Silence is Not Always Golden

STOP THE SILENCE WITH CUSTOMER SERVICE SURVEYS

If you are not receiving customer complaints, do not assume your customers are happy with your service.  Did you know that only 4% of dissatisfied customers will complain while 96% just go away according to a recent study?  Your customer service could be costing you money and customers.  But how do you know if you aren’t asking your customers about your products and services? 

Online surveys are a powerful tool to determine how you are meeting the needs and wants of your customers.  They can provide actionable customer service feedback – if done right.  Surveys conducted regularly, every 6 months or yearly, can be an important source of information that you can use to improve your service. 

Designing a survey is as much an art as it is a science.  Knowing which questions to ask and how to structure questions are keys to great results. It is also important to create a survey that is engaging and easy to understand.  And, the survey must produce a reasonable response rate so that you can rely on the feedback. 

When designing a survey, consider the following:

1. Begin with the outcome in mind.  What is your goal for the survey and what do you plan to do with this information?  Measure the factors that have a positive influence on your customer’s buying behaviors.  Determine which products and services are most important to your customers.  Locate the gaps in your service experience so that you can make the necessary improvements.

2. Select the right customers.  Depending on your survey goal, consider whether a survey of your complete customer base is appropriate.  Surveying your complete customer database may result in skewed or watered-down information and can provide inaccurate information.  One approach is to select your core customers as their feedback can be highly valuable.  Your core customers are the ones that are the most profitable and include those whom you would like to have as word-of-mouth marketers.

3. Write questions that will result in actionable feedback.  Asking the right questions is important.  For example, asking “how important is employee friendliness to you?” is not as valuable as asking “how do our employees rate on friendliness?”  Using the right question format to ask these questions (i.e. multiple choice, open-ended, rating scale, and ranking) is just as important. Be as specific as possible with your questions so that your analysis of the survey information will yield good results.

4. Maximize response rates.  Response rates vary widely for different types of surveys. Customer satisfaction surveys and market research surveys often have response rates in the 10% – 30% range. To increase response rates, notify your customers prior to the upcoming survey.  A survey opt-out feature can be included so that can clean your list prior to sending out the survey.  In addition, conduct a pre-test by sending the survey to several of your customers, staff, etc., to uncover confusing or uncomfortable questions, to determine if the questions match the goal and to gauge actual completion times.

5. Share the results.  Keeping the results of your survey to yourself is not the best policy.  Your customers will be more apt to respond to future surveys if they are convinced that you use this information to improve your services.  Discuss survey results with your employees during training sessions and engage them in solutions.  Share your results with your customers on your website, in your monthly newsletter, or through email. 

Online surveys are one of many tools available to the small business owner to gather feedback.  Use them to communicate to your customers and staff about your commitment to outstanding customer service.  Turn up the conversation with your customers so that you can turn your customer service into more cash.

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