Lesson 8: Painless Constructive Feedback (the Feedback Sandwich)

 

As we’ve mentioned previously, sometimes customers will ask that we update their website (or design or write their website) in a way that we know, through experience, won’t be as effective as they might think. When this happens, and before just blindly doing what they ask (unless it is one of those customers that we have a note in the system about who doesn’t want our experience and advice), we might want to offer some helpful suggestions. This can be very tricky since they are, after all, the boss. But most of our customers have hired us so they can benefit from our knowledge and experience, and they welcome our suggestions. They will welcome our recommendation much more if we are careful to present our recommendations in a positive manner. This method of providing feedback works VERY well with friends and family as well, so it’s worth perfecting. :)

It works like this:

  1. First Slice of Bread: Start off with positive feedback. (This would be authentic praise of something they did recently. Be specific.)

  2. The Meat of the Matter: Provide your constructive criticism or recommendations. (This should be brief but thorough. Don’t give more than one or two things at a time—otherwise it’s too much to handle—and present it in the context of how it can help them reach their goals.)

  3. Last Slice of Bread: End on a positive note. (You can simply reiterate the initial positive feedback/compliment or maybe speak in general terms about how much progress they are making, or compliment their receptiveness to receiving constructive criticism.

All criticism (positive and negative) should be authentic and well thought out.

For example:

Let’s assume that the customer wants to put neon dancing sheep across the home page to emphasize the annual County Fair.

Old Method: An updater might say, "The dancing sheep won't look professional and will clash with the design of your site. Can we place a news article with a tasteful farm animal graphic instead?"

The Feedback Sandwich Method: An alternative may be:

"Hello Anita. Thanks so much for all you do to keep your website up-to-date. This looks like a wonderful community event that needs to be highlighted.

"I worry that an animated graphic may actually detract from the vision you are trying to accomplish and compromise the design integrity of your website. As an alternative, we have placed an announcement in your Home page scrolling news about the fair, placed a short article on your News page with a tasteful farm animal graphic to highlight and draw attention to the event, linked your flyer for more detailed, printable information, and also placed the event on your calendar. I think this will cover all bases to get the word out. Please let me know your thoughts.

"What a fun event! Your community is so lucky to have things like this to help unify efforts to raise funds for the students. We would love to hear about how successful the event is and possibly post some follow-up photos. Enjoy your day!"

Feel the difference? :)

The Feedback Sandwich Method takes a bit more time, but is an effective way to introduce recommendations to customers as well as guide co-workers and team members in a kind manner.