What is collected is not what is representative
People with strong views answer. The satisfied majority and the quietly departing are both under-represented, and the second group is the expensive one.
Omni Core · Object
Customer Feedback
What customers tell you about the experience: gathered where they will answer honestly, read for what it actually says, routed to whoever can act, and returned to the person who raised it.
The term
What it is
Feedback is abundant and mostly unused. Most organisations collect more than they read, read more than they route, and route more than they act on, and each stage loses most of what came into it.
The most common failure is measuring a score rather than reading the content. A satisfaction number tells you something changed; the comments tell you what.
Feedback gathered and not responded to teaches customers that answering is pointless, and the next round measures that lesson rather than the experience.
Why it earns a place
What goes wrong without it
A score without content cannot be acted on
Knowing satisfaction fell tells you to investigate. The comments tell you what to change, and they are usually where the effort is not spent.
The loop is what makes the next round work
A customer who sees something change after raising it answers again. One who hears nothing does not, and the response rate falls quietly.
One level in
The modules within customer feedback
Four working areas following what actually happens to a piece of feedback: how it is gathered, how it is read, where it goes, and what the customer hears back.
Gathering it
How feedback is collected, from whom, and at what moment — designed so that the people who would not otherwise speak are represented.
LearnReading the signal
Separating what recurs from what is loud, and reading content rather than only scores. Where feedback becomes information rather than volume.
LearnClosing the loop
Telling the person what happened. The step that costs least, is skipped most, and determines whether anyone answers next time.
Learn
Across the framework
What it touches
- Customer Journey MappingFeedback is the fastest way to find where the journey actually breaks.
- Business CoreMost feedback concerns a process, and acting on it means changing that process.
- Brand CorePerception research asks what people think; feedback tells you what happened to them.
- Data CoreFeedback is data with a known collection bias, and reading it requires knowing which.
Beyond the framework
Models worth knowing here
The Omnigoal says where this belongs and what it touches. It does not tell you how to think about it — other people have done that, and done it well. These are theirs.
Net Promoter Score
Frederick F. Reichheld · 2003Also known as NPS, The recommendation question
One question — how likely are you to recommend us — scored so that the indifferent count for nothing.
Its real contribution was operational rather than statistical: one question gets answered, gets asked continuously, and produces a number an organisation can be organised around. The follow-up question asking why is where the usable information actually is, and it is the part most often dropped.
- Reach for it when
- When feedback is collected in long questionnaires that few complete and nobody reads.
- Where it stops
- The claimed link to growth has not survived independent replication, and the scoring throws away information. Treated as a trend on the same population it is useful; treated as a benchmark across companies or countries it is not.
Frederick F. Reichheld, “The One Number You Need to Grow”, Harvard Business Review, 2003. Net Promoter and NPS are registered trademarks of their owners and are named here only to refer to their work.
The Customer Effort Score
Dixon, Freeman & Toman · 2010Also known as CES
Ask how hard the customer had to work, because reducing effort predicts loyalty better than delighting does.
The underlying study found that exceeding expectations in service barely moved loyalty, while making things difficult destroyed it — and that most service interactions are a chance to lose a customer rather than to win one. Measuring effort points attention at the same place: removing obstacles rather than adding delight.
- Reach for it when
- In support and self-service, where the ambition of delighting people is expensive and mostly wasted.
- Where it stops
- It measures one interaction, not the relationship. A product people love can be effortful, and effort is not always something the customer wants removed.
Matthew Dixon, Karen Freeman & Nicholas Toman, “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers”, Harvard Business Review, 2010.
These are other people’s models, named here so you can go to the source and use them properly. The Omnigoal is not affiliated with their authors and is not endorsed by them; nothing of theirs is reproduced here — no canvas, no diagram, no wording. Each is described in our own words, with the originator credited, because the framework is a place to put thinking, not a replacement for the people who did it. Model names and trademarks belong to their respective owners and are used here only to refer to the work itself.
Every model in the framework, and where each one belongsFeedback collected and never responded to teaches customers not to answer, and the next round measures that.
The other objects in the Omni Core
Customer Journey Mapping
Visualises the entire customer journey from initial awareness to post-purchase, providing a comprehensive understanding of the customer’s interactions and experiences. This process identifies key stages, critical moments, and pain points that influence customer satisfaction and loyalty. By mapping out these journeys, businesses can design targeted interventions to enhance each phase of the customer lifecycle, ensuring a cohesive and satisfying experience.
LearnCustomer Support
Provides effective and efficient support to resolve customer issues, emphasising the importance of customer satisfaction and loyalty through responsive and helpful service.
LearnUI and UX Optimization
Ensures that digital interactions are intuitive, engaging, and user-friendly, contributing to a seamless and enjoyable customer experience across all digital platforms.
LearnPersonalization
Tailors interactions and experiences based on individual customer preferences and behaviour, enhancing engagement and satisfaction through customised content and recommendations.
LearnLoyalty Programs
Develops and manages programmes that reward and incentivise repeat customers, fostering long-term loyalty and positive experiences through attractive rewards and benefits.
LearnOmnichannel Integration
Ensures a consistent and seamless experience across all channels, integrating personalised interactions and synchronised customer data to provide a unified and cohesive customer journey.
Learn