I learnt from my prior life that the best way to create a killer service is to use it! In other words, see your service through your customer’s eyes.  We use Snowflake every day to get personal feedback on how each of us is doing in our little company.

What have I learnt so far?

People are way way way more honest when you ask them for feedback, and let them respond annoymously. I saw this time and time again. Heck, even I found myself being more honest when I knew I could give an anonymous response!

Feedback (even nice constructive well meaning feedback) can burst my ego…especially when I thought that I did something well. But once I got over the initial ego bruising, I realized just how powerful it was to know exactly what I was weak on. Contrast this with vague generalities about improving your “communication skills”!

People want to help. They want to tell you constructively how to do better. But, the urge to be polite or politically correct often gets in the way. When I ask for anonymous feedback, I give people a way to tell me the truth. And I like the truth!