Episode 40 Adam Alfia, Founder Real Time Feedback

Kim Ford: Welcome to Evolve, everybody, where we focus on the evolution of leadership.

I’m Kim Ford, your host, and I’m really excited to have a special guest today. Do you mind taking a second to introduce yourself, your background, your company, and give us a general idea of who you are?

Adam Alfia: Sure. Thank you so much. My name is Adam Alfia with RealTimeFeedback.com, which I’ve been working on for the last 4 or 5 years.

Before then, and still now, my 9-to-5 was, and sometimes is, a company I have called Maestro. It’s a virtual personal assistant company with our biggest footprint in the automotive space. So think OnStar. We do the same thing that OnStar did for GM, but for non-GM vehicles.

Our current clients are Nissan, Infiniti, Mitsubishi, and Subaru. So if you have 1 of those cars and you push a button in the car, that comes to my call center here in Dallas. We help you with pretty much anything you need, from restaurant reservations to booking a trip, to helping you find a vegan restaurant in Spain for your wife while you’re traveling. So we pretty much help you with anything, anytime, anywhere.

I’ve been doing that for about 17 years, so it’s really given me a good pulse on customer engagement and on making sure that people are happy when they call and when our agents are helping them. Because you can hear people smile over the phone. A lot of people don’t realize that when you call somewhere, you want to make sure you’re smiling, because customers can hear it.

So we have a very, very white-glove type of service where we want you, when you get off the phone, to go, “Wow, that was such a great experience.” And that really is what led me to start the Real Time Feedback platform, which is what I’m doing now.

Kim Ford: Wow, that’s awesome. So is Real Time Feedback kind of a virtual or personal assistant as well?

Adam Alfia: No. That is a 2-way guest and employee engagement program where customers at any business that uses our platform can communicate directly with the manager in real time for any issues they might have, or even compliments.

So if you’ve ever been at a store and seen, let’s say, somebody spilled a bag of rice somewhere, and you’re walking around trying to find somebody to tell, or you’re standing in line at the cashier and there are only 2 registers open with 10 people in line, and you don’t want to get out of line to go find somebody because you don’t want to lose your place, our system solves that.

We use QR codes in businesses so any customer can scan the QR code and instantly have a direct line of communication to a manager to let them know about their experience or about an issue. It’s all digital. The manager gets it, they can respond, and the customer gets a text message back.

It’s a really cool, in-the-moment type of engagement. What we’ve found is that employees submit just as many feedbacks as customers do, because a lot of times they don’t get the ear of management. A lot of times they might have anxiety about complaining to a manager about a work issue or something going on. And because our platform allows anonymous feedback, they can voice their concerns in real time and know that management got it.

Kim Ford: Wow. Now tell me, why does customer service matter? I mean, I sit here as a business owner, B2B, and for me customer service is everything. But a lot of people would think, when I go to the grocery store, you just get what you get. You’re there to get your groceries. Is there a bigger picture here that people might be missing?

Adam Alfia: Yeah. If you think about it, online, especially during the pandemic, really took off. So you have a lot of businesses that have brick-and-mortar footprints, and they need those stores to matter. Grocery stores, movie theaters, all kinds of places are dealing with this now.

It’s really important that if and when you decide to get in your car or call an Uber and make that trip to a brick-and-mortar location, your experience is great. Because otherwise, you say, “Why am I even here? I’ll just buy it online.” It might take me a little longer to get, but I don’t want to deal with rude employees, traffic, or waiting in line.

So businesses that want to thrive and survive in the new economy have to give a great experience when customers walk in the store.

Right now it’s kind of a double whammy. Customers are only now really getting back into brick-and-mortar locations, and businesses have a huge challenge getting quality employees. A lot of businesses are just getting warm bodies. If you can breathe and talk, come on in, you’re hired. You see McDonald’s giving $1,000 signing bonuses just to get people in the door. So you’re going to get less qualified employees dealing with your customers.

That customer is not going to have a great experience, and the question becomes, how do you know about that? That’s where Feedback comes in. There are problem areas in your store that your customers can now alert you to, from rude employees, to the bathroom being out of soap, to a toilet overflowing. These are things customers notice but often don’t report because the process is too hard.

Kim Ford: I would think from the business owner or store manager’s perspective, getting that real-time feedback should really be beneficial, because that shapes what tomorrow looks like, where they really need to improve, where there are weaknesses, and what maybe the consumer wants as well, right?

Adam Alfia: Exactly. We just launched with a Ford dealership, and I’m not going to say where because they’re pretty large in their area, but the general manager of the store said, “Yeah, we’re having a bunch of customers defect from our service drive. They’re not coming back. We get a lot of 1-star reviews.”

So we implemented the platform, and within 2 weeks it became obvious that the service manager of the store was the issue. Because when these feedbacks were coming in, half of them were complaining about him. And what he was doing was marking them as resolved in our system without ever responding to the customer.

So we built an escalation system. If somebody doesn’t respond within 5 minutes or 10 minutes, whatever you set the parameter to be, it automatically forwards that up to his boss or her boss. It escalates up the chain. So if you know that if you don’t respond your boss is going to get a message in 10 or 15 minutes saying you didn’t respond to feedback, you’re much more likely to handle that customer.

Kim Ford: That’s very true. We work in the commercial real estate sector, not really retail, but a lot of people watching this are in retail. I can see where the benefits are huge, whether it’s a small business or a larger chain. It really does matter.

Domino’s Pizza, for example, struggles with things like bad time estimates. I would assume that’s the same with oil changes. And honestly, I think doctor’s offices need this more than anything.

Adam Alfia: Yeah. So we just launched a large clinic that has many locations. We even have a function where as soon as you leave, as soon as you check out, it automatically sends you a text message that says, “Hey John, thanks for visiting XYZ Clinic. This is the patient experience manager. On a scale of 1 to 5, how would you rate your overall experience?”

If they give you 5 stars, it says, “Great, can you leave us a Google review?” If they don’t give 5 stars, it says, “I’m sorry we didn’t give you a 5-star experience. Let us know where we fell short.” That generates a feedback message that goes straight to management.

We use that same thinking in our own building here in Dallas, where our corporate headquarters are. We have a 40,000-square-foot building, and we put QR codes throughout the building, in bathrooms and elevators, because there’s always maintenance stuff going on in commercial buildings.

Sometimes only half the people in a building are actual tenants. The other half are visitors, and they don’t know who to call, and they’re not going to call anyway. If they see a toilet overflowing, they’re probably just going to leave. But if you put a QR code on the mirror when they’re washing their hands, and they notice you’re out of paper towels or there’s another issue, they can scan it and it goes straight to my maintenance guy. He’s there within 10 minutes fixing it.

Kim Ford: I mean, that’s brilliant. And I like the concept of controlling the message and giving them an easier place to go, instead of them going to Twitter or somewhere else.

You know, it’s funny, I posted a picture just being silly of my dog waiting on a delayed flight, clearly not wanting to be in the travel bag anymore. It was Southwest, and immediately Southwest responded. They were super attentive. But I don’t think most companies pay attention like that.

What you’ve done is enable all sizes of companies and all types of businesses to get that type of insight. I would assume your technology allows some type of mutual integrations if they already have an established system in place, right?

Adam Alfia: Right. So we can tie into Salesforce, Qualtrics, Medallia, and other systems.

A lot of people, when we first talk to them about it, say, “Oh, I already have Medallia,” or, “I already have a survey platform.” And I say, “Well, when does your customer get that survey? They’re long gone. They’re back home. They’ve already had their experience and already told a couple of people.”

There’s an 80/20 rule. 80% of customers will never say anything publicly. They might tell friends and family, but they’re not going to post online. They’re not going to Yelp. They just won’t come back. It’s the 20% who become vocal online. But it’s the 80% you really have to worry about, because those are the people leaving without telling you why.

If you let them communicate in the moment, you can fix the issue before it becomes a loss.

There’s also a metric that’s really followed closely now called CES, customer effort score. If you make it easy for the customer to engage with you when there’s an issue, they’ll be much more likely to come back, because now they know you’re listening and you care.

Kim Ford: So do you think it really matters in the grand scheme of things? A lot of people think, “So what if they don’t come back? Somebody else will.” But customer service really matters, doesn’t it?

Adam Alfia: Yeah, it’s crazy because we all have customer service nightmares, and you can recall them instantly. If somebody says, “What’s a bad experience you had at Walmart?” or anywhere else, you can tell the story immediately. It sticks in your mind.

And conversely, if I have a great experience, I may not tell as many people, but if somebody asks me about that place, I’ll say, “Yeah, I had a great experience there.”

It matters more now than ever before because a bad experience can travel around the world in a microsecond. Remember the United incident where that passenger got dragged off the plane? They lost something like a billion dollars in value in just a few days from that situation and the publicity around it.

So yes, it matters. It matters more than ever before.

A lot of times when we put presentations together for clients, we’ll pull a real Google review they received. Most reviews have thousands of views. That means thousands of people have read about a bad experience. And I always say, when I’m looking at a business, whether it’s a restaurant or a hotel, I always look at the worst reviews first because I expect good service. I want to know what the horror stories are, because those tell you how bad management might be.

Kim Ford: Have you done anything in the security space? I’m thinking of maybe larger building complexes or places where roaming staff or guards need first alerts.

Adam Alfia: We’re in the process of launching with a bunch of storage facilities. Right now most storage facilities don’t have anyone in the office anymore. 1 manager may be managing 10 locations and never actually on site. So how does a customer interact with anybody?

We’re putting QR codes throughout those facilities and around the building. When you first come in through the gate, you can scan and talk straight to a manager. And on top of that, we built software so that the very first time you sign up for storage and you go there to put your items in, you get a text message a few minutes later saying, “Hey, thanks for choosing XYZ Storage. This is John, the manager. If there’s anything you need, click this link and let me know.” That takes them straight into the real-time feedback page for that location.

So now they can have a conversation with management right away.

Kim Ford: I would think in a larger office building, especially multi-building office complexes, a property manager would never know certain things without this. There might be a mess at the end of a hallway for days and they’d never know because no one knows who to tell or doesn’t want the hassle.

Adam Alfia: Exactly. Somebody got stuck in our elevator a couple of months ago. They saw the QR code, scanned it, and said, “Hey, I’m stuck in the elevator.” We had a power outage in the building. Luckily I was able to call somebody and get the door opened for them.

You just never know where these communication gaps exist. There are so many places where if you make it too hard to tell someone about an issue, people simply won’t.

We’re also doing a pilot program with a well-known home improvement store. We’re putting QR codes in the wood-cutting area. If you’ve ever gone into 1 of those stores and waited while you hear someone being paged over and over again and nobody shows up, you know exactly what I mean. People get numb to the intercom.

But if I scan a QR code, it can instantly notify whoever actually has the key or the authority to help in that area. Same idea with jewelry counters or locked cabinets. It’s about reducing the friction in communication.

Kim Ford: When you flip this around, how does an employer promote great customer service within the team? Because I would assume if employees know great service can lead to compliments and recognition, that helps too.

Adam Alfia: Exactly. The businesses that really get a lot of engagement are the ones where employees actively ask for feedback.

Employees love getting compliments. So if they’re checking somebody out and say, “Hey, there’s a QR code right there, can you scan it and let our manager know how your experience was today?” a lot of times the customer will leave a compliment.

We have a lot of restaurants using the platform where the server says, “If I did a great job, or if I didn’t do a great job, let my manager know. Scan that QR code.” Good customers love that kind of thing. If you gave me great service and I can tell your manager and boost your morale, of course I’m happy to do it.

But people rarely call a manager over just to say somebody did a great job. If there’s a simple digital path, they’ll use it.

Kim Ford: A lot of companies right now are trying to figure out tomorrow. They don’t necessarily have all their employees together anymore. They’re trying to decide what the future of work looks like. What advice do you have for business leaders as they navigate that?

Adam Alfia: The frontline of any business is the employee. The employee sees things on the ground that management and corporate never see. So if you give them a great pipeline of communication and let them affect how the business is run by saying, “Hey, we really care about your views and your ideas. We want you to tell us where you see room for improvement,” then that goes a long way.

We actually built a function called #EMP. When you leave feedback, you can put hashtag EMP, and it designates that the feedback comes from an employee instead of a customer.

We get a lot of utilization from that, from employees complaining about other employees, from saying, “Every time I come in, 3 people are missing and I’m left handling customers by myself,” or suggesting benefits or policy improvements.

You have to listen to the employee base because there are so many opportunities for employees now to go somewhere else. Everybody is hiring. So you have to make sure employees are happy, that you’re listening to them, and that you’re taking the good ideas into consideration and using them to improve the environment for both employees and customers.

Kim Ford: I love it. Thank you, Adam. Our purpose for Evolve is really to allow leaders a place to learn, connect, and grow together. Thank you so much for taking your time and for sharing so much wisdom with us.

Please, everybody, follow us on social media and stay tuned as we evolve together. Thanks again.

Adam Alfia: Thank you.