Quotes about Feedback

We don't want reactions. We don't want first impressions. We don't want knee-jerks. We want considered feedback. Read it over. Read it twice, three times even. Sleep on it. Take your time to gather and present your thoughts—just like the person who pitched the original idea took their time to gather and present theirs.

How should you keep track of what customers want? Don't. Listen, but then forget what people said. Seriously. There's no need for a spreadsheet, database, or filing system. The requests that really matter are the ones you'll hear over and over. After a while, you won't be able to forget them. Your customers will be your memory. They'll keep reminding you. They'll show you which things you truly need to worry about.

Making a few vocal customers happy isn't worth it if it ruins the product for everyone else.

A lot of companies have a similar front-of-house/back-of-house split. The people who make the product work in the "kitchen" while support handles the customers. Unfortunately, that means the product's chefs never get to directly hear what customers are saying. Too bad. Listening to customers is the best way to get in tune with a product's strengths and weaknesses.

When you spend time with potential customers, you get to hear about their struggles firsthand. You see their eyes light up with excitement or darken with confusion. You learn things you would never find in a survey, database, or questionnaire. You learn why people buy.

While we would love to have no criticism, probably if we had no critique, we wouldn't be doing anything meaningful.

Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business.

We are part of a feedback loop that links our conscious acts to the conscious response of the field. In keeping with Heisenberg's implication, the universe presents the face that the observer is looking for, and when she looks for a different face, the universe changes its mask.

Leaders who refuse to listen, will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing helpful to say

When people feel they're getting to speak into what's being preached, there is high built-in motivation to participate.

Our self-image soars with a compliment and is devastated by a criticism.

I always think, when there's stuff that people don't like, I always say that if I have another success, I'll enjoy it more, but you don't really.