The success of a business is not always how many new customers you gain but how many loyal customers you retain. Top-quality service may be the goal of your company, but unless you ask your customers their feedback, you’ll never know if you are achieving that goal. You’ll never truly know the quality of your service unless you ask those you serve.
While we all want to hear positive feedback about aspects of our company, growth happens when customers are able to voice frustrations or concerns. Internalizing pain points within customer processes helps you improve upon challenging areas. A new customer sharing their struggle to navigate your website can help you streamline menu options and contact fields. Feedback regarding product quality encourages a revamp of production processes.
When customers are asked about their experiences, they feel seen and heard. When those experiences are sought and then improved upon, customers will want to continue to build the relationship with your company. People want to feel that their feedback matters.
After gaining insight from customers over a long period of time, decision-making within the company will be driven by their feedback. You get more of a feel for what customers are looking for and need from your company.
Using Customer Satisfaction Surveys or CSATs can be designed specifically for your company and your customers. Sites like Survey Monkey (https://www.surveymonkey.com) and Google Forms (https://workspace.google.com/products/forms/) provide free options as well as upgrades to fit your survey needs depending on how many customers you survey. These sites analyze results to give insights, patterns, and themes within the answers selected.
There are a number of things to consider when constructing a Customer Satisfaction Survey. From the design structure to formulating questions and how the survey is written, it should be specific enough for customers to provide sufficient feedback but not overwhelmed with detailed questions.
You have to first start with determining the goal of the survey. What is the scope and focus of the feedback you desire? Are you wanting to know about specific interactions, transactions or aspects of a customer’s experience? CallMiner.com suggests, “Every question should bring you a step closer to understanding your customers better about your specific objectives.”
Customers usually want to know the purpose of the survey. They want to know how long it will take and why this feedback is important. They usually want to know what will be done with the data. This encourages more participation and greater honesty.
For rating questions, instead of a scale of 0-5, where the customer will likely choose a 3, expand to a 0-10 rating. This requires the customer to think more deeply about their answer. Ask the customer to explain why he/she chose the rating.
Also try to ask open ended questions that will generate more than a simple yes or no answer. For example, “In a few words, explain what you like about your overall experience with XYZ company?”
Sometimes you want to know key demographic questions about the respondent. Or you want to know about their background with competitors or other products/services. For example, “What other companies or products did you consider before trying ours?”
Collecting the data from Customer Satisfaction Surveys provides a wealth of information to help your business maintain a growth mindset as you seek to determine the needs and experiences of your customers. Putting some of these suggestions into practice goes a long way to building loyalty and improving your brand.
