Here’s one service tool you can’t afford to cut from your customer contact operations – ever.
Whether you face lean, tough or great times, keep surveying customers. Their feedback will seldom – or never – fail you as long as you act on it.
Customer surveying actually increased during the recent recession, a DMG Consulting report found. The reason: Companies needed to find out what their existing customers liked so they could keep doing it and capitalize on it to gain the few customers out there looking to buy.
Even if you have a technical or systematic way to get customer feedback, it’s a good idea to use low-tech, high-touch surveys so you can get a better feel for their emotions. Two ideas:
- When taking reorders, ask customers, “What did you think of …”
- At the end of conversations say, “What’s one thing we could’ve done to make this experience better?”
- After customers use your products or experience your services, send a short e-mail survey (no more than five questions) and call if they give any mediocre or low scores to find out more.
