Invest In My Idea

Obviously it is important to keep your customers happy. Satisfying customers on an ongoing basis is a continuous challenge when you run your own business. But how do you know if they are happy?

You ask them. Informal ways of finding out include asking your customer directly, asking their employees or suppliers, or even asking their customers. More formal ways include personal interviews or the use of questionnaires.

The feedback that you receive from customers does more than let you know how you are doing—it can also identify opportunities for improvement. It doesn’t matter which technique you use to monitor how satisfied your customers are. The important thing is to do it.

How Did You Do? Measuring Customer Satisfaction

The importance of keeping your customers cannot be overemphasized. The difficulty lies in knowing whether or not your customers are really satisfied. Although you personally might be satisfied with work that you performed for them or products that you sold to your customers, your opinion doesn’t count as much as your customers’ opinions.

If you ask your customers how satisfied they are, you may be in for a surprise. There are many ways to measure customer satisfaction. The table below outlines different approaches that might be used.

Methods of Measuring Customer Satisfaction

It is usually more effective to measure customer satisfaction through a more formal structured approach. One such format involves interviews between you and representatives of your customer. The material contained above in “Tips for Asking for Feedback” could be used in an interview format. These interviews, conducted either by telephone or in person, can address a wide range of topics. The interviews allow direct interaction between you and your customers. They also provide your customers with the opportunity of expanding on specific answers and providing additional information. A further advantage of interviews is that they often enable you to identify additional unmet customer needs. Having identified these needs, you are well positioned to demonstrate to the customer how well you can help meet these needs. Clearly, evaluation interviews can be very effective marketing techniques.

The most cost-effective means of measuring customer satisfaction is a formal customer survey. Such an approach requires surveying your customers at fixed points in time. An ideal time to measure customer satisfaction is immediately after you have completed the work. Another would be significant dates for customers, such as fiscal year-ends or completion of routine reports.

If your survey indicates that a named customer is very unhappy about some aspect of your service,

Entrepreneur Beware

The interview process is extremely time consuming. It is often difficult to schedule these interviews on a timely basis

How Did I Do? (for use on completion of work)

I am committed to constantly improving the quality of my services to customers. Your feedback is an important component of this process.

I would appreciate your taking a few minutes to complete this brief questionnaire. Please feel free to add appropriate comments.

1. Services provided ____________________________________________________________

2. Why did you select my business? ______________________________________________

	Previous or current customer						_______________
	Referral from previous or current customer						_______________
	Personal relationship						_______________
	Reputation						_______________
	Referral from ______________________						_______________
	Advertising ________________________						_______________
	Other _____________________________						_______________
3.	When you called our office, was the telephone answered to your satisfaction?
	Yes		No
	Comments: __________________________________________________________________
	______________________________________________________________________________
4.	Were your telephone calls returned within 24 hours?						Yes		No
	Comments: __________________________________________________________________
	______________________________________________________________________________
5.	How satisfied are you with the way services were handled? (Please circle one number.)
	1		2		3		4		5
	very satisfied			satisfied					very unsatisfied
	If unsatisfied, how could the service have been handled better?								_________________
	______________________________________________________________________________
	______________________________________________________________________________
6.	How could the overall quality of the services be improved?							_____________________
	______________________________________________________________________________
	______________________________________________________________________________
7.	Would you recommend me to others?				Yes		No

Comments: __________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

immediately investigate the concern and follow up with the customer. This will enable you to prevent a similar problem from arising in the future. You can also assure the customer that his or her opinions are important to you. Your customer will be impressed with the timeliness of your response.

Page 158 shows a sample of a customer satisfaction questionnaire. Each of the questions is designed to elicit specific feedback. The first question identifies specific services that you provided to the customer. Question 2 asks why the customer selected you. This information is helpful in planning future marketing activities. Questions 3 and 4 measure the level of the customer’s satisfaction with telephone contact. Questions 5 through 7 are intended to measure the customer’s overall satisfaction with your service.

The comments invite open-ended responses, while the other parts of the questionnaire can be computer-analyzed.

The best format for questionnaires is a single letter-sized form, printed on one side only. Such a questionnaire is more likely to be completed and returned than a longer one. You should send a covering letter, thanking the customer for having chosen to do business with you, explaining the reason for the questionnaire, and requesting that the questionnaire be completed and returned as soon as possible.

Building Block

Conduct general customer satisfac-tion surveys from time to time. The benefits of these surveys will be maximized if samples from your customer base are surveyed. The survey should include satisfied as

well as less-than-satisfied customers. To ensure a representative sample, respondents should be selected at random from the following groups:

• Type of customer: individual, institutional, etc.
• Size of customer, by sales or employees
• Purchasers of different goods and services
• Frequent and less frequent users
• Customers whom you supplied at different time periods

Quality Service Questionnaire
(for business customers)
			Strongly				Strongly
			Agree				Disagree
1. You provide the level			1	2	3	4	5
		of services that we expect.
		Comments or suggestions	_______________________________________________
		for improvements:	_______________________________________________
2. You keep us informed of new
		developments on a timely	1	2	3	4	5
		and proactive basis.
		Comments or suggestions	_______________________________________________
		for improvements:	_______________________________________________
3. You understand our business
		and the industry in which	1	2	3	4	5
		we operate.
		Comments or suggestions	_______________________________________________
		for improvements:	_______________________________________________
4. You add value to our business
		by providing general business	1	2	3	4	5
		advice.
		Comments or suggestions	_______________________________________________
		for improvements:	_______________________________________________
5. You complete your work on
		a timely basis, meet agreed-
		upon deadlines, and respond	1	2	3	4	5
		quickly to questions and
		other requests.
		Comments or suggestions	_______________________________________________
		for improvements:	_______________________________________________

	(for business customers) (continued)
				Strongly					Strongly
				Agree					Disagree
	6.	You return phone calls		1		2	3	4	5
		promptly.
		Comments or suggestions		_______________________________________________
		for improvements:		_______________________________________________
7.		You demonstrate a genuine		1		2	3	4	5
		interest in our business.
		Comments or suggestions		_______________________________________________
		for improvements:		_______________________________________________
8.		Your fees are fair and
		competitive with respect to		1		2	3	4	5
		services provided.
		Comments or suggestions		_______________________________________________
		for improvements:		_______________________________________________
9.		Your brochures, mailings, and		1		2	3	4	5
		other materials are informative.
		Comments or suggestions		_______________________________________________
		for improvements:		_______________________________________________
10.		We would not hesitate to
		recommend you to other		1		2	3	4	5
		business acquaintances.
		Comments or suggestions		_______________________________________________
		for improvements:		_______________________________________________
		Business Name (optional)		_______________________________________________

The format used in this sample will facilitate quick and easy responses by appropriate representatives of organization customers. This format also facilitates computer-assisted tabulation of the questionnaires.

Hot Tip

To increase the response rate, the questionnaire should be contained in a separate mailing; that is, it should not be included with any other material. It should also include a self-addressed and stamped or postage-paid envelope. If you have advertising specialties such as pens, pencils, or key chains with your business name on them, include one for your customer as a thank you for his or her cooperation in completing the survey.

Making a Good Thing Better

Customer feedback is the starting point for improving customer satisfaction. Reassuring as it may be to learn that customers are generally satisfied with your service, the real purpose of the surveys described above is to identify opportunities for improvement. Improvement opportunities can be number of ways. For example, can identify specific concerns investigation indicates that a recurring problem

problem. Even if the problem is only the customer’s perception that there is a problem, you should take action to address the perception.

Individual concerns could also be early indications of a growing pattern. If this is the case, correct

ve action should be taken. Implementing improvements suggested by a customer survey can also provide you with a vehicle for obtaining additional feedback from customers. Once improvements have been defined but not yet implemented, you can ask your customers for their opinions on your proposed changes.