Friday, June 12, 2009

Feedback

Feedback; Ch. 4; p. 109

Usually the kind of feedback I hear most often is negative (deviation-countering). Customers seem to complain more than they complement. It seems every time a customer does make a complement about one of the employees or our programs it seems odd almost. The sad part about it is that my company doesn't have a system set up to record those complements made by customers about an employee. For example, if one of the skating instructors helps a child get up from fall and the parent notices and reports the occasion to me praising the instructor, I can only tell the instructor, "good job for doing that." It doesn't benefit their employment come raise time. It is really bad, I know. How are employees supposed to be evaluated yearly or bi-yearly if managers cannot record comments made by customers about certain employees. We do, however, have a system set up for complaints made by customers about employees. For example, if a customer approaches me and says the cashier was very rude to them, I ask the customer exactly what happened (to get their point of view). I then (usually) apologize to the customer on behalf of the employee and tell the customer I'll talk to the employee about their behavior. Later I will have a discussion with the employee in private about what happened. If the employee can explain their behavior abjectly I usually just tell them to be more aware of the customer. However, if they become defensive or deny it happened, the employee is given a written warning (write-up). If the employee has three written warnings they are suspended. If the employee is suspended three times, they are fired on the third occasion.

4 comments:

  1. In my career, I have also noticed that most companies do not have a system set up to keep track of all the positive feedback their staff or programs receive. So when the time comes for a raise or promotion, there is no definitive place to retrieve the information about the number of positive feedbacks a particular employee may have received.

    From my personal experience, I can say that the responsibility of keeping track of positive feedbacks really falls on to the shoulders of the manager/supervisor. In the same department, I have seen different managers/supervisors with their own little procedure through which they keep track of their employees' positive feedback. This uncohesive effort does not really the help the organization as a whole. Therefore, a joint effort is required by all the staff members and managers to get the buy-in of executive management to put together a common positive feedback collection process/system so all the employees have a fair chance to be evaluated when promotions are considered. Employee morale is boosted and it also enhances the image of the organization among the external stakeholders.

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  2. Hello, GSackman8! Your work experience regarding feedback is interesting. I don't know why your company doesn't have a system set up to record complements made by customers about an employee, but I'm wondering whether it's possible for your and your coworkers to appeal to your management to set up such a system. I'm an ESL teaching assistant (teaching small groups) at a communitycollege in the Bay Area, and the TAs receive b oth negative and positive (written anonymously) feedback from the students every quarter, and our supervisors look at the results. I like this system because, for the TAs, it is a good opportunity to improve the lessons through any negative feedback and encourage themselves through any positive feedback. Also, for the supervisors, it is a helpful means to evaluate the TAs. In addition, the students have the right to speak up because they pay tuition (as clients). I hope your company would adopt such a kind of system (not only negative feedback but also positive) in the near future.

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  4. My sister works for a restaurant chain that allows customers to call a number to provide feedback on their waiter. She says that good feedback is noticed by management but negative feedback is motivates management to take action. In other words, get a lot of negative feedback and you could get fired. Get a lot of good feedback and you get a pat on the back. Anytime I get great service, I always make a point of telling the manager. I know that in these economic times, workers morale are not particularly great and sometimes it shows on employee's faces. I recently ordered an edible bouquet for my mom's birthday. Since I hadn't intended on ordering this in the first place, I didn't place my order until mid-morning. I was afraid it wouldn't be delivered the same day but as soon as my mom called me three hours later to say she loved it, I immediately called the place of business and thanked them. I spoke with the owner who at first was not too pleased that I asked to speak with a manager but as soon as I said I wanted to pay a compliment, his mood changed. He was so happy that I went out of my way to provide positive feedback and said he does the same thing.

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