Satisfaction Surveys - A Way to Connect with your Customers

As a business owner, your number one goal should be to open the lines of communication with your customers. By doing this, you not only show your customers that you value them, but you also gain vital feedback necessary to improve your business. Make it your mission to know whether or not your customers are happy and are planning to come back to purchase from you again.

Open communication is a two part process: Ask First, Act Second.

Ask First: Through satisfaction surveys, you are able to ask your customers to identify key purchase drivers, what they liked and/or disliked about their experience with your business and the ever telling question of “Would you recommend?” Questions like these will help to clarify areas of improvement and identify loyalty customer profiles.

Things to consider before you ask:
o Know what your goals and desired outcome are before designing your survey, and then design a survey that achieves these goals with as few questions as possible.
o People’s time is valuable – Provide an explanation to your customers on why you are surveying them (to gauge their purchase/service experience, for input for future product development, etc). Make sure that your survey is easy to follow and easy to respond to (internet options or by return envelope).

Act Second: Turn the results/comments/feedback provided by your most valuable critics (your customers) into action. Create action plans and implement internal improvement procedures that your whole company can follow.

Things to consider before you act:
o Have a plan in place to analyze the results for benchmarking and trend analysis. Create a system for quick reporting that can be used immediately to make better business decisions and drive more sales.
o Putting results into a simple Importance versus Satisfaction chart can go a long way toward keeping an entire team focused on what matters most to your customers.
o Make use of Back End Analysis/Reporting: Create various tiers of reporting geared toward the corporate, departmental, and salesperson levels. Produce customized reports to monitor trends in the results, identify areas of concern and “alerts” when customers are at risk of leaving.
o When a problem area is identified, provide your team with opportunities for improvement - link your results to training opportunities.

Whether you decide to handle your surveys in-house or hire a consulting firm to assist, remember to keep these simple ideas in mind as you work to better understand your customers’ experience. Continued open communication with customers will help keep your company healthy and successful.