Customer feedback is like magma

Customer feedback is like magma: : slow moving, unstoppable, potentially explosive.

Yes, customer feedback is a lot like molten magma.

It’s hot, scary and when it erupts, it can re-shape the landscape for miles around. It’s unstoppable – destroying everything that can’t get out of its way. And it leaves a more fertile environment in its wake.

There’s an old idea in business that if we put our fingers in our ears and hum loudly enough, we can pretend that we can’t hear the pressure of customer feedback building up beneath our feet.

All too often, we create organisations that don’t, can’t or won’t listen to what their customers have to say. Culturally, we fear the discomfort that feedback brings and the change it implies.

If we try to suppress it, not only do we lose the power of feedback to initiate and drive positive growth and change but all the positive energy of our happy customers, too.  Does your online reputation management strategy (or lack of one) block the flow of feedback or put its energy to work for you?