Feedback from staff as well as customers should be welcomed. Listening to people on the ground who are working within your work place ensures your business is moving forward and your people should certainly be given credit for their focus and attention to the job.

Feedback from your teams can drive recruitment strategies, development and training focus and expectations. Teams that focus heavily on feedback are more likely to have a strong community link and employee retention as frustrations are listened to and worked on as part of the culture. 

Here are some simple ways to incorporate and enhance the feedback culture within your business:

• Ask the team to participate in problem solving creates a culture where people cannot deny that the team wants to move forward, ‘we tried that’, or ‘that won’t work’ become unacceptable.
• Teams are always happy to share their opinions, but this won’t happen unless they are asked to become a critical friend to your business.
• Continual development and improvement can become a focus of some strong-minded individuals who are looking to develop skills and knowledge within your business.
• Don’t offer only good feedback, use wording to provide critical friending in every-day situations, not just at appraisals. Encouraging this within your teams is a positive.
• Fast paced feedback through social media, or simple questions at the table or cashier point are the best way to gather real time updates
• Make it easy for people to have an outlet for feedback both internally and externally to the business. Feedback cards on the tables, links on Facebook or simply asking, staff feedback cards left in the rest area and regular meetings with any other business. A
• Allow technology to do the footwork for you, automatically collate and respond to feedback.
• Share best practice throughout your business. Where something is working well in one site when undergoing internal or external audit- share the feedback whether good or bad. Being one business requires working together to provide a picture of what good looks like.
• Invite staff to move about the business to see things from another point of view e.g. front of house moving to do a day back of house and debrief to ensure frustrations or insight make a difference throughout the wider team.
• Make changes and improvements quickly, be on the mark and on the money and staff and customers will appreciate the fact they have been listened to.