Customer Survey Best Practices

Last week, I asked several printer owners the question, “How are you using customer surveys to coach your team, drive performance and engage your customers?” I hope you appreciate the following unedited, in-the-trenches, e-mail responses shared by these owners.

Dallas—“As I receive each reply to a survey, I respond to the client, thanking them for taking the time to complete the survey. If they’ve responded with any feedback other than checking the appropriate buttons, then I’ll address that also. In the survey, we’ve listed other products and services we offer that they may or may not purchase from us. In the response e-mail I ask for an appointment to meet and discuss these areas with them.

“I just met with a client today who did not know we did anything other than print, and I am now pricing marketing items for her because of the survey. I doubt that I would have had the opportunity to discuss as many other products and services with her without the survey.

“I share with my staff both the positive and negative feedback from customers. This is a good way to recognize employees for a job well done when a customer compliments them. When there is anything negative, we address it immediately inside the center and with the customer in hopes of rectifying the situation and keeping them as a customer. Without the survey responses, I may not know of customer issues. It is valuable to obtain customer feedback as well as letting customers know of other products/services, and getting the opportunity to discuss these options with them.”

Mesa, AZ—“I just implemented the surveys for my other 2 centers this month after trying it out in my Mesa center for the last 5 months. We are very happy with the results. It allows us to identify any customer service problems we may be encountering quickly and it gives us a chance to have a discussion with our customers about additional work we can perform for them. My salespeople and managers love the feedback.”