archive for June, 2010

8 Customer Feedback Survey Tips You Need To Know!

Posted on: June 29th, 2010 by John Crofts - VP, Analytics

image courtesy of Casey Serin

The other day, I took the survey for a multi-national fast food chain.  Ten questions in, I was begging for mercy.  You’d think that with as many minds as are behind such a company, they could at least string a decent survey together.

Unfortunately, for every good transactional survey, there are 10 bad ones.  Whether it’s the 80 question nightmare, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, or the high-brow academic windbag variety, you know a bad survey when you meet one.  By publishing such things, companies basically shout from their ivory towers, “We don’t value your time, we just want data (though we likely won’t use it).  You are and will continue to be, just a number to us.”

These mistakes are avoidable.  The reality is, we need not require a root canal of our customers to gather the information our business needs.

An operations improvement transactional survey is essentially a simple conversation, a continuous dialogue between a company and its customers.  Your survey either engages your customer and enhances your brand image, or drives your customer away.  A successful customer experience survey aligns the informational needs of an organization with the interests of the customer continuously, and to the benefit to both parties.

Writing a good survey isn’t rocket science, it’s nothing more than the application of practical conversation skills…skills that you use every day.

Think before you speak
Design your survey with the end in mind.  Ask the right questions.  What is the most critical information you need to know.  How will you report on the data?  Think ahead and design it right, from the start.

Find common ground
We relate to one another by finding things we share.  Build your survey on common ground.  How and where can you collect your customer’s insights where it’s convenient for both of you?  What are you willing to give to your customer in return for their effort?  Ask about things that your customer cares about and can measure well.

Stay on-topic
How did you feel the last time you spoke with someone who chased a tangent at every opportunity?  Within seconds, you were probably looking around the room for anyone else to talk to.  Please…save…me!
Ask only those questions that are relevant to your customer’s service experience.  Keep it simple.  If it can’t be changed immediately, if it doesn’t vary from experience to experience, don’t ask.  In a transactional survey, keep more research-oriented questions to an absolute minimum.

Keep it short
Find the natural balance between your reporting wants and your customer’s willingness to give you their time.  As a general rule, if a survey takes you longer than three or four minutes…it’s too long.  As the survey length increases, the accuracy of each response decreases.  After getting stuck with him once, no one seeks out the guy that drones on forever for a second time around.  Don’t ask me the minutiae, I don’t care.  If you need more information than there’s room for, either rotate certain questions in and out of the survey, or just run an additional survey with a different focus.

Don’t talk—listen
The best conversationalists are the best listeners.  I fall into this trap all the time.  Just ask my wife.
A good survey is a listening survey.  It is concise.  It makes the customer’s job easy.  Avoid lengthy questions–the wall of data on the web, long-winded on the phone.  The customer’s time is best spent thinking and responding–not interpreting.

Let it flow
Good conversation flows.  Your survey should move quickly and gracefully through the service experience, from start to finish.  If there was a problem, drill down.  Otherwise, move it along.  As your customer, if I can’t see progress, if there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, I’m outta here.  My time is valuable.

Walk a mile in their shoes
Always ask yourself first…would I be willing to take the time to complete this survey…not just once, but on a continuous basis?  Be honest with yourself.  Make the hard decisions to cut where needed.  Don’t strangle the golden goose!

Act!
None of the above matters unless you’re prepared to act on the feedback.  By asking the questions, you are implicitly committing to improve in those areas the next time around.  Act or don’t ask.

Apply these simple conversation skills in your survey design and you’ll build enduring relationships with your customers.  It’s not rocket science.  You do this every day.

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Posted in Customer Feedback, Employee Feedback | 3 Comments »

Swimming In A Sea Of Sameness

Posted on: June 24th, 2010 by Nate Bagley

Oddball by Nina Matthews PhotographyThe majority of your industry is competing to please anyone and everyone they can. The only way they can do this is by creating lots and lots of average experiences that people can’t really complain about.

The problem with creating average products for the masses is that it means you are probably using the same recipe as everyone else.  It’s impossible to be incredible when you’re mediocre.

If you want to be a standout business, you need to spice things up. Find out who your most loyal customers are, and ask them what you can do to make their experiences with you more valuable and unique.

Ruby Tuesdays recognized that they have been wallowing in a sea of sameness. They decided to do something about it by quite literally changing their image… by blowing up their stores.

As a response to this accident (actually a publicity stunt), the following apology was issued:

In a world where everyone is the competing to fit in, what are you doing to stand out to your customers?  You don’t have to blow up your competitors to win their business. Small things can set you apart in a big way, like treating your customers better than everyone else.

What can your company do to turn the ordinary into something extraordinary?

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Posted in Success Stories | 1 Comment »

Sacrificing Customer Experience For Profits

Posted on: June 22nd, 2010 by Nate Bagley

crowd

Which is more important in the short run, profits or customer loyalty?

This is something that every company needs to decide.

There are many ways to make a buck in your business. When deciding how you want to make your money, it’s easy for your profit motive to be egocentric rather than customer centric.

For example, last week Andy Sernovitz blogged about an experience he had while taking his family to a large outdoor retailer. When he entered the store, he was accosted by 6 sales people trying to get him to sign up for time shares. He politely declined, not once, but 3 times and was then entreated by a snide comment by one of the salespeople.

On his way out of the store, a similar experience occured.

Sernovitz says,

I’m sure they’ll sell some timeshares. I’m sure the spreadsheet will say they made money on the promotion.

But there’s no spreadsheet that tells you how many potential shoppers left annoyed. Or how many won’t be back. Or how many were in a grouchy mood after being accosted and decided not to buy what they came there for.

Because no spreadsheet tells you when you’re being an ass.

Making money is important to the success of your company. This is a given. But do your business motives ensure your customers are happy? Do shoppers have such a good experience that they can’t wait to come back and do it again?

Or are you chasing them off faster than a hare at a dog race?

Remember, when your customers leave because of a poor experience, so do their wallets.

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Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

Can Positive/Negative Feedback Make or Break a Relationship?

Posted on: June 17th, 2010 by Nate Bagley

Have you ever worked in the same office where an I.T. manager was present? This is the brave soul that helps you every time your computer isn’t working properly. In my opinion, this is one of the most stressful jobs on the planet. Why? Because the vast majority of feedback they receive from their coworkers is negative in nature. Think about it. For most of the day they are consumed with near hostile messages like, “The server is down!”, “The internet is really slow!”, or “My computer crashed…..I need help now!” Imagine being in an environment where most of the messages you received were negative and required urgent action? The potential for psychological damage and increased stress is inevitable. The same principle can be applied to marital relationships. Companions who constantly give negative messages can drive a marriage to the edge…..sometimes over the edge.

Feedback, in all its varieties, can be a blessing or a curse (if used inappropriately). It has the potential to make a person feel like a million bucks, or make them feel like they have a million paper cuts. Think of the thrill you received in elementary school when the teacher gave you stickers (often gold stars) on your homework. Or think of the exciting rush you got when your manager recently told you that you went above and beyond on a major project. Deep down, human beings want to be admired for their accomplishments.

“Every human being is trying to say something to others. Trying to cry out, ‘I’m alive, notice me! Speak to me! Confirm that I am important, that I matter!’” –Marion D. Hanks. Does this principle apply to your employees in your organization?

Have you ever seen the signs on the back of semi trucks that say, “How’s my driving? Call…” I recently decided to call and leave positive feedback for the truck driver in front of me. My conversation with the operator went something like this:

Operator: “Hello, thank you for call. What seems to be the problem?”

Me: “Uh…..no problem at all. In fact I wanted to let you know that I’ve been following truck # xxxx for a while and he’s obeying the speed limit, signaling for proper lane changes and leaving good distance between the other cars. He’s doing a fantastic job!”

Operator: “Oh……um……..ok.” (Followed by a long awkward pause)

Me: “I’d appreciate it if you communicated this positive message to the driver.”

Operator:“Uh……sure. We normally don’t get compliments, but I can certainly relay the message to his supervisor and to him.”

In business, customer comments can be some of the most rewarding praise you can give to your employees. For many of our clients, most of the customer comments left via customer satisfaction surveys are positive in nature. Managers are then empowered with an arsenal of insightful real-life customer experiences. While constructive customer comments should be used for private training issues with employees, they should not be the only source of feedback they receive.

The following are some tips to consider:

  1. Make it a big deal to “catch your employees” doing good things.
  2. Praise them for it in public.
  3. Give them an unexpected reward occasionally to show them how important they are to the organization.(See pg. 124, Delivering and Measuring Customer Service, 2nd edition, Richard Hanks)

Every employee wants to be recognized for a job well done. Positive customer feedback is one of the most valuable tools that you can use to give lavish praise and instill habitual positive service behaviors with your employees inside your organization.

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Posted in Customer Feedback, Employee Feedback | No Comments »

Is Your Company Policy The Company Excuse?

Posted on: June 15th, 2010 by Nate Bagley

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on the Platinum Rule. “Do unto others as they would have you do unto them.”

Part of incorporating the Platinum Rule means providing your employees with the ability and motivation to treat your customers as they want to be treated.

The excuse, “Sorry, it’s company policy” has never satisfied a customer. If your employees are using policy as a means to avoid helping customers, you have a problem. Is your policy the problem? Is it your management style? Or are you hiring the wrong people?

Image courtesy of Norm Feuti

Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »