Guest Post: Why Anecdotal Customer Feedback is Dangerous

This week we feature an article by Jay Baer, founder of Convince & Convert. He shares insight on gaining and interpreting customer feedback.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published on Jay Baer’s site, Convince & Convert.
Customer feedback is a gift. I believe that. I wrote a whole book about it called Hug Your Haters.
Indeed, customers are doing you an enormous favor by taking the time to alert you to a problem when it occurs, or to their happiness, when that’s the outcome.
The value of feedback is heightened today, as customer experience sways purchase decisions more than ever. Thus, listening to and analyzing customer feedback is crucial to make sure the company meets or exceeds ever-escalating expectations.
But making customer experience changes based on customer feedback isn’t always wise, as you’ll see in this article.
My friend Tom Webster has said many smart things, but one of my favorites is this:
The plural of anecdote is not