I regularly eat at a downtown restaurant and the manager comes by each time to ask the same question. Was everything alright with your meal? It’s become a joke for me when I eat there. Why ask me a loaded question that will never get an honest answer? How about… what could have been done better? Is there anything I can get for you? How was our wait staff?

I’m working on a new web show (who isn’t) and our first episode went online today to gather some early feedback. I received a few emails with very positive responses and our director said, “I don’t care about that. I only want to hear negative comments. We need them to get better.”

Wow! I’d become the manager with the ugly dress shirt and the tie chain. I was so pumped about getting good reviews, I failed to ask what could be done to improve.

We all say we want feedback and proudly put our “Contact Us” button on our sites, but as Cam mentioned… it’s more than just asking. It’s what you ask, how much you ask and the format your questions are given. You can’t make user feedback difficult on the user if you really want an honest response. What you can do is ask the right questions and really seek out the answers. If you ask the right questions in a sincere manner, you might just learn something.

Photo Flickr credit: Shawnblog

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