Asking for Feedback Without Getting Your Feelings Hurt

Many business owners would love to get positive or constructive feedback from their customers and staff alike, but most would agree that that the negative feedback - or worse - the fear of negative feedback, can cause us to abandon the idea of collecting feedback altogether. Feedback within the studio can be used for testimonials, viewed publicly as reviews online, provide information about how your staff and customers feel about the business, and help see if you are delivering on your brand promise.

Yet, so often, I have seen Studio Owners refrain from customer surveys and full circle reviews from their team members, for fear of getting negative feedback and complaints in return. I have found that there will always be feedback that we would rather not hear, but that these things are opportunities for growth and learning in most cases. So here a three ways to ask for feedback without getting your feelings hurt - and while improving and growing your business!

1. Ask The Right Questions: Customer surveys should have a clear purpose - avoid copying and pasting another company’s survey - it may not be relevant to you. One way you can incorporate customer surveys is to ask about items that help you plan for the next season - what times/days/hours are they available, do they want to take multiple styles of dance next season, and other questions to gauge where their interests lie. By limiting questions to topics that help you, rather than an open-ended written feedback, you guide the customers to give you the information that you’d like.
2. Use Surveys To Test New Ideas: You can test out new ideas that you’re considering by engaging staff and customers in polls, forms, and surveys that gather their feedback. Whether its an online form or a poll in your Facebook Group - you can ask questions and solicit feedback about new camps, new classes, special events, community performances, and even new payment options and packages. I’ve found this works really well when you ask 1-3 questions and provide a little bit of detail into what you may be planning. The beauty of this is that it gives people a sense of receiving a “sneak peek” and “insider information” because they are weighing in on something before it gets rolled out to the public. I’ve use this type of survey for camp programs, transitioning to recital packages, breaking a tie between two possible recital themes, and even making the dance season longer when I discovered our customers were only out of town for 2 weeks if they take summer vacation.
3. Listen to your staff often: Make it a priority to listen to the feeling and ideas of your team - both manager and front line staff. Your staff should be able to identify kids that seem like they may drop a class or need a change, they can share things that they overhear when you are not present in the building, they can bring new programs and events to you, and they might even find new ways to make or save more money for the studio. My favorite way to collect feedback from my staff is during our annual summer All Staff meeting where I put them into groups and come up with a wish list for the studio - all the things they wished we had, we did, or would stop. This is solid gold for us business owners - because it gives us great information and ways to engage and involve our staff in keeping our businesses nimble and strong.

I urge you to overcome any fears of negative feedback or surveys filled with complaints, and give it a try - you may discover amazing results!