The easiest way to find out if you are truly satisfying your customers is to simply ask them. When you learn that a customer is extremely dissatisfied, you can usually find out what the problem is and quickly correct it to salvage the relationship. The problem, however, is that more often customers feel the sting of minor annoyances but don't ever voice their concerns to management. So you end up going about business as usual never realizing the little things that are bugging your customers and costing you business.
How do you remedy this problem? You conduct thoughtful and effective surveys. When conducted properly, surveys can be one of your greatest tools for creating a loyal customer base. There are also other reasons to conduct surveys. They help you identify your competitive differences and strengths in the marketplace. They are also an extremely efficient and cost-effective marketing tool. To make the most of your surveys, however, you need to receive quality feedback?responses that will really help you to improve your business.
Quality answers start with quality questions. This part of the survey process is critical. Before you even start producing questions, you need to think about the goals of your survey. What are you trying to accomplish? It isn't enough to say that you just want to know what your customers think of you. By asking general questions you'll elicit general responses. You have to be more focused than that. Maybe your goal could be to find ways to improve customer service. Or maybe you wish to closely examine the products or services you provide and find out what your customers really think of them. No matter how your questions are focused, make sure that some of them are open-ended. This will help you to get as much detail out of your customers as possible.
In addition to seeking out information about the problem areas of your business, try to ask questions that will help you pinpoint what exactly it is that your customers value about your business. Are they captivated by the warm and inviting atmosphere? Do they go crazy over your frequent bargains? Or do they appreciate how knowledgeable you are about your industry? By identifying what your customers love most about you, you'll know to keep that aspect of your business strong.
Make sure that you keep the number of questions down to a reasonable number. Think about how you'll be distributing the surveys and who you'll be distributing them to. What kind of time frame are they on. If all of your questions are meant to elicit long, in-depth responses, then a 50-question survey handed out at a check-out counter isn't going to do the trick. You need to cut the number way down and give it to them when they are more likely to fill it out. If all of your questions only require short answers, then you can be a bit more liberal with the number, but remembers that shorter is better.
Before you have your questions set in stone, you're going to want to take some time to think about your distribution methods. This includes the how and the when, and both depend on the type of business you're in and the type of survey you're sending. If you own a restaurant and want to know about the quality of the food or customer service, then comment cards left at the table are a popular choice. If you're primary business is on the Internet then an email or pop-up survey are obvious choices. Even if you're not an Internet company, email surveys are nice because they allow customers to complete them at their own leisure. Soliciting customers when they are obviously preoccupied with other things is an easy way to either get rejected or get short, half-hearted responses. The method of distribution is entirely up to you. Just make sure you consider the how and the when that give you the best possibility of receiving useful feedback.
