Hello and welcome to the Kaz Johnson Show, my name is Kaz Johnson and I am your host today, this is episode 97 and today I am talking about feedback.

Last week I talked about measuring and testing, and I think this week’s topic about feedback sits closely with that.

Unless you get feedback either from your students and customers, then how do you know what went well?

As a teacher, we use end of session feedback forms, where we get to ask the students feedback about how they found the learner experience.

When I was teaching in a class, we gave them forms at the end of the lesson to complete, we did not ask for their personal details as I wanted the feedback to be as honest as possible and some people like to tell you what they think you want to hear, but if it was anonymous, they are more likely to tell you as it was for them.

I would ask a range of questions, not only about my teaching but the whole learner experience, things like the registration process, the venue, from things like parking, was the room temperature ok? Ie too hot or too cold, the teacher's knowledge, the pace of the course, the quality of the handouts, and that sort of thing. That way by getting feedback from the learners, I could constantly tweak it for the whole learner experience.

The more I could get good constructive feedback the better I could make it for the learner, who would then feedback their experience to other people. When I first starting teaching for myself, it was this feedback from the students that helped me to learn and grow my business.

Sometimes though, we get feedback that we feel was unjust and that leaves us feeling irked, but it is their opinion and their opinion is not wrong, so you do need to take it onboard from an unemotional place. Teaching is so personal and we put so much time and effort into it sometimes that we do take it personally. When that happens, it’s best just to park it for a while and come back to it. Especially if you get the same kind of feedback more than once.

It’s easier than ever to collect feedback online these days, you can use surveys like Survey Monkey, to create, collate and analyse the information. When you are creating your survey for feedback, and remember we are not talking about testimonials here, we are looking at getting feedback about their experience, from the first time they engage with us, to the last time.

Online things could include,

Here are a few tips when creating a feedback form.

Make sure that it's easy for them to view on a mobile device. Check it on your own mobile device to see that it works ok.

Make it as easy as possible for them to create feedback, for example, could you just use a yes/no answer. How about asking a question to rate a few questions using arrays like ‘from 1- 10, would you recommended us to your colleagues or friends’ .

When asking them for more information about a topic, make sure that you give them plenty of space to answer your question, as there is nothing more frustrating than trying to complete a feedback survey and not having enough room to express yourself and getting cut off as you have run out of space. The user will get so frustrated that they will not bother with the question and you will have missed out some vital feedback that will help you in your business.

Try not to make the survey a huge one, people are busy and impatient, so really think about the questions you are going to ask here. Spend more time thinking what is the outcome for the feedback.

Anonymous feedback surveys are different from complaint surveys where the customer wants to feedback a complaint and they want you to resolve it. This survey is one where you do not make it anonymous as you will not be able to respond to them with the solution and in this case you need to be alerted of any type of complaint feedback as soon as possible, so when you are setting up this feedback form, make sure the email that you set up for this form is dealt with really promptly.

When setting up your complaints policy, make sure that you include a way that you monitor the complaints, what they are about and how many you have over a set period of time and then analyse these to see how you can overall improve the customer experience.

Thank you for joining me this week.

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