Do You Like Me? Check YES or NO

I’ve been trying to eat healthier, just like everyone else, but occasionally I “fall off the wagon.” Such was the case recently when I walked into a restaurant with every intention of eating something good for me, until I saw the day’s special: chicken fried steak. Now, I’m a southern girl, born in Alabama and raised in Texas, so it’s just about a sin for me to never eat anything like that, so before I knew it, I heard myself ordering, “Chicken fried steak, please.” “Gravy, ma’am?” he asked. Ha! Chicken fried steak without gravy?! Now that would be a sin!

The gentleman (who appeared to be the manager) then proceeded to tell me that it’s their “new and improved” chicken fried steak and assured me I would love it. But guess what? I didn’t. In fact, it was so bad, I only had a few bites. So did I tell them how terrible it was and ask for a refund? No. Should I have? Maybe. Rarely am I in those situations as I’m pretty easy to please, but when I am, more often than not, I usually wait until the waiter asks if something was wrong with the food. (Again, I’m a southern girl and my mama taught me to be polite.) But what if the person who told me how wonderful it was had asked me to tell him afterwards what I thought about it? Would I have then felt more comfortable giving him feedback? Absolutely.

Sometimes in business our products or services aren’t as great as we think they are, but few people provide us with that feedback unless we ask for it. Most people don’t want to take the time to deal with a product or service they’re unhappy with, so they just go to a competitor. But if we had have asked them for feedback, the situation could have had a completely different result.

Do you have a feedback form you supply to every customer? If not, you should. Ask them the same types of things you’d see on any other survey, such as their overall satisfaction with the product or service, the timeliness, the customer service, etc. Heck, even a form as simple as the little notes we had in elementary school is better than nothing at all:










Knowing if you are delivering a quality product or service is key to winning repeat business. You may not like all the feedback you get, but at least it gives you a chance to improve and address issues as they arise. You can also use the positive feedback on your website and social media sites to help promote your business. And if they check, “NO,” they don’t like you, do what you can to change their minds, but then move on. Remember, you can’t please all the people all the time – hopefully your mama taught you that, too.