Every week at TSIM, we read out every customer review we have received since the previous meeting. Not a summary, and not just the unusually good or bad ones. We read all of them.
Positive reviews are always enjoyable, especially when a customer mentions someone from the team or talks about how support helped them while travelling. A lot of customer service work happens when somebody is frustrated or under pressure, so it is good for the people doing that work to hear a customer appreciate the effort.
Negative reviews are just as interesting, for a different reason. We usually discuss what happened and whether there is anything we can change to make the same problem less likely for the next customer.
Sometimes we have simply made a mistake. At other times the underlying problem may be a mobile network, a particular phone, or something else outside our control. Even then, we often find there was something we could have done better: clearer instructions, a better warning before purchase, a faster way for support to diagnose the problem, or wording on a product page that needs changing.
We don’t automatically change a process because of one review, but we do pay attention when the same issue appears repeatedly. Several customers struggling with the same setup step is a good sign that the instructions need work. If customers repeatedly misunderstand what a plan includes, we look at how we are describing it. Quite a few changes to the way we sell and support our products have started with conversations like these.
Reading all reviews aloud has become a simple way of keeping the customer in the room with us. Sometimes the feedback makes the team happy, sometimes it leads to an uncomfortable discussion, and sometimes it gives us an obvious job to do before the next meeting. All three are useful.