Pet Lovers Centre - Making It Hard To Give Feedback

I make it a point to try and contact establishments after receiving feedback, just to verify the story and also give these establishments a chance to respond if the feedback is bad. After receiving negative feedback about Pet Lovers Centre from a reader, I tried to send them this article and get a response from them.

I went to PLC's website but nowhere on the front page was there a direct link to contacting them or giving feedback. Digging deeper, I found the link, in very small text at the bottom, and buried in sub menus at the top navigation bar. See picture below (click on the picture to enlarge).



Upon entering the Contact Us page, I am faced with a whole slew of mandatory fields to fill in should I want to send feedback in writing. The alternative is a toll-free number.


The above is a screen capture of PLC's feedback form.

Name & Email, yes, that is understandable. However, if I am giving feedback, why is it necessary for me to fill in my designation, organization, address and contact number (Ok, the last one's debatable). In any case, not filling in those fields would render the form invalid and you are required to fill those mandatory fields in.

The irony of it, the last sentence. "Your feedback is important to us. Please give us your suggestions or comments. Thank you."

It seems as if PLC are putting these mandatory fields up to discourage people from giving feedback. If that's their objective, they certainly have succeeded but I think saying that our feedback is important to them is overstating it.

I have a suggestion. Do away with most of the mandatory fields. This is not so much a data gathering exercise but a way to hear what your customers have to say about you and your products.

Got a customer service experience to share? Email me to get your story published! Do remember to read the submission guidelines and how we rate establishments before submitting.

Online Feedback And Media Stories

While looking through past online issues of Straits Times Online, I came across a story I completely missed out. Published on 4 February 2009, the article states in its headline, "Bosses Here Are Thin-Skinned". The article, based on a survey, states that many executives here in Singapore are concerned with negative feedback, stories or news about their company, far more likely than any place else in the world.

Without going into the hard numbers myself, the survey conducted by global PR firm Weber Shandwick and the Economic Intelligence Unit states that only 57% of the executives in firms here in Singapore found online feedback about their reputations useful.

The article also states that there is a blindness to the blogging community here, where online comments, feedback or stories about their company are seen as less useful than traditional media stories.

According to the survey, "...those in the Asia-Pacific region believe that the least effective way to protect corporate reputations online is to build relationships with influential bloggers. Only 12 per cent of Asian executives...consider this strategy helpful,"

The online media is another vehicle that companies should look into if they really want to get as much information as they can on how the public views their company, products and services. Like traditional media such as newspapers and television, online media is another source of information. Companies that are serious about their overall reputation with the general public should not ignore the online community as they have and will continue to play a part in giving companies a feel of how their company is perceived.

The question is, if these executives are so concerned with the negative stories, what are they doing about it? Rather than ignoring the feedback, would most be willing to use these feedback and stories to improve on their products or services?

I found this video from O'Reilly TV, which rings true. Customer Service Is The New Marketing. It is a conversation between Lane Becker of Get Satisfaction & Joshua Ross.


Got a customer service experience to share? Email me to get your story published! Do remember to read the submission guidelines and how we rate establishments before submitting.