You know, we are always teaching businesses to be very responsive to negative customer feedback - to turn a customer's negative experience into a positive one - to look at that as a great opportunity to turn a bad experience into a long term loyal customer...
But what about the people who give you positive feedback? What are you doing for them? Are you taking them for granted? Do you just assume those with a good experience will just automatically come back?
You better not! In fact, it just might be as important, if not more so, to acknowledge the positive feedback as the bad stuff. The goal of this post is to remind you to think about these folks!
With the current state of affairs, we are in a very competitive environment for customers. In all fields. And you just can't assume that people who had a positive experience are going to remain with you for the long haul. You have to work just as hard to keep them in the family too.
The good news is that modern tools make this process easier. Using Twitter, Facebook, and blogs enable you keep in better touch with those customers and demonstrate your appreciation for their support. After all, it is all about communication - and those tools make that easier.
But it is still work. It is still necessary. It needs discipline. And it still requires a little creativity to come up with innovative ways to acknowledge their feedback. You don't just care about unhappy customers, you have to care about your BEST customers too!
To me, it always feels like when you bend over backwards to deal with a negative complaint (which you HAVE to do), but you aren't acknowledging the positive feedback, you are only rewarding the negative. I think it is a good idea to do something out of the ordinary for positive feedback too. If it is your practice to give a customer who has a bad experience some sort of discount, why are you not doing the same for a customer who says they will "tell all their friends about your business!"
So, don't forget to acknowledge those customers who give you a great gift of positive feedback. Gosh, even if all you do is send them a thank you note, this extra effort will go far...
What do you think? How do you "reward" positive feedback?