Getting started
Welcome to RateIt! We’re thrilled to be a part of your upcoming customer experience journey!
In this guide, you’ll find a few tips and suggestions that will help set you up for long term success with RateIt.
Key takeaways to look forward to:
Tip: If you’re wondering how to go about customising the questions you ask your customers, contact us at [email protected].
Your frontline staff are your key to getting the most out of RateIt
As you prepare to introduce RateIt to your business, you may find yourself deciding whether or not you should include your frontline staff in the initial launch (or perhaps even at all).
The most common reasons customers decide not to include their frontline staff are because:
They don’t want to increase the workload of their frontline staff
They are just trialling RateIt and will involve them later on
Their HQ team is better equipped to manage customer feedback
However, the benefits of including your frontline staff are hard to ignore:
Increased engagement rates across the board
Improved productivity and accountability
Increased staff morale and enthusiasm
Why should these things matter to you?
Keeping your staff in the loop about why you’re introducing RateIt and what to expect once it’s live will alleviate any anxiety they might be feeling (e.g. “Is my manager using this to spy on me?”, “Will I lose my job if I receive a bad score?”).
Once your staff are on the same page, they will feel comfortable proactively asking customers to rate their experience (increased engagement) and will be far more thoughtful and aware of their interactions with their customers (improved productivity).
Your staff will be naturally curious (and possibly nervous!) about what their customers are saying about their experience (we’re sure you would be, too!).
Giving them the opportunity to view their ratings in real-time will not only show them where they need to improve but will also show them all of the amazing things their customers are saying about them (increased staff morale)!
Set goals based on impact, not measurability
You may be tempted to set goals such as “Aim to receive at least 10 ratings per day” because they are easy to measure (which is true!) but they won’t help your staff implement changes that make a difference.
Instead, we recommend helping your staff set S.M.A.R.T Goals (Specific, Measurable, Agreed upon, Realistic and Time based) that are unique to each location and are based on the feedback they are receiving from their customers.
Here's an example of a great SMART goal:
The manager of a department store noticed that they were receiving regular complaints about the cleanliness of their store. A new process was introduced that assigned each team member to a section of the store that they were responsible for keeping tidy during their shift.
Over the course of 4 weeks, the manager monitored their feedback closely and not only discovered a significant decrease in complaints about store cleanliness but also found that customers had noticed the improvements and were commenting on them.
Tip: Encourage your staff to host daily team huddles every morning to discuss their goals and feedback received from the previous day. This is also a great way for them to celebrate each other when they receive awesome feedback!
How to turn unhappy customers into loyal customers for life
Earlier this year, a customer of ours shared an inspiring story about how a quick-thinking store manager was able to turn a very unhappy customer of theirs into a customer for life; here’s how:
A woman (let’s call her Anna) was looking for a birthday present for her daughter but was unable to easily navigate through the aisles. Feeling frustrated, she submitted a rating expressing how disappointing it was that their store was not wheelchair friendly.
Within 60 minutes of receiving this feedback, the store manager rearranged each aisle and then invited Anna back to the store to see if the changes made were suitable.
Not only did Anna return to the store, she was able to find a birthday present for her daughter and told all of her friends and family about the amazing service she received.
The moral of the story?
The secret to turning unhappy customers into loyal customers for life isn’t a gift card or a generic email that reads “Your feedback is valuable to us” that will land in their inboxes long after they’ve moved on and forgotten about you. The secret is to have people on your team who genuinely care about your customers and are empowered to make a difference.
WOW your customers with a great response plan!
Something that you likely haven’t considered yet is how you will respond to your customers once you’ve got RateIt up and running and who in your team will be responsible for leading this.
To prevent confusion regarding ownership (which will cause delays in getting back to your customers), we highly recommend getting a response plan in place prior to launch.
A great (but simple!) response plan should cover the following:
Who is responsible for responding to your customers
The first step is to decide who in your team is best equipped to respond to your customers on a daily basis. For example, our retail customers usually assign this to their Store Managers.
What your response time targets are
To prevent customers from experiencing delayed replies, you’ll need to set some clear expectations around response times (e.g. “You must respond to all complaints within 3 business hours and general feedback within 12 business hours”).
Who is responsible for overseeing your responders
Now that you know who is in charge of responding and have set response time targets you’ll need someone overseeing your responders to ensure that they are meeting those expectations.
Once you have a response plan in place, you can focus your efforts on wowing your customers with quick and personalised responses!
Did you find this guide helpful?
We created this doc in order to provide you with helpful tips and suggestions that ensure you’re set up for long-term success with RateIt.
Have we achieved this for you or did we miss the mark? Let us know by emailing us over at [email protected]!