As Sonny and Cher once sang, “And the beat goes on,” and so do the needs of our customers. Whether your business is product, customer or service driven, you need to be able to spot trends and feel the “pulse” of your customer.
Recently, I provided examples of how the Internet is assisting customers in making decisions on where and when to dine, evaluating menu selections and making reservations. These same applications are also providing valuable feedback to the restaurant’s management on how to improve service, the dining environment and their menu offerings. With the advent of Yelp, Open Table, IDine and other applications, reservations are made by your smartphone or other wireless device. The loop is then completed when you receive an email from the participating restaurant, hotel or business asking you for your evaluation of your experience. It is this feedback mechanism that permits the restaurant, hotel or business entity to continually tweak its offers and retain its market share, while growing the business.
More and more businesses, non-profits and even hospital groups like Columbia St. Mary’s are using surveys to ensure they are meeting the needs of their clients, patients and members. Knowing that your competition is gathering this data on a regular basis should motivate you to develop your own feedback loop.
Now that we know the “why,” let’s discuss the “how.” In the past, constructing and executing a survey was a long and sometimes expensive process. The process involved design, sample selection, distribution, compiling results and statistical evaluation. In today’s world of instant communication, you select a survey provider on the Internet, design your questions, input the emails of the population you wish to survey and activate the process.
Almost immediately, you begin receiving results, which can be organized and analyzed as you determine is best for your use. These systems, like Survey Monkey, Zoomerang, Questionpro and others can also generate reminders, which increase the rate of participation.
Before you send out the survey, you need to know the “who,” the population you desire to query regarding your business. I suggest to my clients that they survey current, past and future clients. Obviously, each of these three samples would receive a slightly different survey. In order to maintain your current clients, you would want to know how you are doing at satisfying their needs and what other services they may require. The clients that no longer utilize your services should be surveyed as to why they moved on and what you could have done to better satisfy their needs. The survey that is sent to prospective clients inquires if they are satisfied with their current supplier and if they have any needs that are not being met. All of this data is critical to the assembling of your marketing strategies.
Now let’s address the “what,” the content of the survey and its construction. Over the years I have reviewed hundreds of surveys and found that many contained poorly constructed questions. Survey Monkey and others permit you to construct your own questions. I have found that open ended questions that require a written response provide the greatest amount of information. Multiple choices also work well, if you have a follow up question when the respondent indicates that something was excellent or poor. Here again, we have a “why” that needs to be addressed. Questions that ask you to rank should have five choices, otherwise you could have a “false” positive or negative. The five choices should be, very poor (0), poor (1), average (2), very good (3) and excellent (4). By assigning a point value to each response, you can quantify the results. I suggest that you construct a survey with no more than ten questions. I have received surveys from auto manufacturers that included over thirty questions. I defer to respond, because they take too long. Consider your audience and their time. Short surveys get higher levels of response.
Another question to be answered before we start sending out surveys is how often you ask for feedback. Open Table, Yelp and IDine ask you to respond after each time you dine at one of their restaurants. I would suggest that the frequency at which you send out surveys be connected to the end of a contract, calendar or fiscal year, after the delivery of a major order or the completion of a consulting assignment. One thing to keep in mind – if you over survey, you potentially reduce the rate of response. As business people we are constantly being surveyed by current and potential service and product providers. After a period of time we become numb to these surveys and refuse to respond. It is just human behavior.
Finally, you have one more choice to make, confidential or non-confidential. Yelp, IDine and Open Table publish their findings on the Internet. In addition, they provide the option to send a confidential message directly to the restaurant management. As a result of the confidential message, the restaurant responded directly to me to correct the problem. These types of surveys and their responses provide a “report card” for your entity.
Don’t you want to know how you rate with your customers? I would.
Cary Silverstein, MBA, is the president and CEO of Fox Point-based SMA LLC & The Negotiating Edge. He heads a group of consultants that provide services in the areas of strategic planning, negotiations, and conflict resolution. He can be reached at (414) 352-5140 or at Csilve1013@aol.com.
