I have to admit to feeling a little smug today after receiving this email from a client at the salon:

I just wanted to drop you a  quick note to say how impressed I have been with your website, service and general marketing.  I work as a brand manager for a big FMCG company and am genuinely impressed with how special you have made me feel as a customer.  An email on my birthday cemented me as a completely loyal customer and now that I can book online I will hopefully be there even more regularly.

Keep up the good work, I will make sure I recommend you to as many friends as I can.

The great thing about feedback is that it gives you a barometer of what is good and what is bad about your business. Arguably, the best feedback then is the negative stuff – this helps you improve.

It also helps you to get great feedback, if you take note and make the necessary changes.

A lot of people don’t like bad feedback though and some people get incredibly defensive. I had an instance recently with a guy from a company calling me to remove this post from a forum (thread #6) after I felt aggrieved enough to rant (after previously praising the company).

Real feedback is not for ego, it’s for improvement. Ask… listen and act.