Customer Service Surveys 101 (part I) -- Customer Servings #4

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Customer Service Surveys 101 (part I) -- Customer Servings #4
April 03, 2004

April 2004

Hello!

Superb customer service is key to make loyal advocates out of your customers.

Customer Servings focusses on value-adding customer service articles, a Customer Service e-zine delivered free to your mailbox every month!

In this issue:

1. Sorry seems to be the hardest word
2. Article: Customer Service Survey 101 (part 1)
3. Book Review: 10 Quick Steps to a Delighted Customer
4. Customer Service Point.com info

Sorry seems to be the hardest word

In customer service, we often have to say sorry. If we have let the customer down, have not delivered as promised, apologies are in order.

So here goes.

It's my turn to say sorry to you. When you signed up, I promised to deliver monthly customer service articles in your mailbox. It has been over 3 months since you have heard from me. I sincerely apologize!

On January 8th of this year my wife delivered a beautiful baby boy. Philip has been wonderful and cheerful. Everything you can wish for! But as he is our 3rd child, it has been "all hands on deck" the past few months. As a consequence, the site and the e-zine didn't get a lot of my attention.

I hope you understand, and decide to stick around. :-)

The purpose of a business is to create a mutually beneficial relationship between itself and those that it serves. When it does that well, it will be around tomorrow to do it some more.
JOHN WOODS

Customer Service Survey 101
(part 1)

It always prides me when organizations show that they understand that it is important to ask the opinion of their customers. And then I'm saddened about how often the customer survey is poorly executed.

Sometimes customers are asked to answer many delicate questions without a clear purpose for these questions. Or they are confronted with a question list longer than their arm, where you have to have a Phd to even be able to under- stand the questions, let alone answer them!

When done right, customer Service surveys can be a great tool to enhance customer satisfaction. Make sure you plan your way through a survey, or your customers are at peril. Don't underestimate how annoying a bad survey can be.

In this first part, I will outline how you can perform a successful survey, from setting a goal for it through analyzing the results and follow-up on it.

In the second part we will take a look at the do's and don't-s of actually writing surveys.

Step-by-step Outline

1. Set the goal of the survey

Defining a goal is essential to determine if the survey has been successful. When choosing the words of the goal, make sure that the results are measurable. So if your goal of the survey is to measure customer satisfaction, select specific areas.

For example, you could survey on usability of your forms. In that case, you can select a number of improvements coming from the survey, and track this list until all improvements are incorporated.

2. Select the responsible persons in your organization

As for any successful undertaking, it must be clear who is responsible for what. If responsibility is unclear, you cannot count that activities are executed when they're supposed to.

Don't think that activities are picked up by the most "logical" person, you may find that your logic can differ widely from other peoples logic. As you can't look inside everyone's mind, assign responsibilities for each step clearly!

3. Determine the medium

Selecting a proper medium can seriously impact the results, so you have to give it some thought. Here are some possibilities:

Internet page
e-mail
regular mail
newsletter
interviews

Also decide if you want to accompany the survey with an accompanying letter, or something like that. Be creative! (But don't forget that each method has its price tag)

4. Select the customers to survey

Choosing the customers that will be surveyed is directly related to the selected goal. Make sure that you get a good spread over your customer base and a large enough selection. It's impossible for me to give lessons in statistics here, but if you want a good introduction on statistics, I recommend "Fundamentals of Applied Statistics and Surveys" by David B. Orr (ISBN 0412988216).

5. What's in it for the customer?

Why should the customer participate in your customer service survey? There must be some kind of perceived value. The promise of improved customer service may be such an incentive. Or a gift certificate. Or a discount voucher. And remember, if rewards are higher, the customer may be more forthcoming with answering longer surveys or privacy related questions.

6. Write the survey

Writing the survey will be the subject of part II, so I'll skip it here.

7. Testing the survey

This step is often overlooked, yet can save you a bundle! Since conducting a survey can cost a lot, it is always a good idea to test the survey on a few persons before you put it to the world at large... This can show you any big mistakes you made, like these:

unclear questions
similar or same questions in one survey
impertinent questions you had not viewed that way
a forgotten choice (in case of multiple choice)
survey not "flowing"

At the very least do an internal test, where the survey is done by some colleagues. You can also choose to do an external test. If the cost of executing the survey is high, an external test is an absolute must! In an external test, you make a small sub selection of your selected customer base (step 4), and conduct the survey with them. It goes without saying that the results of both internal and external tests must be evaluated before taking the next step.

8. Send out the survey

At this point you have selected a medium and a customer test base. You have created and tested the survey. Now it is time to send it out. (I realize that this sounds like a mailing action, but it can actually be that you send out your team of interviewers to do their thing, or activate an outbound call center! This depends on your chosen medium)

Timing IS important! For instance, if you chose to call customers, call them on a time they are in. Sometimes a weekend is better, sometimes a weekday. Think about what time is best for your customers!

9. Handle the response

Hopefully the answers on your survey are now pouring in. Especially if you are doing an offline survey, the results must be collected in a format that can be analyzed. Often, this means that the results must be entered in a database or a statistic package.

Online surveys are much easier handled, as the results are usually collected in a usable form by the survey application. But it may be that you have to do some conversion or formatting anyway.

If you promised an incentive, now is the time to send it to the customer, accompanied by a thank you note.

Measure the response! If response is low, you can choose alternative action to minimize money wasted.

One more thing: sometimes the customer uses the survey to bring a serious complaint to your attention. If this is the case, take immediate action on that complaint as if the customer had just called it in.

10. Analyze the information

Analyzing the results of the survey usually involves many statistical calculations and pattern recognition. A well-known package for this is SPSS (www.spss.com). I would like to tell you more, but analyzing surveys goes way beyond the scope of this article.

11. Plan your action

Now you know. You know what your customers want. Don't make the mistake of ignoring their wishes. Remember that customers "vote with their feet", so inaction is no longer an option. Imagine the frustration of taking the time to answer your survey, and then noticing absolutely no change. A customer service survey may increase customer satisfaction, but only if things change!

So make a plan that builds on what your customers perceive as strengths, and corrects any found faults. And when you have finished your plan...

12. Just do it!

After all, "Action speaks louder than words"! You must now show your customer that you have heard them.

It starts with respect.
If you respect the customer as a human being, and truly honor their right to be treated fairly and honestly, everything else is much easier.
DOUG SMITH

Book Review: 10 Quick Steps to a Delighted Customer

This e-book promises to give you 10 easy steps to turn customers into "life long devotees to your product or service". The book is actually in itself not convincing.

If you have invested some time in the subject of customer delight, then none of the steps will come to a surprise to you. This would pose no problem, if each subject would've been worked out, showing the reader how to go about it. Unfortunately, the author gives only a few examples that are worthwhile. Most chapters could easily fit on one A4 or letter size page.

The booklet is OK as an introduction to customer delight for the absolute beginner. I had bought this e-book for $10, which I guess is OK for this. But since then, they've raised the price to a whopping $47! Not only is this 370% price raise incredible, but it puts this booklet into a price range for which you can get books that contain a lot more information, and are much more insightful.

More info can be found here:
http://www.10quicksteps.com/

CustomerServicePoint.com Info

As with the e-zine, Customer Service Point hasn't received much of my attention in the last few months. As per request, I will be growing the help desk review section considerably the coming period.

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Customer Servings is the monthly e-zine for www.customerservicepoint.com, your resource on improving customer service.

Customer Servings is for you!

If you have any suggestions for subjects you would like to see in future issues, or have comments in general on Customer Servings or Customer Service Point, please e-mail me at customer_servings@customerservicepoint.com.

I welcome your remarks!