Knowledge Street :: Feedback

Ask, Listen and Learn

While he was in office, New York City mayor Ed Koch was famous for cheerfully asking “How’m I doing?” at every opportunity. He’d pose this question to all kinds of audiences, from random encounters in the street to official sessions with the press. Hizzoner understood the importance of feedback.

On stage, you can get applause or catcalls, but either way you know where you stand. You know what you’re doing well, and what you need to do better. Those are things we need to know.

Feedback loops should be designed into the basic fabric of any communication program. When talking face to face, we can (hopefully) tell when we’re boring the pants off someone. We know when they’ve stopped listening, and when it’s time for us to shut up. We can’t see that happening when the audience is on the other side of a newsletter.

The techniques for gathering feedback are pretty well understood. Surveys are relatively easy to design and administer, and with web technology, can be delivered at very low cost. Organizations can set up focus groups of one kind or another, and bring them into the process. Websites, whether Intra, Inter or Extra in nature, should always provide a “contact us” option. Customers should be given lots of opportunities to comment on their experience. Web casting tools can take instant polls of attendees, and feedback forms can be provided any time you have a face-to-face session.

How it gets done is not as important as doing it. Doing it is not as important as paying attention to the results.