Let’s not waste it.

Feedback
Giving feedback is easy, you just indicate what you think about it. Droves of people do nothing but exactly that on Twitter or fora, revelling in self-expression and self-importance expressing the injustice that has happened to them. Some people even blog about it occasionally – like yours truly. Often under the veil of ‘saving the world’ and improving customer service. However, it can not be denied that the possibility to vent one’s frustration has a little bit to do with that as well, although I realize I can only speak for myself here, of course.

An alternative
As the subject of criticism, either as a producer of a product or service – or even worse, if the topic is myself – of course I would prefer compliments over criticism. However, what really helps me develop myself or my product is constructive criticism. And that is the offer of an alternative: when I have a visitor in my house, it does not help me if she tells me that she likes my living room (or not). However, if she indicates “if you would move that plant to the right, you would get more sunlight entering the room” that is an alternative that I can consider and reject or accept. Constructive criticism is an alternative

A gift
Such an alternative is also much more difficult to give, because you need to think about it, so it requires effort and attention. It were much easier to offer either immediate rejection of my living room (“If it comes from him it must be horrible”), sometimes called prejudice, or utter idolization as the opposite extreme. Apparently the guest has spent time, effort and attention on me or my product. Constructive criticism is a gift, and a gift is only given to people one thinks worthy of that gift.

A valuable
So if somebody takes the effort to think about an alternative for a part of your ‘product’ that in effect is an investment in the relationship. I would not take the time to offer to just anybody, if I am to think something through I would limit such efforts to only those that I find worthy of my investment in time. Complaints without an effort to get a rebate or an exchange are perfect examples of such gifts (see also my blog “I want your complaint” about the pragmatic benefits of complaints. Other examples are suggestions for product features (let alone that you can build a whole business concept around it like Lego). Therefore, one should cherish critical customer feedback and product suggestions.

A return obligation
If somebody invests in our relationship by suggesting an alternative for my living room, the worst thing I can do is to just ignore it, that would be indicating I consider her suggestion irrelevant for my consideration. If she finds our relationship worth the effort of constructive criticism, I should at least give feedback what I have done with the suggestion or what I am (not) going to do. The same thing applies to customer product suggestions and customer constructive criticism. I can give a large set of examples where the people or organizations apparently are just uncomfortable with the idea of constructive feedback or too badly organized to take advantage of it. I will not get into details since that would bring us into a situation with nothing but me venting my emotions…
So we should not give all feedback the same attention, but constructive criticism always should get a substantive response, regardless how difficult that sometimes might be.

(Originally published December 18, 2013)