I recently took a long 20-hour flight. The kind of flight where you get to see sunrise twice, if you are lucky. And like most flights these days, I was asked feedback on touchdown.
Well, there isn’t anything odd about that. But it got me thinking if all passengers’ feedback is equal?
Imagine someone who has been flying the same airline for fifteen years. Someone who has generally been happy with the airline, and freely recommends it to others. But then he starts feeling that something has changed: The hospitality doesn’t feel the same, the quality of food isn’t consistent anymore, or the seats aren’t that comfortable. The little things that used to work like a charm seem somewhat broken.
Should his feedback be treated the same as that of someone taking their first flight? I don’t think so.
Not because he is more important. And certainly not because loyal customers are generally right. But he can share the difference between what the service was and what it has become. That feels like valuable information, doesn’t it?
Take any company today. I bet you would experience that they are really good at collecting feedback. After a flight. A hotel stay. A support call. A project completion. A purchase. Sometimes before the customer has even had the time to decide on how they feel about it.
Then they aggregate the feedback. Build overall NPS. Look at averages and trends. But averages can make important signals disappear. Suppose overall customer satisfaction hasn’t moved much, but customers who have been with them for more than ten years are becoming less satisfied.
Wouldn’t they want to know that? Maybe the question shouldn’t just be: What are our customers telling us? Maybe the question should be: Feedback from whom? It seems strange that when it comes to listening, we sometimes treat all feedback as one.
Companies already segment customers for almost everything. They segment them to decide what to sell, where to invest, whom to retain and what level of service to provide. Perhaps the opportunity isn’t to collect more feedback. Perhaps it is to get much better at understanding whose change of mind should make them curious.
I wish the airline had asked me that. Emirates, are you listening?