Firstly, my 'top 10 list' (11 actually) for customer feedback:
- Do it personally - Either in-person or over the phone.
- Talk to all types of customers - active customers, lost customers and dead sales leads.
- Use structured questions and write down the answers - You need hard data.
- Prepare for each customer call - sales, support calls, complaints, etc. in the period.
- Cover off on all aspects of your business - don't just focus on your core product/service.
- Do it regularly - Annually at a minimum.
- Summarise and analyse the results - A quick report is best.
- Compare your performance with previous rounds - you need a sanity check.
- Provide feedback to your customers on the results - good/bad, doesn't matter, do it.
- Change the way you do business as a result - that's the whole point!
- Do it on an adhoc basis as well - as soon as you lose a customer or a lead, find out why.
I'm amazed at the number of times you get a phone call from someone, just after you get off the phone with a service desk, asking for your feedback on 'your experience with our service desk'. This person is usually disinterested, desperate to get of the phone as quickly as possible and uncomfortable when you start going into too much detail. They are never in a position of authority in the company. You'll be surprised at the response you get if you call one of your customers and say "Good morning, my name is X, I am the Managing Director of Y and I am calling to seek your feedback on my company's performance". Don't offload this to your administrative support staff (fight the urge) - it just isn't as effective. Don't send out a form and ask your customers to complete it (unless they specifically ask for one). The response rate will be terrible and you will get a biased view of your performance (as only seriously unhappy or bored customers will respond). If possible, have a face-to-face meeting with your bigger customers and only use the phone where it isn't practical to visit them. Of course if you're running a lolly shop, scale down your whole approach accordingly :-).
2. Talk to all types of customers
Its tempting to only call your current/loyal customers. In general, they will definitely have nicer things to say than a recently lost customer or someone who decided to 'go with the opposition'. However, some of the most valuable information will come from lost leads and recently lost customers. Perhaps start with a few of your current customers (to get into the swing of things), move on to the lost leads and lost customers and then finish with the remainder of your current customers. Pace yourself, this is tiring business.
3. Use structured questions and write down the answers
You need a plan. A consistent way of approaching each customer. Its amazing how side tracked you can get when, in response to you introducing the reason for your call, the first thing the customer says is "You're not going to like what I have to say!". I have developed 3 different sets of questions on separate forms for each customer type (as per point 2). I use a Microsoft Word form so I can type their answers directly (my handwriting is atrocious). If you don't write it down, you will forget something. The customer's don't mind the formality (they may even expect it). They appreciate what you are trying to do and will give you time to write down their responses and find your next question. I use a telephone headset (borrowed from our service desk team) as it leaves my hands free to type or write things down.
4. Prepare for each customer call
Before you actually make contact with a customer, get together your 'experiences' with that customer in the report period (usually the last 12 months). You will need products/services used, sales figures, details of support calls, customer complaints and, if you keep them, details of all contacts with them (I mean phone calls, meetings, e-mails... everything - from any of your staff to/from any of their staff) in the period. If you don't have all of these items (or any of them for that matter!) prepare yourself mentally as it will be like riding a roller-coaster with your eyes closed.
Note: You should probably think about setting up a customers list (see Setup a customers list) and a contacts register (see Track all contacts with customers and suppliers) if you don't have all of the listed items for every customer.
5. Cover off on all aspects of your business
You will be tempted to focus on your core products and/or services. These are important, however you may have problems in your accounts department (ie. your wife/husband!), with your fax/e-mail service or staff professionalism/appearance that you don't know about. Have some structured questions about these secondary aspects, but also have some open-ended questions to catch any feedback that you were perhaps not expecting.
6. Do it regularly
I suggest annually. Honestly, I just don't have the energy to do it any more frequently than that. However, if you want to do it quarterly, go for it. Just make sure you have time to actually change things before you speak with the same customer again. I must clarify that, by regularly, I mean how often you do a customer-wide feedback gathering exercise. Any time you lose a customer, lose a lead or receive a complaint, you should kick off a formal feedback session with that client to ensure you have all of the relevant information.
7. Summarise and analyse the results
At a minimum, make sure you actually read through all of the responses and digest the information presented. Next best thing to do is give the information to someone slightly removed from the business (eg. your wife/husband) and get them to highlight anything they think is significant. By far the best way to summarise the results is to put together a quick summary report. The report should provide a main section for each area (ie. Products, Accounts, etc.) and have a sub-section for each question. Each question's results should be graphed or summarised somehow with a brief summation of overall performance eg. In terms of product X, our customers are generally satisfied. Each question should also provide an action plan in response to the results eg. As a result of this feedback aspect X of product Y shall be redeveloped in the next period.
8. Compare your performance with previous rounds
You need to firstly make sure that anything that has been working well, and received positive feedback in the past, is still working well. Hopefully this will be the case, but if performance drops, look at anything you've changed since the last round of feedback and see if it has caused a a drop in customer satisfaction in this area. Sometimes you'll make a change for one reason but inadvertently create a problem in another area. This is also a good sanity check to see if the changes you made to address unacceptable performance in a previous round has solved the problem.
9. Provide feedback to your customers on the results
Ok this is on par (in terms of pain) with actively seeking customer feedback in the first place. Firstly, everything must be de-identified, generalised and preferrably this feedback should be provided verbally (to minimise the possibility of this information getting into the 'wrong hands'). On the upside, it will demonstrate to any disgruntled customers that they are the exception rather than the rule. On the down-side, you will be openly presenting problems with your business. This actually demonstrates integrity and loyalty to your customers. They will thank-you for it with their loyalty in return. As long as you move on to 10 (below).
10. Change the way you do business as a result
The whole concept of seeking customer feedback is to improve your business for the purpose of strengthening current customer loyalty, improving customer retention and improving your ability to transform leads into sales. This means that you will actually have to change some aspects of your business to get any return on investment from the customer feedback process (which can be quite time consuming = costly for you). Hopefully you're generally doing ok but just need to work on some aspects. Alternatively, if the outcome is a general consensus that you're hopeless, perhaps its time to review your business in more detail.
11. Do it on an ad hoc basis as well
Here's an example why. I recently hired a lawn-mower-guy to mow the grass, trim the hedges, do the weeding, etc. He had a pretty good service model whereby you pay a fixed monthly fee and you received 2 mows, 1 hedge trim, 1 weeding and 1 fertilising each month. The first month was fantastic. The yard never looked better. However, in the second month, he only mowed once and I didn't see him again that month. Yet, sure enough I received the standard full monthly fee. I immediately called and said that I didn't need him anymore, however he didn't ask why, and I didn't explain. If only he'd asked, perhaps he would have realised that he'd lost me as a customer as a direct result of his inability to deliver on his brand promise. I wonder how many other customers he's lost as a result of the same thing? He'll never know.
In general, I find that I expect worse feedback that we actually get. As I know how the 'machine' is operating behind the scenes, I think the customers will see through our customer service approach. This is always a pleasant surprise. However, without fail, I learn something about my business that I didn't know before. Sometimes it is an area for future growth (eg. a new product or service that my customers are crying out for) and sometimes it is an unexpected acceptance by my customers of something I'd thought they'd all hate (eg. increased pricing, or reduced services to remote customers). But the point is that I'd never had known if I hadn't asked.
I hope this has helped you understand the importance of implementing and maintaining a formal customer feedback process within your company. If it has, please drop me a quick note. If not, please let me know why and feel free to disagree with post.
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