Focus Groups
Focus groups are good ways to get informal input from a group of customers or prospects. You bring in 5-10 customers or prospects and ask them questions or have them react to material. You can pay a professional facilitator and videotape the whole session, or just lead an informal discussion yourself. In either case, you have a chance to gather ideas about customer needs, reactions to your company, suggestions for new services, and so forth. In addition to individual responses, you get ideas that develop as the group reacts to each other's responses.
Client Advisory Groups
One way to get regular input from customers is to put together an advisory group. This can act like a focus group, but is set up to provide input over time. You may pay members, or simply buy them dinner every quarter. If you create a good group, members may also enjoy meeting and interacting with each other.
There are many benefits to such groups. They give you a source of input from the customer viewpoint. They provide a sounding board for specific questions. They enhance your relationship with good customers who become more committed to your success. And they can move relationships with prospects ahead.
Advisory boards are a much underused way to improve customer service, develop new services, and encourage repeat business. Even the smallest businesses can use them effectively.
Client Surveys
Customer surveys with standardized questions insure that you will collect the same information from everyone. The simplest possible survey is described in the book Marketing Your Services: For People Who Hate to Sell. The author recommends a three-item survey, simply asking "What did/do you like about working with me?", "What did/do you dislike about it?", and "Is there anything else you can tell me that would help me provide better service?". Such a brief survey can help open a dialog, but to collect more detailed information, you need to ask more questions.
Remember that few of your clients will be interested in "filling out a questionnaire". It's work for them without much reward. By casting any survey as an attempt to find out "how we can serve you better" -- in other words as an attempt to improve customer service --your clients will feel less put upon. And, as will be discussed further, if you are sincere about making great service a centerpoint of your firm, your staff will also feel good about collecting information.
Even for a big survey, you should contact your most important clients personally. You might do that before contacting others. Ask for their suggestions. This way, their input can help you determine what type of questions to ask others. And your big accounts might be flattered to be asked to help set the agenda. Have a conversation, not an interrogation. Don't make them feel like they're filling out a survey.
The Phone
Up to about 10 minutes of questions can be done on the phone. By speaking directly with people, you have the flexibility to talk with them. Again, this is more desirable than a questionnaire, especially with larger clients. But, of course, it takes more of your time.
Written Surveys
On a longer survey, here are a few of the possible dimensions you could measure:
• quality of service
• speed of service
• pricing
• complaints or problems
• trust in your firm members
• closeness of relationship with contacts in your firm
• types of other services needed
• percent of business you receive from your clients
• your positioning in clients' minds
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We've all heard it more times than we care to remember - it's all about customer service!
Companies everywhere talk about the importance of providing excellent customer service. They go on and on about how Internet technology has changed the playing field for the sale of products and services, that it has increased competition between companies vying for the same customer. Often the only thing that separates one business from its competitors is the level of service provided.
So, do you believe the promises made on TV and radio, in magazines and even over the Internet that these businesses "really do care" about their customers? Most people feel that businesses do not really care about their customers and that they certainly are not walking their talk.
Most companies measure success by their sales numbers. If sales continue to increase, then business must be growing. But one small detail is overlooked - the customer. How does your customer feel about doing business with you?
Think of the last time you bought a product or service where, after doing business with that company, you got a call or a survey card to find out what you, the customer, thought about the buying experience.
Here are some very important questions you should be asking if you truly want to understand your customer:
- How do you know your customers are experiencing extraordinary customer service when they purchase from you?
- If they are a new customer, will they be a repeat customer?
- Do your customers tell other people about you?
- Are you meeting or exceeding your customers' expectations?
- Are your customers buying products or services from the competition because you neglected them?
If you can answer these questions, you are way ahead of the rest of the pack!
There are only three ways to increase your business:
- Acquire new customers
- Increase the frequency that current customers buy
- Increase the amount of each purchase
Research has shown that it takes up to six times the investment to acquire a new customer as to keep an existing customer. So wouldn't it make sense to measure what your customers think so you can maximize your investment? If customer service is the only thing separating you from your competition, wouldn't it make sense to measure the level of service you provide?
Here are a few ideas on how to measure customer service at your business.
Mystery shop: Hire a mystery shopping company (a company that hires people to pose as customers) to visit or contact your business and browse through your Web site. These companies have the ability to see your business through the eyes of your customers. It's as if your customers were providing you with a report card on your business.
These results give you the feedback necessary to know what is and is not working from the customer's point of view. Mystery shopping will uncover the areas that need the most improvement. These findings help you identify the skills your staff needs to exceed customers' expectations. Mystery shopping can be the measuring stick to monitor customer service and sales levels through the eyes of your customers.
Survey your customers by direct mail: Send out an easy-to-understand questionnaire immediately after they have purchased either your product or service. They should only have to take one to two minutes to complete the questionnaire and it should come with a postage-paid return envelope. A simple letter explaining how important customer feedback is to your company should accompany the survey. If possible, provide something free as a small thank you for the time they take to answer your questions.
Survey your customers via e-mail: E-mail your customers an online survey to obtain their feedback. There are numerous online surveys available that are inexpensive, easy to use and compile the results for you. Use this feedback from your customers before you change or implement a new product or service. Develop a core group of customers that become your source of feedback for future changes.
The Customer Service Survey provides a method for measuring the customer service knowledge, aptitudes, and skills of employees and prospective employees.
Call your customers: When was the last time a company called you after you purchased a product or service? If this has happened to you, did it leave quite an impression? Hire someone to make the calls or hire an outside company to call your customers. This will make it easier for your customers to be totally honest and it will help keep the results objective. Ask your customers what your company can do to improve its service.
Long-term profitability in a changing market is not solely the result of increased sales; it's more about determining the needs of your customers and then meeting those needs. If you can't measure customer service at your business, then you can't manage it!
. The survey indicates the degree to which people have these qualities:
- Knowledge (People Skills, Courtesy, Common Sense)
- Assertiveness (Persuasive, Confident, Outgoing)
- Persistence (Persevering, Unwavering, Emotionally tough)
- Empathy (People-focused, Relationship-oriented)
- Drive (Highly competitive, Aggressive, Opportunistic)
- Organization (Organized, Conforms, Routine-focused)
- Maturity (Sound judgment, Stable, Tolerant)
- Creativity (Inventive, Unique, Innovative)
- Incentive (Recognition, Feedback, External)
Descriptive Report
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CUSTOMER FRIENDLY POLICIES
Finally, a few remarks about an organization's policies always needing to be customer friendly. One way to keep company policies friendly is to keep them from becoming procrustean. Procrustes, you may recall, was an inn keeper in Greek mythology who ran a strange motel. Any guest of his could stay at his motel for one night courtesy of the motel. There was one hitch, however. The guest had to sleep in the one bed the motel provided. If the guest was too tall for the bed, Procrustes lopped off any part of the guest's body that extended beyond the reach of the bed. If the guest was too short, his body was stretched until it reached both ends of the bed. There is no mythological record that attests to any guest staying longer than one night in that motel, which might rightfully have been named "Motel One." Certainly the only fortunate travelers were those who kept on going whenever they saw the light that Procrustes kept burning for them!
A good starting point for organizations to keep their policies customer friendly is to rethink their job descriptions. Too many job descriptions dwell exclusively on each job's role without pointing out that all a company's jobs taken together have a collective goal, namely, to provide the organization's customers not only with the best possible product but also with the best overall service at the point of shopping, at the point of purchase, and at each point of follow up. Woven into that collective goal should be the very fabric of total customer service. By weaving its common goal into the very fabric of total customer service, an organization should end up with its mission statement. Any mission statement which does not reflect the the heart and soul of total customer service is fated to fail.
