Getting Feedback From Your Customers and Crew

How do you know what your customers want or don’t want? How do you know what your own crew is thinking?

There are a lot of ways you can get feedback, but one of the most efficient and cost effective ways to do so, is through a survey. We do this every year with our crew and for sure will be doing this every year going forward with our customers.

Honestly, I am hesitant to send out surveys some years because I feel like I’m bothering people and they won’t want to do it. In my early years, I was even afraid to face the criticism of what they might say about the business and from my crew, I was afraid of the criticism they would say about me as their leader.

But with time and working on myself, I’ve learned to not only accept both, but gladly welcome it to help me see things I may be blind to both professionally and personally.

This year, we sent out a survey to our customers and was really surprised with how much participation we received and how much time and thought they put into our survey. The responses gave us so much insight into what they appreciated that we were doing, what they wanted us to start doing, and what were their greatest frustrations were. (Props to my crew who found a way to compile the survey to make it quick and easy for our customers to fill out. Plus we offered an e-gift card incentive for completing it!)

And taking the time to create this survey was so worth it! Going through the hundreds of feedback (and using a Google form was so helpful to organize the results easily). It helped us to see if our plan aligned with theirs and if there was some things I had to pray about and tweak. After all, we are here to love God, our boss, and love others, our chocolate friends.

In addition to all of this, the crew provides their own survey response that is much more in depth and their ideas are taken into account and we work with them to address concerns. With permission, their responses are shared with the appropriate team members so others can see why we may or may not do things in the future.

This of course takes time because we first must build a safe work culture where you can be honest and open and not be reprimanded for your ideas or concerns.

Some are individually addressed, and some you can see are unanimous among the team and need to go into effect. Some can’t be done, but we can explain why and work towards it for something in the future. I love it because you are hearing from the heart and soul of your people and that’s so valuable to help them not only in their work, but the impact you can make on them and their lives.

finding peace by piece:

Listen. Ask for the feedback and take your time going through to review it and apply what you can. Your customers and crew will be so grateful that they are heard and valued enough that you’re willing to make change to show your gratitude and appreciation for them.