By Ian Landsman
According to research from Gartner, 2016 is the year that companies are going to compete more on the basis of customer experience. Other statistics show that customers will walk away if they experience bad customer service. In addition, most customers purposely avoid working with customer service representatives because they find it frustrating.
These dire statistics can hurt the bottom line of any company. Even if your product or service is impeccable, ensuring a delightful experience for customers reigns supreme. The definition of good customer service may vary from business to business, but the fundamental goals must always be met. These include:
- Being available to speak with customers
- Educating customers about the product or service
- Understanding the problems and concerns of customers
Understanding whether or not you're achieving these goals and how you can improve can only come from the perspective of your customers. This is why surveying your client base is incredibly important. Conducting a survey can give you an accurate measurement of how your customers feel, and shows them that you value their feedback.
To efficiently and precisely collect input from your customers, follow these four steps to create a customer service survey for your business:
1. Writing the questions
This may seem like the easy part–you just ask, “How are we doing?” Not so fast. Your survey results will only be as reliable as the questions you ask. If the way the questions are phrased are too leading (“What was the best part of your experience?” vs. “How was your experience overall?”) or complicated, then you might be missing some valuable information from customers.
Try to come up with questions that are easy to answer, such as yes/no responses, multiple choice options, or a rating scale. Remember that you're asking your customers to do a favor for you. They don't need to take the time to answer your survey, so keep it brief and simple.
2. Segmenting the customers
Determining which group of customers you want to survey may help dictate the questions you ask and allow you to hone in on a particular sector of your business. For instance, if you're an insurance company offering home and auto insurance, you might want to distribute different surveys to the customers that have just home insurance, just auto insurance, or both. You might find that one group of customers has a better experience than another, which may indicate exactly where you should focus your improvement efforts.
3. Sending the survey
Next you need to decide how you want to send your survey to your customers. You might include it in your email newsletter, or you could give customers a follow-up phone call after they've called the help desk. Depending on the length and format of the survey, you may choose one platform over another. If you're requesting lengthy, written responses, then email might work best so that customers can respond at their convenience. If you're requesting a few responses to yes/no questions, then a phone call could suffice.
4. Analyzing the results
Once you've collected survey responses from your customers, the most important element of the process is reviewing the results (that is why you spent time putting it together!). As you're reading through responses, review consistent feedback–both positive and negative–and make note of actionable suggestions. From what your customers tell you, you should then take steps to make improvements and share the results with the team overall. Also, inform your clients when you've made changes based on their feedback!
Customers can provide a lot of insightful information to a business, if they're asked. Surveys can be an efficient way to gather their perspectives and help you make improvements to your business overall, which ultimately will make your customers more happy and more loyal to your brand.
About the Author
Post by: Ian Landsman
Ian Landsman is the founder of HelpSpot Help Desk Software, help desk software for customer service professionals. He writes a regular blog about the fundamentals of excellent customer service, including how to write a customer service survey, titled “The Delightenment Blog.” Follow Ian via Twitter and LinkedIn.
Company: Helpspot
Website: www.helpspot.com
Connect with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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