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Splicing the Feedback Loop

More data doesn’t always mean better customer service

Knowledge at Wharton
Wed, 05/07/2014 - 10:46
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It used to be that restaurant goers who were impressed by a particularly attentive waiter or waitress could praise that person to the manager or leave a generous tip. This kind of transaction is still available in many places of business, but increasingly the feedback loop has become more tangled and impersonal.

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Many restaurants now include an automatic tip (of 18% to 20%) on the bill. And rather than give immediate feedback on a particular service, customers are often urged to go home and fill out an online survey in exchange for a free latte or car wash. More customer service data is being gathered than before, but is this emerging system of impersonal, arm’s length feedback better than a face-to-face encounter?

According to Wharton management professor Iwan Barankay, tools like online surveys may be easy to fill out, but it is hard for them to be constructive without a two-way conversation about the service being reviewed. “Customers look for a genuine experience, a real interaction with people,” says Barankay. “I think that is always going to be true.”

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