The unhappy customer exit interview is a great opportunity to learn and grow

I call today’s idea the Unhappy Customer Exit Interview.

Seeing a customer leave is never a fun experience. When unhappy customers leave, you have to be able to put aside any personal feelings you might have and recognise the situation as an opportunity to learn. f you want to improve your customer experience and retention over time, make a habit of conducting exit interviews with customers who have made the decision to walk away.

Here’s my 3-steps to nailing an Exit Interview:

Think about what kind of questions you want to ask your customers before they go. This is no time to hold back … find the courage to ask the questions that may result in negative feedback like – How was it doing business with us? What were we particularly bad at? What could we do so much better? Your goal is to figure out why your customer is leaving, what went wrong, and how you can make improvements going forward.
If you can’t perform your exit interviews in person, use a tool like Qualaroo or Google Forms to create your exit survey.
When a customer makes it known that they know longer wish to do business with you, ask them if they’d be willing to provide feedback by filling out your exit interview form. Review feedback and determine if there are any improvements that can be made at your business.

Pro-Tip: If the customer gets angry or overly negative, don’t take it personally. Don’t get in an argument with them, don’t try and provide your side of the story … just smile and thank them. Once you’ve got your cool back, then figure out what improvements you can make to avoid losing another customer under the same circumstances.

That’s my 3-steps to nailing Exit Interviews.

To help you bring this low-cost marketing idea to life, here’s some additional resources:

Google Forms

Qualaroo

Survey Monkey

As always, you’ll find more marketing inspiration in my popular marketing text The Boomerang Effect.

So, what have you got to lose?

WHYGTL