Feedback is considered the main performance measurement tool within and outside a company. Its application helps to guide employees and provide an opinion on their work. Being a very common practice in companies, some people still see it as the famous ear tug. However, it is always constructive if you know how to turn the negative into a positive. The main objective of negative feedback is to reinforce qualities, finding ways to deal with what needs to be improved and contribute to the professional growth of the employee.
All feedback triggers a type of result. From these results, we can then find the relevance in it and apply it, as it is an opportunity for change.
The Significance of Feedback
When we talk about feedback, we are talking about signs that guide the behavior and attitudes of professionals, so that they seek continuous improvement and bet on opportunities that allow them to achieve growth, since it reduces uncertainties and anxieties, becoming an attitude that demonstrates consideration and respect for human beings.
A large part of our reactions, in the most diverse situations of daily life, are only perceived with the help of the people with whom we live, since, due to the speed and urgency with which everything happens around us, we end up performing our activities on autopilot, often without stopping to analyze whether we are making mistakes or getting it right.
Thus, the importance of feedback allows businesses to understand how they are performing their functions.
For these and many other reasons, feedback is seen as one of the most important tools in the work environment, as it helps employees and companies to grow and develop together, in partnership, harmony and unity.
Negative Feedback and Its Impact on Performance
Despite the negative connotation, it is still a necessary feedback, as it shows the points that we need to improve, such as inappropriate behavior or something that ends up negatively affecting our daily performance at work.
Having this kind of feedback from anyone, provided it is done properly, is important, as we end up better understanding what the company’s objectives are and what it expects from its employees. This helps to eliminate what is wrong and to make progress in the corporate environment.
“Negative feedback is important, as it works in order to get greater alignment between the company and employees, as it helps professionals not to deviate from the path they need to take in order to do a good job, implementing the necessary improvements in their behaviors and in execution of its tasks as a whole, thus making its own actions, as well as the results of the organization increasingly assertive,” explains Adam Nickson, a tech blogger at Last Minute Writing and Researchpapersuk. Here are some of the ways you can turn negative feedback into an opportunity:
- Engaging Customers: The support team for your company should respond in a timely fashion as soon as they encounter negative feedback. That way, they can increase customer satisfaction and reengage them with your business. Acting in this prompt way will show other prospective customers that they will be treated respectfully, just like they show respect to the company by using their services or products.
- Assessing Your Support Team: If your company repeatedly gets the same sort of complaint about the customer service it is providing, then the probabilities are that your agents aren’t handling the customers properly. In a case like this you can take the opportunity to get your team together and provide them with adequate training. This way, instead of seeing negative feedback as a source of embarrassment, you can turn it into an asset.
- Improving Your Service or Product: Getting negative feedback can be a launching platform for your next project in terms of products and services. Some customers complain about the lacking features and aspects they were otherwise expecting from what you are providing them with. “You can try and implement their ideas in order to further develop your company, while at the same time increasing customer satisfaction by showing them that you are listening,” says Elisa Bern, a customer support manager at Draftbeyond and Writinity.
- Improving the Credibility of Positive Feedback: When people look at the reviews made to your company, they might become suspicious that the amount of good reviews might be, in fact, provided by members of your team in order to increase revenue. If they see the occasional negative feedback, customers will more willing to believe that the reviews are being made by an independent party.
- Earn Back Respect: The ultimate goal of negative feedback is to change the opinions about your company and workplace, as well as your own behavior and relationship with the customers. It might be a while before you can earn back their respect, but sometimes you have to go the extra mile to steer the business in the right direction.
Accept the Challenge and Value Transparency
It is great to have positive feedback, but, in reality, it doesn’t play much of a role in improving your services or products. Negative feedback challenges you to up your game. See it as an opportunity to commit to excellence and take the challenge head on. You can even go as far as inviting customers to interviews to take advantage of their ideas and criticism.
You must also value transparency above everything, and never try to hide bad feedback. Customers tend to put more weight into how you respond to a bad review, as opposed to the review in itself.
The shape of your response to negative feedback comes from context. Good professionals are always present and concerned with the development of the people around them, maintaining a close relationship with them. These professionals point out the mistakes and successes and, mainly, help their team to invest in the necessary improvements, recognizing their work. As a consequence, you get motivation, increased productivity, as well as more results for the company.
In addition, giving feedback will also make the professional feel that they belong to a safe and growing environment, where they are rewarded for their actions and enjoy constant evolution. The company, in turn, will reduce turnover and have a united team.
Ashley Halsey is a mother of two, who spends most of her time traveling, reading and going to business training courses. She’s a renowned writer at Lucky Assignaments and Gum Essays, who’s been involved in several projects throughout the country.
