Survey Says…

Survey Says, “How is your Business Doing?”

This year is proving to be full of new opportunities. I anticipate 2010 to be the “Year of Communication.” In today’s competitive marketplace it is essential to adapt to your clients needs and to deliver. You need to be in touch with your successes and frustrations to learn and properly grow your business.  So are you ready to learn how your business is doing? The next part is technical. To learn how your business is doing, “ask.” ~:-)

In our time, we have virtually limitless access to technologically advanced tools. A great tool to use is a Client Satisfaction Survey.

A Client Satisfaction Survey is an assessment tool that measures the client’s perception of how well your business delivers the key factors and the conditions that drive client satisfaction and loyalty. These usually include factors like product quality, service promptness, staff responsiveness and understanding of the client’s needs, concerns and problems.

Online or Off?
You can ask you clients to fill out a printed form have them do it online. A typical good response rate is 30% of total participants for an online survey and 10% of total participants for a paper survey. Another benefit of the online route is that you have a digital copy of the tabulated results!

Here are a few tips:
As you start to create your survey, keep a few things in mind to help get the best response rate.
Keep it short.  You want as many people as possible to share with you. Don’t scare them a way with a long survey.

Keep it simple. Stay clear of too many open ended questions. Multiple choice questions are easy to answer and chart the results. I’d suggest about a 30/70 ratio for open ended vs. multiple choice. So if you asked 10 questions, you’d ask 3 open ended and 7 multiple choice.

Ask what you want to hear. Only ask questions that you are willing to listen to and take action. Remember this is a tool to improve your business.

Make it look good. I know you expect this from me. ~:-) Keep your survey clean and tidy. The layout of your survey will reflect your company and your desire to hear what clients have to say.

Benefits of a Client Satisfaction Survey (according to grapevinesurveys.com)

• Retain your customers. This is critical because a typical business spends five times more to attract a new customer than to retain a repeat customer.
• Discover exactly what you need to do to keep your customers satisfied.
• Reduce customer dissatisfaction. On average, one unhappy customer will voice dissatisfaction to ten potential customers who, in turn, tell at least five other people. Thus, about 60 others eventually learn of the complaint. 80% of all unhappy customers will never do business with the company again. Only 4% of all dissatisfied customers bother to let the company know about their displeasure.

I encourage you to Ask and Listen. Savvy businesses are listening to clients and reshaping their businesses with the valuable knowledge that they are “hearing”

If your company needs help in designing and implementing a survey, let me know how I can help. ~:-)

Oscar Myre IV is the owner and Creative Director of omOriginals Marketing! If your business has web development, social marketing or internet marketing questions, please stop by or give us a buzz at the studio: 360.575.9839