Divide the complaints to manage them better

The first step of clever feedback management is providing people with right channels to express what they think.

What the angry customer is looking for is a sounding board, somebody who will listen and take action, fix the wrong.

How to deal with negative feedback

At Onde, we have a couple of guidelines on how to deal with negative feedback:

• Listening and understanding. We want to know what went wrong, why a customer is angry.
• Acknowledge the problem. What seems alright for one person, may be totally unacceptable for another. Apologize, even if we think we are 100% right. This is called good manners.
• Giving people care and attention they seek. There’s nothing more frustrating than being unheard or getting lost in an automated system where nobody cares.
• Showing compassion and our humane side. It is about finding a right balance between being compassionate and demonstratively mothering: the first one is okay, the second one is simply too much.
• Constantly optimise our processes based on what we hear from our clients. This way the complaints are addressed and angry customers become happy customers again.

It is a good practice to create several channels for customers to share their feedback. Let people rate the drivers within the app, so that driver ratings would not affect the whole app ratings on the store. Also, run regular surveys among clients to find out what can be changed or improved.

Dividing the feedback channels allows managing the input much better: you know where you get the ideas, where you get feedback about the drivers, about the app or about anything else what matters for the company. Business owners and managers should review the feedback from the clients regularly, and — very important point! — never leave it without an answer.

Keep track of driver performance with ratings

In the OnDe-powered mobile apps, the passengers can rate every trip. All these reviews are downloadable: a handy tool for you to keep an eye on how the service is working. This real-time feedback about how the drivers are performing means you can address all kinds of issues immediately, will it be with a help of special drivers academy or just suspending the drivers who do not work good enough.

Should drivers ask for a better rating? Normally, we suggest drivers not to ask for a better rating. The reason is simple: if drivers provide high-quality services, they will get a good rating anyway. Asking for a higher rating often has the opposite effect.

Your drivers also can rate passengers. This is done for the drivers’ safety. In case passengers are rated extremely low because of an inappropriate behaviour, you can ban them from using the services.

Measure feedback to get ideas to improve

How to measure the customers’ feedback? How to react to the things customers say? First of all, it is self-evident that customer’s feedback should be taken seriously. Next important thing: the feedback should be monitored often. Very often. Basically, weekly is the best practice.

Monitor the drivers ratings from the app

To see the customers’ feedback, simply go to your My hub and open the “Reports” tab. The ratings are summed up in the “Orders reports”. Indicate the time period you want to see. Download the spreadsheet to Google drive.

To analyze the report, filter the spreadsheet: switch the filter settings to “Rating by passenger”. The drivers rated lower than 3 stars repeatedly certainly need some attention. The drivers with low scores need to be aware that the consequences of being rated poorly may be some “punishment” fees applying, getting fewer orders or being suspended from working with the company.

In case too many drivers are regularly rated low, you may consider setting up special courses to improve the quality of services. We’ve got you partly covered: oblige the drivers to study the Onde driver manual or the etiquette handbook. However, it is always up to the company to educate the drivers in harmony with the local laws, traditions and chosen communication guidelines.

The plus point: in the spreadsheet, you can also find the contact data (phone number and email) of the passengers for the follow-up — this way you will deal with negative feedback in the most efficient way and the clients will know you listen to them.