Importance of Customer Satisfaction Survey
A customer satisfaction survey is a very important tool that can provide benefits for businesses of every size. Surveys can assist business decision-makers in developing strategies to achieve the all-important goal of gaining and retaining customers. Results can play a key role in identifying areas of the business that require corrective action and improvement. Surveys can also identify areas that can be leveraged to achieve business growth and expansion.
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Importance for Small Business
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Small and new businesses can gain repeat customers. Small businesses can gain extremely useful information. For example, a small restaurant owner, new to the area, can find out how customers found them, what they like and whether they'll come back for more. A clothing boutique owner can find out if styles align with the tastes of shoppers and, if not, make inventory adjustments. A tax preparer can assess if fees, turn-around-time, referrals, or hours and location are helping or hurting efforts to gain and retain customers.
Importance for Medium to Large Businesses
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Larger businesses can monitor customer satisfaction levels. Larger businesses have levels of managers and executives who usually don't have direct, one-on-one contact with customers. Surveys provide data and feedback to monitor customer satisfaction levels and assess employee performance in fulfilling management objectives and goals. Surveys can be executed to target specific customers by demographics, by geography, marketplace needs and more.
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Importance to Customers
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Results can provide insights to increase business--in good and bad times. Most customers actually desire a long-term relationship with a brand, product or service provider. Customer satisfaction surveys provide a platform for them to do so. Their responses, whether good or bad, provide a wealth of information and feedback to utilize in developing, retooling and improving the customer experience with brands, products and services.
Risks of Not Conducting Surveys
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Some business decision-makers hold the opinion that surveys only attract disgruntled customers. That attitude could prove risky. It opts to rely on gut and intuition without actual, quantitative and qualitative information directly from customers. The result could mean unrealized growth, missed opportunities and loss of customers to competitors.
Types of Surveys
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Surveys can be executed in many formats--by mail, email, follow-up phone calls, rating cards at check-out registers and holding formal focus groups with professional moderators and marketing research analysts. There are also online programs to incorporate surveys into company websites. Incentives are effectively used to increase response.
When to Conduct a Survey
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Many factors influence timing. They can include the launch of a new product, grand opening, adding services, feedback after a special event, to the installation of a new customer service or support team.
Surveys should be conducted when business is up and when business is down. The difference in feedback can provide benchmarks to assist in planning and implementing proactive strategies.
Surveys Have Broad Impact
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Results can affect any facet of or business concern: customer retention, employee training, product pricing, scope of services, inventory, product development, to how customers rate products and services vs. the competition.
Customer satisfaction surveys are tools to gather actionable information to aid in achieving success, and improve the customer experience for businesses of every size.
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References
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