Survey says: Customer response critical to retention, sales
Interestingly, what business owners think they are doing right is sometimes different from what customers appreciate, expect or experience. Customer attitudes and preferences will change based on the length of the customer relationship, changes in personnel at your company, whether you meet deadlines or return calls on a timely basis and even how you talk about your business.
However, it’s not as simple as asking your customers what they really want from you. You have to give them an easy way to express preferences or frustrations without feeling “mean” or threatened. Then you have to know what to do with that information.
More customers quit
Why should you worry about what your customers really think? One word: churn. Your customer churn rate affects your revenue per customer in any given year; it also affects how much you can afford to spend to attract new customers. According to the 2010 Harris Interactive Customer Experience Impact Report, 86 percent of consumers quit doing business with a company because of a bad customer experience, up from 59 percent just four years ago.
In addition, Harris noted that 60 percent of consumers will often or always pay more for a better experience, even in a negative economy. It’s worth the investment to keep customers happy.
There are many ways to find out what customers really think and want, then use that information to deliver it. Many of the tools are also low cost, but not all tools are created equal. Also, investment in a strategy before and after the feedback will really bring the return.
Personal and online surveys: Surveys have been used for a long time to gauge customer preference or experience. Now, many survey tools are online. The cons against surveys include the lack of personal interaction with the client and limited options for response. There are always gray areas to a client experience that surveys may not be equipped to capture.
Surveys are also only as good as the questions asked. Who do you want to survey and for what purpose? How will you structure questions within the survey to lead to other important questions?
Once you have designed the survey and collected the data, someone needs to analyze it for opportunities to improve service or experiences. These opportunities should help you adjust strategic goals, marketing efforts and the methods and frequency of customer communication.
Client interviews: When you sell your knowledge or service, client interviews are the most effective way to find out how well you are serving the client. Interviews performed through a third-party interviewer will collect more objective information. They can be performed as part of a service check-in with clients or as part of branding research.
The interview should focus on strengths of the individual provider and the firm, areas that could use improvement, reasons why the client would refer business and ways that the provider is different from other similar providers.
Interviewing five to 10 of your best clients is a good way to identify themes in service strengths and weaknesses. It can also support identification of competitive difference. Once you have gathered this feedback, determine next steps for improving service. Communicate with your clients about how you are going to accomplish it. Don’t miss this opportunity to actually improve weaknesses and communicate what has changed.
You could also get permission from clients to use some comments as testimonials in marketing materials.
Set priorities
Focus groups: Focus groups are often used to test new products, campaigns or messages before they are launched to the general public. However, they can also be used to set new priorities for the company.
According to the Aberdeen Group, 70 percent of customer experience management best-in-class adopters will use customer feedback to make strategic decisions. Only 50 percent of average organizations and 29 percent of lagging organizations use it.
Focus groups can include a group of six to eight people or several groups of three to four people. The number of people should be a good representation of the types of customers from whom you want feedback. You might categorize based on your basic to premium customers or your A clients to C clients.
Provide some beverages and snacks to show your appreciation. Let people know how their feedback will be used.
Focus group feedback has resulted in canceled products and ad campaigns. It has also supported very successful service launches and branding shifts. Use a facilitator who understands the goals, is nonthreatening and knows how to interpret verbal feedback as well as body language.
Social media monitoring: One of the newest ways to find out what customers think is through social media monitoring. Services are available that will crawl media sites to find references to your company and report the results. They can also remove negative comments before the information spreads too far.
If you aren’t a Fortune 500 company or haven’t put your company out there too much on social media, you might not have a lot of feedback to track-or you might be surprised how much is out there. The White House Office of Consumer Affairs notes that a dissatisfied customer will tell between nine and 15 people about a bad experience. Their comments often happen online.
Social media monitoring shouldn’t be used alone. You should communicate directly with customers to solicit feedback and then actively work on improvements. Think of Domino’s and its response to negative social media. Their response is touching product quality, customer service, marketing, branding and sales.
Regardless of the tools you use to gather customer feedback, recognize that it is a critical part of retention. Companies that listen and respond to their customers are outperforming their competition because they have a pulse on customer needs, pains and desires.
Dawn Wagenaar,
Ingenuity Marketing
Group LLC:
651.690.3358
dawn@ingenuitymarketing.com
www.ingenuitymarketing.com
