When we speak to our existing clients about the ways they use our Net Promoter® Score (NPS®) survey program to understand their client (and talent) engagement, we hear the same refrain over and over: Before our first survey, we had no idea how much we would love the Shout Outs, and now we can’t live without them! While we’re (of course) thrilled that our clients have been able to see the positive impact of our platform’s ability to automatically share targeted feedback from your most satisfied clients—we also know that it’s a difficult feature to explain without showing you how it works. For organizations that haven’t yet worked with us, the ClearlyRated Shout Out feature can be easy to overlook. That’s because of one common mistake that many B2B service firms make when embarking on a client survey initiative: Failing to capitalize on the power of positive feedback. If your employees are only seeing personalized feedback from clients when someone has a complaint, you’re leaving a lot of survey value on the table. It’s hugely important to give meaningful, personalized recognition to your staff when they’re doing things right. How Your NPS® Survey Program Generates Shout Outs for Your Highest Performers Time and time again, we have found that happy clients will take the opportunity to recognize someone at your organization who has gone above and beyond for them—if given the option to do so. One of the most important things to know about our approach to Shout Outs is that we don’t ask just anyone to share feedback. Shout Outs are intended to be positive—to celebrate and not criticize—so we make sure that only people who are already thrilled with your service have an opportunity to access this feature. Once a client has expressed that they’re a promoter of your organization (by answering the NPS question with a 9 or 10, indicating they’re happy with the level of service they’ve received), they’re automatically directed to a follow-up question as part of the survey-taking process. After submitting an optional testimonial, your client is asked the following question: Has an employee gone above and beyond for you? If your client answers “Absolutely!”—and we hope they do!—they’re invited to identify the exceptional employee by name and write a brief message about how the person being mentioned went above and beyond. Your Promoters are Eager to Share Their Positive Experiences The best part about the Shout Out feature? Your clients will use it, and use it often. According to our clients’ annual survey data, 2 out of every 5 Promoters who respond to your survey will take the opportunity to highlight a member of your team. And while the actual number of Shout Outs your team receives depends on your industry, the size of your organization, and the number of surveys you field, some of our clients consistently receive dozens, hundreds, or at times, even thousands of individualized accolades for their employees each year, or more. Shout Outs are Among Our Most Popular Survey Features Whether you receive 5 Shout Outs or 500, this feature is consistently a favorite because every single Shout Out you receive is personally identifying someone’s exceptional work. And you get to decide where and how these Shout Outs are delivered to your team, ensuring this meaningful feedback is distributed in a way that suits your internal operations the best. After your client submits a Shout Out through the NPS® survey, an email will automatically be generated with the name of the employee being recognized and your client’s words of praise. Whether you send these emails to everyone or a single point of contact who then distributes them down the line, the process happens without your engagement—you don’t have to lift a finger to receive meaningful feedback for your highest performing employees. All Shout Outs are also recorded on your ClearlyRated dashboard, and you are able to segment and report on Shout Outs by account owner, practice area, office location, or any other way that your client feedback is segmented. We’ve heard a variety of creative uses for Shout Outs internally from our clients, including: Shout Out bulletin boards, where positive feedback is printed out and posted locally. Highlighting high achievers on social media feeds or other external communication channels, either directly through the social sharing options within the survey dashboard or through your own social content-creation process. Sharing feedback individually, as part of performance reviews or other 1:1s. Calling out recognized individuals during internal all-hands meetings. Or what we do here at ClearlyRated: allowing the Shout Outs to come to the entire team, so we can all celebrate everyone’s success! Personal Recognition for Good Service Increases Employee Morale At ClearlyRated, we talk a lot about the power of positive feedback, and how it’s important for your client survey initiative to harness positive feedback in a way that drives value. One of those avenues for value is internal team morale. Your clients (and your contacts at your clients’ businesses) who are being asked for feedback about the service they receive from your organization have real-life relationships with members of your team. I said it before, and I will say it again: If your employees are only seeing personalized feedback from clients when someone has a complaint, you’re leaving a lot of survey value on the table. It’s hugely important to give meaningful, personalized recognition to your staff when they’re doing things right. In fact, internal recognition and appreciation can have a huge impact on the bottom line in regards to employee engagement and turnover. According to a study conducted by Glassdoor, 53% of employees surveyed said feeling more appreciation from their boss would help them stay longer at their company. Furthermore, 82% of employees in the U.S. don’t feel that their supervisors recognize them enough for their contributions. In another study, 40% say they’d put more effort into their work if they were recognized more frequently. The impact of recognizing the meaningful work of your employees and direct reports touches every facet of internal productivity from tenure, to effort invested, to job satisfaction. And that doesn’t begin to address the real monetary value of diminishing employee turnover. In the staffing industry in particular, each recruiter or account manager who leaves your firm costs you more than $240,000 in lost revenue opportunity. Why not make every effort you can to make sure your employees know exactly how much their contributions matter? Leverage the Full ROI of Your Survey Program We’d be thrilled to share even more about how our survey program can help you collect Shout Outs for your business—or if you’re already collecting them, how to optimize their potential. Call us at 1 (800) 921-2640 or contact us using our online form to learn more about how we can help maximize the value of your survey program.
