Feedback: how to avoid quarrels and conflicts. What is feedback and its types? Feedback and its meaning
Feedback (feedback) - information that the employee receives about how the manager perceives and evaluates his actions.
Why feedback is needed:
- With its help, the leader manages the activities of his subordinates, that is, he encourages the desired behavior and limits the undesirable. Praising the employee, thereby he confirms the correctness of his actions, compliance with the plan, the ideas of the head. If it is necessary to change the actions of the subordinate, the leader gives corrective feedback. Thus, the main thing is achieved - the effectiveness of the actions of the subordinate is ensured.
- Feedback performs a learning function. It allows the employee to find out what is expected of him, what are the criteria for evaluating his work, to what extent his actions correspond to the correct technology for performing work.
- It performs a motivating function. The manager praises, encourages the employee and recognizes his achievements, thereby forming motivation for further work. With the help of corrective feedback, the leader forms the desire to correct the situation.
- Providing detailed feedback is a manifestation of attention to the employee on the part of the manager, which has a beneficial effect on the relationship between people working together.
Therefore, feedback is essential. integral part management processes such as control, mentoring, motivation, has a powerful potential as a tool of managerial influence. For this potential to be realized, it is necessary to following conditions. Feedback should be:
- specific. The leader should not generalize and draw global conclusions such as: "You're always late for work", it's better to say . In feedback, it is necessary to operate with specific facts, and not general judgments.
- About actions, not personality. Permissible statement "You're 15 minutes late today", but not "you are an undisciplined person". The act can be corrected, but the character is almost impossible to correct. Therefore, a person is ready to accept information about an act, but is not ready to accept that he is not such a person, and will defend himself, argue.
- Timely. Feedback should be given immediately after an act that you want to encourage or change. This is also called the “hot stove rule” (if you touch it, it burns immediately, not later).
- Developing. One of the tasks of feedback is to develop the employee's ability to introspection, to independently highlight their successes and shortcomings, and to correctly search for their causes. To do this, the manager uses open ones, helping the subordinate to formulate the correct conclusions about his work himself. Independently drawn conclusions are accepted and remembered much better than those said by another person.
- Adapted. All people are different in terms of sensitivity to criticism, readiness for self-development. The leader needs to adapt his feedback to the level of understanding of his subordinates: do not immediately give a lot of corrective information if a person is able to understand and implement only a part.
There are several models for structuring feedback, of which the following are the most commonly used:
- "The Sandwich Rule". Feedback is provided according to the structure "Positive - Corrective - Positive". Such a structure is necessary for those employees who may not be emotionally ready to accept the need to adjust their actions. So that the employee does not take a defensive position in communication with the manager, feedback begins and ends with positive moments in his activity (achievements, successes, strengths).
…In one of the companies, the supervisor had a tough, hard-hitting conversation with a sales representative about the unconvincing dynamics of the implementation of planned targets. At the end of the conversation, suddenly remembering the “sandwich rule”, the supervisor lowered his voice and said: “Well, in general, you are great, in retail outlets, customers speak well of you. Go to work". To which the sales representative, leaving, plaintively remarked: “Uncle Fyodor, your sandwich is somehow wrong ...”
- Model BOFF (Behavior - Outcome - Feelings - Future), in the Russian version of PRCHB (Behavior - Result - Feelings - Future). First, the manager describes the behavior of the employee and the result to which this behavior led. Further enhances the emotional impact, mentioning the feelings that he (or the employee’s colleagues, the employee himself, other persons) experience about this. The feedback ends with a description of the desired behavior that the employee must demonstrate in the future. The model is used if the manager has doubts that the usual feedback will be effective for this employee.
- SOR model (Standard - Observation - Result, Standard - Observation - Result). Designed to orient the employee to the correct technology of action. First, the manager reminds the employee of the existing actions in the company, then discusses with the employee his observations about his behavior, achieves an understanding by the employee of the results that his behavior can lead to and achieves the employee’s readiness to continue to comply.
In addition to the ability to provide feedback, you also need to learn yourself and teach your subordinates to receive it correctly. To do this, it is important to follow a few rules:
- When receiving feedback, do not make excuses, avoid being defensive.
- Ask questions for clarity, ask for examples of behavior, summarize the information received and get confirmation that you understood it correctly.
- Thanks for the feedback.
- Make an action plan on what can be improved and how.
In the field of FMCG, much attention has traditionally been paid to the observance by managers of the rules for providing and receiving feedback, which can be enshrined in, and a number of other processes. For example, one of the functions of the meeting is summing up, i.e. providing feedback to the team, which should also be carried out taking into account the rules described above. This means that during the meeting, he must operate with specific, relevant figures and facts (the rules of "specificity", "timeliness"), start with the positive and achievements of the team (the "sandwich" rule), focus on what needs to be improved today ( adaptability rule. At the same time, he should never "arrange a dressing down" for individual subordinates in the presence of others, that is, it is necessary to praise in public, but to criticize one by one.
In communicating with another person, it is important not only to speak out, but also to get an adequate response. Psychologist and editor Sergei Galiullin explains what feedback is, how to recognize it and respond to it correctly.
Every year the number of social connections in a person increases. We communicate live, online, by phone. Such a number of contacts tires a person, his ability to hear another person is periodically turned off. So we miss the reaction of the interlocutor and react inadequately to it.
What is feedback
The term "feedback" comes from cybernetics, but now almost all humanities define it in their own way. In sociology, feedback is considered a stage in the interaction of several people. A person gives out information to another person, receives feedback and corrects his actions. Including statements. You say to someone: bring water. Further, at each stage, something can go on like this. You can say in the wrong tone, a person can answer rudely, well, you can correct your actions in a negative direction and brandish a knife in the kitchen. Why understand how it works? To avoid conflicts, quarrels, misunderstandings.
What Happens During the Feedback Stage
So, you asked the interlocutor to bring water. Now his move - he will refuse or bring water, or agree, but say that he will bring later. This will be the feedback. But before that, he will or will not hear you. For a person to hear and answer you, three conditions must work.
The interlocutor must hear our request. If he listens to music with headphones or is ill and hard of hearing, our request will not be answered. In addition, he must understand and accept it. He will be able to understand if the request is in a language he knows. Accept - if he is at all capable of accepting other people's requests.
The form and content of the request must not contradict each other. If you are tired and cannot pour yourself water, most likely, your request is almost a prayer of the weak before the strong. If in this case you hysterically ask for water, the interlocutor will be amazed. You depend on him and scream at the same time.
The interlocutor can and wants to answer. A child under one year old hears our requests, but cannot answer. Or even wants to reach us or throw a ball in our direction, but his arms and legs do not obey. The adult must be in good spirits and in good health.
What can go wrong and how to fix it
The interlocutor may not see or hear our request.It is important here not to try to repeat it more insistently and louder. If the answer is no, you need to understand the reason. If a person cannot hear because of the headphones, you need to get attention with a gesture or a look. If he does not understand the words, choose the correct ones. If tired, be as polite as possible.
The interlocutor may hear something else in the request.For example, in a request to pour water, a tired wife hears that her husband has sat on her neck and cannot do anything himself. Or, when asked to show the diary, the child comes up with the idea that you will see bad grades in it and scold him again. Feedback is not only what a person does, but also what he thinks while doing. So, in order to get through, you need to explain why you are asking a person, why you cannot do it yourself, and why it is important for you that it is he who fulfills the request.
The interlocutor may not be ready to answer us or fulfill the request.And he is not always able to tell us that he is not ready. So, you have to be careful - if possible, do not distract a playing child or a working adult. But at the same time, looking at the laptop screen and seeing if the husband is using social networks instead of work is a violation of personal space. This will lead to even greater unwillingness to respond.
The interlocutor gave feedback, but we did not hear it, did not understand it, did not accept it.It seems banal, but sometimes people answer in an undertone, and we don't physically hear them. Or a person says that he will bring water, but at the same time he sighs heavily. So he will help, but through force, and we should be very grateful and not bother him next time. It seems that this way you can become paranoid, but you need not to invent for the interlocutor, but to listen and ask again. We may not understand the interlocutor because of the difference in sense of humor, education, cultural background. The only way out is to ask again and negotiate.
The person refuses to fulfill the request, but we do not react to this in any way or react negatively. Refusal is worthy of respect, because we want to have the right to “no”. If the request is too serious, you can clarify the reason for the refusal, ask to fulfill it later. If you can do it yourself, back off until next time. After all, you just want to drink water, and you are not raising an ideal communication partner.
Feedback is a response to speech statement: answer to a question, agreement or disagreement, new speech etc. Feedback can take the form of an action after listening to the speaker, people act on his recommendations.
Feedback is the verbal and non-verbal messages a person intentionally or unintentionally sends in response to another person's message.
The listener is able to influence the speaker's speech behavior precisely because he is nearby and his reaction is obvious. This reaction is nothing but (in terms of information theory) a manifestation of feedback.
In interpersonal communication, we constantly give each other feedback, whether we like it or not. Everything we do or don't do to or interact with others can be seen as feedback. Let's say a young man wrote a girl several dozen letters and did not receive an answer to one - the feedback in this case is the lack of action. We laugh at an anecdote being told when it's really funny to us or when we want to please the narrator - these are examples of spontaneous and deliberate feedback. Love expressed by a look or a poetic message are examples of non-verbal and verbal feedback. If our words or actions cause someone an undesirable reaction for us and we hasten to accompany them with the phrase: "You misunderstood me ..." or "I didn't mean it at all" - in this way we try to control the feedback.
The actions of a person, in which her ability to hear turns out, precisely because of their "reactive" (that is, responding to a stimulus) nature, provide the very possibility of feedback, and all the factors discussed above, improving the ability or hindering it, directly affect the content of the feedback. "connections.
Among the types of feedback are evaluative and non-evaluative reverse. Evaluative Feedback - communication of one's opinion, one's attitude to what is being discussed.
A group of American researchers led by A. Jacobs investigated a phenomenon called "probability jump". Its essence lies in the fact that positive feedback is always evaluated as more reliable than negative. With regard to the optimal sequence in which feedback is given, a number of experimental data indicate that negative feedback is judged to be more valid and desirable when given after positive feedback rather than preceding it.
The mentioned group of researchers conducts experiments in accordance with the "long-term" program, studying the dependence of feedback acceptance on three variables: 1) the feedback sign ("+" or "-") 2) the sequence of its presentation - first "+", then "-" ", and vice versa; 3) form of feedback: a) behavioral ("I think you're being too bossy"), b) emotional ("I like you", "I'm mad at you"), c) emotionally behavioral ("You're acting bossy") , and it makes me angry").
One way to increase the validity of feedback, discovered during an experiment called "amplifying effect". Its essence lies in the fact that the emotional "addition" to the behavioral basis increases the likelihood of feedback compared to purely behavioral feedback, if both are positive. And the emotional addition itself reduces the likelihood of feedback if they are negative. In other words, "reinforcing" a positive behavioral observation ("You are attentive") with a positive emotional response ("I like you") increases the likelihood of a remark about the behavior, while attaching a negative behavioral statement ("You are distracted") with a negative emotional reaction("You are unpleasant to me") reduces the credibility of the behavioral remark: this remark can be regarded as biased, caused by a negative attitude. A. Jacob believes that the use of "amplifying effect" is a powerful lever to change the probability of feedback.
Estimates can be positive (“you are doing well”) or negative (“what the hell are you talking about”). Positive evaluative feedback performs the function of supporting the "I-concept" of our partner and the interpersonal relationships that have developed with him.
Negative evaluative feedback performs a corrective function aimed at eliminating unwanted behavior, changing or modifying our relationships.
The structure of evaluative feedback involves the use of turns that indicate that we are talking about a person's own opinion: "it seems to me", "I think", "in my opinion". If such turns are absent, and the assessment is expressed quite clearly and openly, then the statements become static, often perceived as rudeness or impoliteness, and cause psychological defense in the interlocutor. Therefore, relationships become strained or even destroyed. Compare the statements:
"I don't think it's true" and "What nonsense!".
Non-judgmental feedback - type of feedback, does not contain our attitude to the issue under discussion. We use it when we want to learn more about a person's feelings or help her formulate an opinion on a particular issue, while not directly interfering with the interlocutor's actions.
This goal is achieved through techniques such as clarification, paraphrasing, clarification, reflection of feelings (or empathy). Such procedures formed the basis of the selection of listening styles that we considered earlier.
So, feedback is a necessary component of effective communication.
Communication between a business and its customers is extremely important in modern world where globalization rules. In a small flower shop, a saleswoman always hears compliments if she does her job well, and sees sullen faces of customers if she does her job poorly. But the larger the enterprise becomes, the more difficult it is to trace relationships with customers, because there are many more intermediate links in the chain from the consumer to the administrator of at least a regional department.
Why is it important to know everything about customers?
In today's market, the right choice would be to make an extra effort to hear your customers, because not knowing what is happening on the most basic levels your business, you risk losing both money and reputation. And this is true, because history knows many cases when the actions of ordinary workers brought multi-million dollar losses to the company. An example is the case on one of the United Airlines flights, when the company needed to make room on the plane for several of its employees. After the passengers refused to leave the flight, the guards beat several who resisted and took them out by force. This precedent hit the media and the price per share of United Airlines immediately fell by half. If you don't want to lose in business, you just need to know what is customer feedback.
The essence of feedback
Feedback can be called any channel of information transfer, through which the client can influence certain points in the business processes of the company with which he wants to cooperate or is already cooperating. Depending on the form in which your business exists, it is possible to implement feedback in the system in a variety of ways, the main task- so that it is convenient for the client and meets the requirements.
What is feedback in physical stores
Owners of a real estate business or companies engaged in large-scale wholesale trade through specially equipped premises can place feedback telephone numbers in their stores. Calls to the call center will be processed by operators, and information about complaints or customer requests will be transmitted in a structured form to the management department of the organization.
With a large number of calls of the same type, there is also a model in which an answering machine will advise clients, which is scripted for a discrete number of responses. If your feedback, as a structure in the company, is not strong enough to maintain a full-time call center, you can outsource this business process, that is, order this service from another company. Under certain conditions, this type of cooperation is most mutually beneficial.
Internet as a means of interaction
The greatest discovery for mankind at the end of the twentieth century - the Internet - played a significant role for commerce, which cannot be overestimated. There are a huge number of interactive communication tools on the web for different parts of the business.
E-commerce has now taken a step forward with the help of customer relationship customization tools. There are products for business under the general name, or in Russian - customer relationship management. A modern CRM system is able to accompany your client at absolutely every stage of the transaction, or, in marketing terms, at every stage of the sales funnel. The sales funnel is not named so by chance, because with each iteration on the way to turning a visitor into a buyer, there are fewer and fewer people in the funnel.
It is necessary to clearly monitor at what stage of the sales funnel each of your customers is, otherwise the loss of this data threatens you with the loss of a buyer - a customer who has not been called back on time will most likely go to another place, because he values his time and the convenience of staff service.
What is feedback in the context of CRM? In general, the same thing as without it, just the system allows a business to clearly track all its customers, give each client exactly the information that is of interest to him, and much more. For example, using CRM, you can collect a list of people who have abandoned a product or service due to poor service, call them and offer a special discount coupon in your store. This action will probably not save the situation completely, but it will definitely bring back some of your former clients.
Feedback via email and messengers
E-mail appeared at the dawn of the Internet, and since then it has not lost its popularity, because it can be used to conduct both business and personal correspondence, it is convenient to filter and sort it. In addition, it reaches the addressee instantly, so using email for feedback is reasonable and easily managed by the business through CRM. Using email distribution, you can easily collect the necessary data from customers, calculate their statistical preferences, and test the click-through rate of certain ad formats. Gradually, the popularity of emails is declining, but, probably, the era of emails will last for some more time, because mail also serves as an identifier on the Internet, that is, it acts as a nickname for authorization in various services.
A maturing competitor to email is messenger messages, which are distributed in proportion to the growth in the number of mobile devices in the market. It is quite easy to imagine what feedback through instant messengers is - these are chats in which technical support agents are trying to resolve a client's issue. In addition to real people, bots can also answer the client in technical support via messenger - special programs, scripted for a response that will make it wait a little longer for a message from the support agent.
Chat with technical support on the site and call back
A relatively new trend in audience feedback is in-site chats that update dynamically without reloading the page. This technology allows a person who has landed on a new commercial site to get used to and clarify the necessary questions for himself without lengthy searches for a form of communication. The online chat window brings from 10% increase in sales after its installation on the Internet resource.
But many people still prefer voice communication, and this is logical, because we perceive audio speech many times faster and more efficiently. Based on this problem, services have been developed, such as CallBack Killer or CallBack Hunter. Such services allow the client to indicate his number and a convenient time for a conversation on any page of the site, after which technical support agents will call him back at the specified time. All of the above communication methods are also well integrated into CRM and have their own API for software developers.
Cold calls and hot calls
Sometimes a company does not have enough information about its customers to improve collaboration and productivity. In such cases, telephones are used. Feedback is greatly helped by hot calls - calls by operators based on the numbers of people who are interested in a product or service. If a company has very little feedback data from potential customers, then large databases of telephone numbers are used, through which they try to offer their product or service.
Targeting and retargeting
With the help of modern ones, it is possible to return a potential client to the site without directly knowing his contact information. A technology called "retargeting" allows you to install a special code on the site that tracks the IP address of the visitor and / or writes a cookie on his computer in the browser, reading which the advertising networks on the Internet will show him exactly your advertisements, which you can customize to the specifics of your project and your tasks.
Back to simple
A small business rarely has the budget to hire an entire call center or develop an Internet resource with a lot of technology. complex functions. by the most simple solution for a novice entrepreneur is a business card site that would contain information about the company and feedback on html. Hypertext Markup Language is one of the most simple ways for creating web pages, so it's great to showcase an example like this html contact forms.
Now we will give the code of such a form.
If you specify the post method in the form attributes, the data will be sent for processing by a file at contactus.php. If your server does not support php, then you can specify the mailto data processing method and your email in the action attribute. The last option is extremely unreliable, because after clicking the "Send" button, Outlook or another email application will open, from which the user will have to send letter. If you're having trouble with both self-hosted web development and hiring a programmer, you can use a Google Form, which can be easily created with an intuitive visual interface.
What to do about confusion
Sooner or later, there will come a point when you can't remember all your clients or just enter them into Excel because another employee won't have access to it. It follows from this that the sooner you implement a CRM system in your business, the easier it will be to manage business processes later. The complexity of managing a business only grows with the growth of the number of clients, so you should not hope that the costs of CRM can be avoided.
How to choose a CRM and solve the feedback problem
First, determine which feedback channels you plan to use with users - it can be phone calls, SMS service, online chat on the site, correspondence in instant messengers, e-mail, or something else. Then determine which of the available solutions provide such functionality and at what cost. Determine which CRM has the ability to refine functionality, whether it works in the cloud or not. These basic principles will help you communicate with your customers effectively and not lose them in the future.