Ask for Feedback Vs. We Want to Hear From You! (lesson from Jamba Juice)

Today I walked into jamba juice to order a “pink starburst,” it’s something I read about in a magazine a few months ago and it’s supposed to taste just like a pink starburst (yes it does). Apparently jamba juice has an entire secret menu of concoctions that not to many people know about. That’ besides the point, so, I order my drink and then I wait around for it. I start looking around the store and then I notice something. A little blue piece of paper against the wall, right next to their menus. A piece of paper that wasn’t asking me for my feedback, it was asking me for something else…

In big letters it said “We want to hear from you.” They didn’t ask me for comments, for feedback, or for complaints. They want to know how they can improve, these are completely different things. After I read the piece of paper I really wanted to give jamba a call, I actually felt that they wanted to hear from me, and that is very powerful.

Now, think about any other business you frequent. Do they ask you for your feedback or do they tell you that they want to hear from you? Hopefully they do one or the other. Asking for feedback is now a cliche, every blog has it (including this one, which I want to change when I figure out how) and every company asks for it. But then what? What do the companies do with the feedback they receive? When I receive a comment or a suggestion on my blog, I respond quickly. I received an e-mail from someone the other day asking me to add a feature that allows users to subscribe to a comment thread so that they can be notified when people respond to a particular comment, I added that the next day. I respond to every comment I get and to every e-mail I receive, because I know that all of you are important, all of you make this blog a success, I play only a small role. If I neglect one of you, I might as well neglect all of you.

Jamba Juice does a great job of engaging the store patrons, they make it obvious that they are trying to improve and that they want our help. Not many companies do a good job of getting that message across, learn from Jamba Juice.

What are some of your favorite methods that companies use to get “feedback” from you? and do those companies respond to you?

Thanks for reading