It’s good to give feedback to businesses

I got a surprisingly nice gift when I complained to a local big chain store about their corporate website, which gave me the wrong business hours – causing me to get to the store an hour early and waste my time. My gift was three sample-sized products, a handbag mirror and a $40 gift certificate. Not bad for an hour of irritation.

Getting freebies isn’t the only – or even the best – reason to give feedback to the people you do business with. Nor should you only give negative feedback! If you want businesses to treat you right, you have to let them know how they’re doing – good or bad.

More and more companies are offering surveys where you can win money if you call a phone number or go to a website and tell them about your latest shopping experience. From my own customer service experience, I can tell you businesses that value their customers are eager to hear the good, the bad and the ugly.

Positive Reinforcement

Complaints are informative, but nothing beats knowing when you’re doing it right. When no one says anything, a business doesn’t know if that means they’ve got it just right, or they should be trying something new. It may seem silly to pull aside an employee and say, “Listen, I just want to let you know you guys are really doing it right and don’t change a thing” but the feedback of one passionate customer often means more than a dozen scientific surveys.

And yes, sometimes they give you a freebie for being a loyal customer.

Examples of positive feedback:

Let a restaurant know their service is particularly good, friendly, fast, etc.
If you’ve ordered this meal several times before but today it’s even better than usual, let them know – it might be they’ve gotten a new chef who doesn’t work cheap, but is well worth the price if her work makes that much of a difference.
Let a shop know you’re glad they stock X or carry it at a good price, especially if it’s hard to find otherwise (believe it or not, knowing they have one regular customer for an item can make a difference when they’re deciding what to restock).

Constructive Complaints

A business that doesn’t value constructive complaints is missing the point of being in business. When you explain to them precisely what they’ve done wrong and how you think they should have done it differently, good businesses value that feedback. How else can they know what’s in the minds of the customers they lose?

Examples of constructive complaints:

If an employee is rude to you, let management know. (Don’t be too hard on employees who are clearly under strain, but there’s never an excuse for actual rudeness.) That person may be sweet as molasses to the boss’ face and get the raises and perks other employees would better deserve.
If service is terrible, say so. If you can make a suggestion for improvement, even better.
If you’re not getting what you were promised/sold, tell them.

Tips for Giving Effective Feedback

Speak to the right person. The cashier doesn’t have the authority to address many complaints. It’s always better to talk to someone in at least a supervisory position. Calling a corporate 1-800 number is also good.
Don’t give en employee positive feedback about himself. Always talk to someone above the employee in rank, so the employee will benefit.
When giving negative feedback, don’t assume you know who is at fault. You know what went wrong, and you know who was involved, but it might be a bad store policy rather than a rogue employee at fault.
Don’t give too much feedback. Yes, you can overwhelm them with too much information. Or you can dilute the value they give to your feedback by dumping too much of it on them. Save it for exceptionally bad or good moments – unless the business in question is always exceptionally good, at which point you should just let them know this every few months or once a year or something.
Put it in writing. If you’re really serious, emailing or writing a letter to someone in authority means your feedback probably goes into a file where it will be remembered later when the business is making decisions about how to continue its operations.

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