Feedback? No thanks!

Hi,

I have just completed an exercise helping a client structure and manage a pitch by 8 agencies for his business. He has offered the 7 unsuccessful agencies a debrief so that they can improve. My bet for how many of them will take it up: 0%. Naturally they don't want to dwell on a failure. But how else can you learn?

For all his faults (and I never did work out what went wrong) Bob Ansett of Budget Rent-A-Car (it was the '80's, you had to be there) got the service proposition right. He actively fished for complaints from customers so he could discover areas where he could get a competitive advantage. He lapped up complaints.

Be like Bob. Face the music. It hurts. But when you learn from it, you grow.

BTW, I saw Bob in town a few months ago (for the opening of some swank hotel. I guess they were short on tall, greying Americans.) He deserves a place in the Australian Marketing Hall of Fame for his work in almost single-handedly evangelising the customer service ethic in Australia. Our new service economy and our long tourism boom couldn't have happened without that. "Australian Customer Service" used to be an oxymoron. (Look it up.)
Cheers!

Michael Kiely

Email responses:

Michael,

People at work might think it's a bit strange I ask for feedback all the
time, as I want to improve, learn, develop, become more efficient - so next
time I can tackle it faster/smarter.

Constructive criticism is great- but so often it is delivered to the person
in such a manner that it is not perceived as constructive. Then emotions set
in, and before you know it- staff retention drops a few percent.

Jo

..........

Of course the reverse also applies....on a number of occasions I've been asked to prop on some media training or PR only to find that my hour or two of work has gone into a black hole. Sometimes I suspect that I'm only there to make up the numbers so that the person they really want looks OK.

More to the point: as a trainer I think that quality feedback is hard to get, but it's also hard to give good quality feedback. And once you've been given bad (say, inappropriate rather than negative) feedback it can put you off being interested in it again.

Bob
........

Hey -

As any decent rock guitarist knows, feedback can be your friend.

When used properly, it can help get you from here to there with much
more drama and authority than if you didn't have it.

Just ask Pete Townshend!

Cheers.

Jeff