonials are great for service pages, lead pages, social media campaigns, client guides, etc. I find testimonials are more effective when placed in line with marketing copy.
How to Use Client Feedback
Soliciting and accepting feedback brings challenges. Focusing only on the positive creates blind spots. Putting too much emphasis on the negative can hinder confidence and momentum.
Read feedback when you have a clear head. Being stressed, tired, or hungry will make you more defensive to feedback. If you feel triggered, wait 24 hours (sleep on it)before responding so you respond with clarity and grace.
Remember feedback is subjective and defines a specific experience with a specific client in time. Individual feedback does not define you or your business as a whole. Look at feedback collectively and the larger story it tells. What is the recurring theme? What is your business doing well and where does it have an opportunity to grow?
Use your mission and values to filter feedback. What feedback can help us achieve our mission? What feedback aligns with living our values?
Some feedback will need immediate action. Other feedback can be used in quarterly planning meetings to improve client experience, team training, service offerings, product development, etc.
It helps to acknowledge feedback and keep clients updated on changes. It closes the feedback loop. And when clients feel heard and appreciated you strengthen your relationship with them. This encourages and creates more engagement.
On a final note, these practices and tools don’t replace regular client conversations or picking up the phone to eliminate misunderstanding. Relationships require multiple approaches to keep them healthy. 💞 I’m cheering for you!
join the conversation
What other ways are there to gather feedback to improve the client experience?