More Timely Feedback Tips

Recently we've provided a few examples of the times it's important to get feedback using the real life example of PayPal. Needless to say, we don't feel that PayPal did the best job with their data collection, nor did they treat the customer with the respect they deserve. Today we were given an example of the right way to do data collection – the way we wished PayPal would have handled their own data collection needs.

If you recall, the issues with PayPal were that they didn't collect data on the customer about their success with a robot help desk, and while they did collect data on the accuracy of their email help desk, they didn't follow up when the help desk provided a poor answer to the customer's question. They also took a while to ask for the feedback, and they didn't reward the customer for filling out the form. A client of ours had the exact opposite experience with Elance – a job postings board that companies use to find freelance designers and writers.

The Elance customer had a problem – their workroom had a bug that showed them closed projects in the open projects space and closed their open projects. So the client went to the help page. On the Help page, it allowed the customer to either submit an open ticket, or talk with a live service representative.

Already, Elance is providing better customer service than PayPal, which first sent the customer to an automated representative. The customer communicated with the service rep, who answered questions individually without sending stock answers. It appeared that the problem could not be resolved right away and needed an IT person to look into it.

So the rep created an IT ticket and scheduled the process for review, without the customer lifting a finger. Both the customer and Elance thanked each other for their time, and the chat window closed. Immediately, the customer was brought to a page that asked them to rate the helpfulness of the service and any notes, and below the notes included links to contact Elance directly or create their own Help ticket if they did not feel the problem was resolved.

This is a much better method of collecting data and treating the customer with respect than the one that PayPal originally implemented. It immediately asks for feedback, and it directs the customer to the appropriate links if they did not feel their question was answered, so that they can get help from other avenues. This is the way PayPal should have run their customer service, so kudos to Elance for doing it well.