Week 11: Client Surveys: Getting Feedback You Can Use

We all know customer satisfaction is essential to the survival of our businesses, but how do we find out whether our customers are satisfied? The best way is to ask them with regular customer satisfaction polling. Talking to your customers — finding out what they like (and dislike) about how you do business — is the first step toward success and growth.

So whether you need to tune up an existing survey or build a new one from scratch, you should begin by asking why you are doing the survey in the first place. There is a school of thought that you only need to ask two questions in a customer satisfaction survey. Those questions are: “Will you buy from me again?” and “Will you recommend us to your friends?”

The kind of questions asked can influence a survey’s response rate. Most experts agree that including too many questions can wreck havoc on a survey. Instead, survey questions should be short and simple.

Here are some examples:

• How satisfied are you with the service you received?

• How satisfied are you with the purchase you made?

• How satisfied are you with our salon overall?

• How likely are you to visit us again?

• How likely are you to recommend us to others?

The best time to conduct a customer satisfaction survey is when the experience is fresh in your clients’ minds. If you wait to conduct a survey, the customer’s response may be less accurate.

What To Do With The Answers

Regardless of what you ask your customers and when you survey them, the most important part of the customer satisfaction survey is what you do with their answers.

Yes, you need to compile the answers from different customers and look for trends. However, you mostly need to act on the information you get from your customers through the survey. You need to fix the things the customers have complained about. You need to investigate their suggestions. You need to improve your company in those areas the mean the most to your customers, and you need to make sure you don’t change the things they like. Most importantly you need to give your clients feedback that their answers were appreciated and are being acted upon.

 — Ana Loiselle, Milady

Coming Next Week: The Five Ways Leaders Lose Their Edge