Managing Customer Feedback

One of our primary functions within the quality assurance department is to monitor customer feedback and take the necessary steps to fix the errors in our products when our customers find them. There are several ways that customers can send in their questions and feedback:

- Phone calls
- Emails to [e-mail] 
- BIS feedback emails
- Satisfaction surveys

Collecting and responding to customer feedback regularly helps us ensure that our customers get a quality product and have a quality experience with it.

Collecting Feedback

While there are many different ways for our customers to contact us, the QA department receives customer feedback through three primary channels: Microsoft Teams, customer surveys, and our department email inbox in Microsoft Outlook.

Microsoft Teams

Inside the Quality Assurance space on Teams, we have a channel titled "Customer Concerns and Feedback." In this channel, the customer experience department sends messages any time they have an issue reported by a customer (either over email, phone call, or chat) that they are unable to resolve on their own. 

Any time we receive a message in this channel, our job is to investigate the issue and decide on the best way to fix it. If the issue is beyond our ability to solve, we can enlist the help of another department as needed. To eliminate unnecessary interruptions to other departments, customer experience will come to us with customer concerns first so we can determine whether we can fix the issue ourselves. These issues are usually SCORM file bugs or incorrect content in the course or exam.

Example: Sometimes, SCORM files are glitchy. Customers may report to customer experience that the SCORM file is malfunctioning by getting stuck loading on a certain slide. We can resolve this by replacing the SCORM file in Talent and synchronizing the users. However, if a customer reports that one of the quiz questions is marking them wrong on the correct answer, we would need to forward this to learning development so they can republish the course.. 

Customer Feedback Survey

Near the end of each online and trainer certification course on Talent, users can fill out a customer satisfaction survey. The survey contains questions about how likely the user is to recommend our company to a friend or colleague, as well as what the user feels we can do to improve their experience. 

We built this survey using Google Forms because it allows us to record an unlimited number of responses. It provides us with a cheap and simple way to calculate our Net Promoter Score (NPS) and gauge what our customers need us to fix. The results of this survey aggregate inside the Hard Hat Training Feedback (Responses) spreadsheet. Because this spreadsheet is constantly updating with new data, you should never try to alter anything on it; otherwise, you may interrupt the data collection process. 

Feedback Emails

The [e-mail] email inbox collects forwarded messages from customers who leave feedback on our Hard Hat Training website and from users who have taken our courses through BIS, one of our major resellers. Emails from BIS are forwarded to us from [e-mail] with the subject "Course Feedback Email." Emails from our website are forwarded to us from [e-mail] with the subject "HHT Issue Form."

Inbox Management

To keep our inbox organized, we have a couple of places you can move all of the feedback emails.

• "Customer Feedback" folder: This folder is the catch-all for customer feedback emails. Unfortunately, BIS does not filter the reviews they send us, so most of the emails we get from them will not have any feedback in them. You should delete any emails that come in without reviews and ratings. On the other hand, emails from our website will always have written content. In either case, you should flag any emails in this folder that do have written reviews so we know which ones we need to add to the Customer Reviews & Feedback Summaries spreadsheet.
  • "Added to Spreadsheet" folder: Emails with reviews that have been added to the "Email Feedback" tab in the Customer Reviews & Feedback Summaries spreadsheet can be moved to this folder.
  • "Stars Only" folder: Emails that feature star ratings but no written reviews should be moved to this folder. Once the ratings have been recorded in the "Reviews with Stars Only" tab in the Customer Reviews & Feedback Summaries spreadsheet, these emails can be moved into the "Added to Spreadsheet" folder. 

Monitor the inbox regularly on your assigned day. We have a filter rule on our inbox that is supposed to move the customer feedback emails into the Customer Feedback folder automatically. However, this rule doesn't work sometimes. When it doesn't work, you can simply move these emails into the Customer Feedback folder on your own. 

Categorizing & Summarizing Feedback

The feedback we collect is of no use unless we organize it effectively. We have several visualization tools that help us categorize and display customer feedback for the other departments in the company. 

Hard Hat Training NPS

This dashboard displays our net promoter score (NPS) according to the results of the customer feedback survey on Talent, specifically the question: "How likely are you to recommend the Hard Hat Training series to a friend or colleague?" The score is expressed as a percentage between -100% and 100%. In addition to the promoter scores from each survey, we can also view customer responses about why they entered the scores they did. 

Image: NICE Systems, Inc. 

Note: The NPS is a predictor of customer satisfaction and business growth. It's important to the management team that we track this number so we can better understand what steps we can take to expand our customer base.

Customer Feedback

This dashboard displays all of the feedback we've gotten in response to the questions, "What can we do to improve your experience?" and "How can we improve this course?" from both BIS and Talent users. It also has a pie chart that breaks down the types of feedback we've gotten, divided into the following four categories:

1. Reviews: These include any feedback that is positive. Depending on the content, the web department may choose to display these customer comments on our website. 
2. Suggestions: These include any feedback that contains suggestions on what we should do to improve customer satisfaction. These may identify issues or offer solutions. 
3. Technical Errors: These include any feedback that highlights something malfunctioning in the course.

Note: Management uses this dashboard to view customer feedback trends at a glance. While we may not find this dashboard useful for our purposes, it is a great resource for management. You may choose to share it with your assigned department for training purposes as well. 

Customer Reviews & Feedback Responses

This spreadsheet is full of data that we can summarize however we want and is broken into eight tabs across the bottom. The "Issues Summary" and "Master" tab auto-populate with information from the other tabs, so you will not need to edit anything inside them. However, the other tabs will require some manual interaction. 

Talent Tab

This tab automatically populates with specific results from the customer satisfaction survey on Talent. You will only need to worry about updating columns K, M, N, and O. Make sure to match the formatting of the content already in each column, including any validation rules. 

Column M is the "Issue" column. This is where you can categorize the feedback as either a review, suggestion, complaint, or bug. You can also choose a combination of those options if the feedback seems to fall into multiple categories. 

Column N is the "Main Issue" column. In this column, you should include several keywords that summarize the issue, such as audio, pictures, written content, exam content, etc. This will help us create a broader picture of the types of issues our customers are giving feedback about. 

Column O is the "Department" column. Here, you can assign the feedback to a specific department to look at. All reviews should be assigned to the Web department. However, suggestions, complaints, and bugs may be assigned to a combination of departments. 

Column K is the "Translation" column. This is where you can put an English translation of reviews that are written in a foreign language. Use DeepL to provide the translation. 

Email Feedback Tab

This tab contains the information we glean from the customer feedback emails. You will need to input the information by hand, as we don't have a simpler way of transferring the data currently. Make sure to match the formatting that is already in each column of this spreadsheet. 

Inside the email, there are several pieces of information that you're looking for, shown below:

BIS Feedback Email

HHT.com Feedback Email

Reviews with Stars Only Tab

This tab displays the information we glean from the BIS feedback emails that feature star ratings, but not worded feedback. Remember, those emails should be inside the Stars Only folder inside our inbox. You will need to input this information by hand as well.

Department Summary Tabs

You'll notice we have four tabs titled "For Web," "For LD," "For Media," and "For QA." We can edit the For QA tab directly inside this spreadsheet, however, the other three tabs will be exported into separate sheets. These sheets will comprise feedback records for each department that we distribute to each department manager at the end of every month. 

At the end of each month, you will need to change the date parameter inside the Query function in A1 to only include data from the previous month. Then, you can copy and paste the data from that sheet into a separate file to distribute to the relevant department. 

Responding to Customer Feedback

Whenever customers leave their email addresses in the Talent survey, the information from their survey is automatically added to the For QA tab of our Customer Reviews & Feedback Responses spreadsheet. You will respond to these customers via email, both to thank them for their support and to address their questions or concerns.

To respond to a customer, first, choose a template for your email. We have four main email templates, which you can find here: Q:\Customer Feedback Email Templates. You should use that most closely fits the type of survey response you plan to give:

• Thank you for your feedback! - This template is for responses that contain bugs, complaints, or (sometimes) suggestions. 
• Thank you for your review! - This template is for reviews or (sometimes) suggestions. 
• ¡Gracias por sus sugerencias! - This template is for Spanish responses that contain bugs, complaints, or (sometimes) suggestions. 
• ¡Gracias por su comentario! - This template is for reviews or (sometimes) suggestions in Spanish. 

Inside the templates, there is a space for you to enter the customer's name. If necessary, you can look up the customer's name in the Users menu in Talent using the email address they listed in the survey. If you cannot locate the customer's name, change the greeting to something generic, such as "Good afternoon!", "Hi there!", or "Hello!"

Responding to bugs, complaints, and suggestions may entail doing a little research beforehand. Do your best to be thorough, understanding, and accommodating as you draft your response so the customer knows that we take their feedback seriously.

For all emails, sign off with your own name, and make sure you send the response through the [e-mail] email account. As you respond to feedback, be sure to fill out Columns L, M, and N in the For QA tab so that we know what we have left.

Email Signatures

At the end of any email you send out from the [e-mail] account should include our company email signature at the bottom. Refer to the Email Signatures section of the Corporate Materials article to learn how to add it.