Keeping Customers Satisfied in 2011

I’ve seen what seems to be an increase in activity in the area of customer satisfaction surveys. It seems that the start of the new year has prompted some businesses to take a finger-on-the-pulse measurement of how well services are (or aren’t!) matching up to demands. Love them or hate them, satisfaction surveys are a visible way for a service provider to communicate to customers that they are trying to improve. Done right and the information you get can be invaluable. Done wrong and they can eat away at precious resources and/or alienate the very customers you were trying to win-over.

Here’s 7 tips for creating effective surveys with impact:

1. Plan the Survey like a project.

Don’t create a survey and hope for success. Ensure you have the resources and buy-in for all stages of the Design, Creation, Collection, Analysis, Reporting and subsequent Service Improvement work. If you can’t commit to a full-scale survey, how about an online opinion-poll or ongoing call-closure questionnaire instead?

2. Think about why you’re surveying.

Improving satisfaction is the by-product of improving business services. Focus on objectives first, survey questions second. Surveys should be targeted to understand key issues and identify opportunities, not to obtain ‘nice to know’ information.

3. Keep It Simple.

Do you like filling-in surveys? Why is that? What do you find irritating or engaging about surveys? Make sure questions are short, straightforward, unbiased, worded appropriately for the audience and quick to complete. Spend quality time on the design of your survey. Make sure your survey is one that you might want to fill in.

4. Balance the questions.

Ensure that you measure both quantitatively and qualitatively. The RATER model is a helpful model to measure service experiences across 5 dimensions of Reliability, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy, and Responsiveness. Remember that opinions are subjective. Regular measurement of customer attitudes will help to identify shifts in opinion.

5. Pilot & Evaluate your survey.

Test out the delivery and collection of the survey to identify any problems before distributing it en-masse. Were any questions ambiguous or difficult to understand? Could the results be returned to you easily? How long did it take to collate the results? Did the test data help you to meet your objectives? (See 2 above).

6. Don’t make knee-jerk improvements.

Recognise that any improvement is a change and must follow standard processes. A hasty desire to ‘improve’ operational services can negatively impact longer-term objectives. How might improving the ‘average speed to answer’ on the Service Desk for example affect other teams or mask underlying problems? Manage the results and any improvement activity through a formalised Service Improvement plan.

7. Give Timely Feedback.

Publish the results of the survey openly and honestly to gain and establish trust. Use the opportunity to ‘market’ any improvement benefits and customer testimonials.

Did you find this article useful? Do you have any questions or queries on customer surveys? Let us know what you think - please contact info@proactiveservices.com.au