Six Tips To Increase Business in Tight Times
eLearning Series
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888.772.0777
303.499.9318 |
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I
hope your 2009 is
off
to a good start. At Customer Paradigm, we have many reasons
to be optimistic about 2009, and most of it is based on listening
to the needs of our customers. Read more below >>
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| Six
Tips To Increase Business in Tight Times |
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| Tip
#2: Listen to Customers With Surveys |
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If
you're like 90% of most customers, when you
have a bad experience at a restaurant, you
usually won't complain. You just
won't go back. I know this was true for me
(although I've gotten better about speaking
up recently).
My wife seems to be among the 10% of people
that do speak up when something is amiss.
She argues that ethically, it's better to
let the business or restaurant know if they
have a problem (like wilted lettuce), so that
the organization can correct the issue. Without
this valuable feedback, the wait staff, dishwashers
and others stand to lose their jobs (or see
less in tips).
One of the main reasons people don't
give feedback is that they don't want to be
confrontational. They don't want
to rock the boat. It takes a lot of guts to
tell someone that they didn't do a great job.
You don't want to hurt their feelings. You
know it's not really the waiter's fault the
food was lousy... it might have been a bad
supplier in the distribution process.
1.
Make it easy.
Make sure that you give people an
easy, low-committment, low-stress way to give
feedback. People are much more willing
to share via email or a web-based form than
to say tough things in person or on the phone.
2. Keep it short.
Recognize that you are asking people
for one of their most valuable assets: their
time. So make sure you keep it short.
Remember: the more questions you ask, the
less likely people are to complete the form.
3. Ask the right questions.
There is "nice to know" information.
And there is "need to know" information.
We've found that the four questions we really
need to know are (rated on a scale of 1 to
10):
We also give people the opportunity to give
comments in a form too, but that's optional.
The most important piece of information
you need to know is how likely someone is
to refer others to you. If someone
is willing to stake their reputation to recommend
you, then they have a high opinion of you.
4. Timing is key.
We automatically send out a survey
each time a project is closed through our
system. We've found, through the helpful guidance
of Nancy and Judith of Brains
at Work, that right after we finish
a project, we have a critical window of time
to address work-related issues.
If the timing is right, people will
give good feedback. If you wait too long,
they have likely moved on and won't care to
spend time giving you information that you
can use to improve your processes. Try this
sample
survey.
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When we first implemented the customer survey system,
it made everyone on the team nervous, including
me. I think we were scared that much of the feedback would
be negative and unjustified.
I'm happy to report that most of the surveys have
been very positive, with 70% giving a perfect score.
The people that weren't as happy with us, I was happy
to discuss matters with them in person or on the phone,
and share the feedback with the rest of the team to make
sure we didn't miss the mark again in the future.
I hope you found this tip helpful. Let me know
if you'd like to discuss creating an automated survey
system for your customers. And if you have feedback (good,
ugly or otherwise), I'd love to hear from you. Visit
here.
Thanks,
Jeff Finkelstein
Founder, Customer Paradigm
jeff@customerparadigm.com
303.499.9318 x8282
P.S. If you know of anyone who needs
help acquiring, retaining or interacting with customers
via web marketing or print design, we'd love the referral.
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Customer
Paradigm
5353 Manhattan Circle, Suite 103
Boulder, Colorado 80303 |
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