Customer Satisfaction Surveys That Work [ FREE WHITE PAPER]
About the Author Eric Dosal has experience in just about every area of small business growth and development. A graduate of Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, Eric immediately put his Finance and Investments Degree to work on Wall Street after graduation. In 2002, Eric returned to Miami and joined his family s IT Services Business, Compuquip Technologies. Starting in sales, Eric worked his way up through the company, eventually becoming President and CEO. During his tenure, Eric and his brother created and developed the Managed Services Provider Division of the company, which they eventually sold to Konica Minolta. Now Co-Founder and CEO of BrightGauge, Eric enjoys talking with customers as part of his responsibility managing Global Sales and Marketing. Eric Dosal Co-Founder, CEO BrightGauge Software Connect with me at: Twitter: @EricDosal Company Blog: /blog Personal Blog: dosalbrothers.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ericdosal Customer Satisfaction Surveys That Work 2014 1
Table of Contents Click Chapter Title to jump to that section. Keeping it Simple...3 Start Small: The One Question That Will Change Your Business...4 Digging Deeper: Creating a More In-depth Survey...5 Survey Says: Time to Tally Up The Scores...7 What To Do With The Data...8 Evaluate, Implement, Calibrate...9 How BrightGauge Can Help...9 Customer Satisfaction Surveys That Work 2014 2
Are my customers satisfied? Keeping it Simple Seems like a simple enough metric to measure, right? If you has asked me that question several years ago, I would have answered yes. I figured no news is good news, and if clients weren t actively complaining, they must be happy with our service. Wrong! I always thought that when our customer support department was quiet, everything was perfect. If no one is complaining and no one has questions, then everything must be operating at 100% efficiency. Wrong again! Unless your product or service is 100% foolproof, you will always need an active and engaged customer support team. And that is a very good thing. Customer support is both your best offense and your best defense: it tells you what areas need improvement, how your customers are using your product, and what is working well. One of the first lessons of business school is that recruiting a new customer is more costly than retaining an old one. Its more cost efficient, in terms of both financial and human resources to develop and nurture the relationships you have than to constantly chase down new customers. Business development and sales are an important part of your business model, but they need to function as part of a larger retention initiative. Understanding your client or customer is the first step towards keeping them happy and satisfied. By incorporating three key practices, you can have a truer sense of your customer s experience. Identify your customer s touch points: Take a look at all the ways your customers interact with your business. Consider how you recruit new business, how current customers work with your teams and how your services are delivered. Consider all points of contact, including virtual and electronic in your analysis. Get a new perspective: Ask a trusted customer to walk you through their interactions with your teams. Use their guidance to develop your survey tools and training instruments. Ask, Evaluate, Implement: Conduct formal and informal surveys of your clients, evaluate their responses, and then implement process and systems improvements. No news is not always good news, and a healthy business has its finger on the pulse of customer satisfaction. Here are a few things you can do to implement client satisfaction surveys that work based on our experience. Customer Satisfaction Surveys That Work 2014 3
Start Small: The One Question That Will Change Your Business Were you satisfied with your experience? Yes or No. In less than a dozen words, we gained tremendous insight into our customer s experience and their expectations. Based on the feedback we received from our quick and dirty question, we decided we needed to dig a little deeper and cull some more data for an in-depth review. We added some room for the customer to write about their experience. This gives your client has an opportunity to share both positive and negative experiences. Positive feedback is just as important as negative reviews; it lets you know what is working and who is doing things well, be sure to share these reviews with management and the team. Let everyone see who is getting the highest scores. We then used both positive and negative feedback to fine tune the service team s policies and procedures. Often times, a customer will identify an issue that demands immediate attention, or the same complaint or issue continues to arise. With this information, we began to make both immediate changes in order to keep the customer happy and develop and implement a systemic overhaul of problem areas. We found that the Net Promoter Score (NPS) was an effective tool to help measure customer satisfaction. The NPS identifies your customers as promoters, customers who are likely to recommend your business to a friend or colleague, passives, people who have neutral feelings about your product, service, or business, and detractors, who are not likely to respond your business. Often times, a customer will identify an issue that demands immediate attention, or the same complaint or issue continues to arise. To calculate your NPS you subtract the number of detractors from the number of promoters. Your customer service department should have procedures to follow up with any detractors, and your business should have an idea of your NPS goals. The NPS helped us reinforce our core corporate culture of knowing our customer and working towards a 100% satisfaction rate. Customer Satisfaction Surveys That Work 2014 4
Digging Deeper: Creating a More In-depth Survey After some research, we decided to take a look at how our less than satisfied clients thought the different parts of our organization were performing. We wanted some first hand data from the client s perspective, so we identified the areas of the business we wanted to survey and developed appropriate questions for each. For example, we needed to take a look how customers would rate their experiences with our handling of their service request. Here s what we developed as an in-depth survey: Each question has a maximum of 20 points, with 20 being Very Satisfied, and 5 being Dissatisfied. Question 1: How satisfied were you with your overall experience on this particular Service Request? This question built off the the information gained from the original survey question. By assigning a numeric satisfaction scale, we were able to delve a little deeper into the experience and get a more complete picture of how their service request was handled. This question also set the tone for the rest of the survey, so we knew what we were looking at and looking for from the beginning. Balancing a timely response with a quality response is a customer service challenge. Question 2: How satisfied were you with the time it took to resolve your Service Request? In the Client Support Business, timely response is a key metric when measuring overall satisfaction. We already knew that they expected a timely response, but by polling our clients, we were able to identify exactly what timely meant to them, and then leverage that information to create a better customer experience. Timely for our team might mean 4 hours, but the customer might expect a resolution in 2 hours. Managing expectations goes a long way in boosting satisfaction rates. Question 3: How satisfied were you with the quality of your resolution to your Service Request? Balancing a timely response with a quality response is a customer service challenge. Many times, our support teams look for shortcuts, hacks, and cut corners in order to deliver Customer Satisfaction Surveys That Work 2014 5
solution as quickly as possible. While this may placate the customer at that moment, as soon as the issue pops back up, you re likely to have a very upset customer. By measuring the satisfaction level your client has for the response allows you to manage an expectation of expediency with an effective resolution. It s a simple check to see if your customer was happy with the outcome, taking all factors into consideration. Question 4: How confident were you in the technical ability of the team member who handled your Service Request? We try to match the right team member with the most appropriate service request, as quickly as possible. By measuring our client s confidence in our team s technical ability, we were able to determine if we were matching the right resource to the right problem. We understand Even the most challenging issues aren t so overwhelming if your customer feels connected to the process and the progress. that working with someone you don t have confidence in is a frustrating experience. This question gave us an opportunity to make sure our team members had the right tools in their box, or if we needed to focus some training and education in particular areas. Question 5: How satisfied were you with the communication you received regarding this Service Request? Striking the right communications balance- status check, progress reports, and overall updates, is challenging, and the most important part of your client support team s job. This question allowed us to monitor the frequency and appropriateness of our communications. Was it too much, too little, just right? With the right amount of communication and a regular schedule for resolution, you can manage your customer s expectations and give your service team some room to get their work done. Even the most challenging issues aren t so overwhelming if your customer feels connected to the process and the progress. And don t forget to leave room for feedback. You want to give your customer an opportunity to expand on any points- both positive and negative- in their own words. Customer Satisfaction Surveys That Work 2014 6
Survey Says: Time to Tally Up The Scores Assigning a numeric value to each question allows you to see an overall evaluation for the experience as a whole and an individual score for each question. We used the following scale: Very Satisfied: 20 points Satisfied: 15 points Somewhat Satisfied: 10 points Dissatisfied: 5 points By giving the customer an opportunity to rate each section, we could also identify any trends in satisfaction. If the customer was very satisfied with every area of their experience, we received a 100 points and passed with flying colors. If someone was just satisfied, we ended up with a C and 75%, just above average, and not an inspiring goal. By giving the customer an opportunity to rate each section, we could also identify any trends in satisfaction. If one area consistently received high or low scores, we knew something was either working well or failing miserably. By pulling out and rating each section, we could evaluate our strengths and weaknesses, identify opportunity for improvements and best practices, and implement new solutions and strategies. Customer Satisfaction Surveys That Work 2014 7
What To Do With The Data Developing and implementing a survey and then tallying up our score was a step in the right direction, but then what are we supposed to do with the data? Data is only as good as what you do with out, so if you collect satisfaction information and sit on it without making any changes, it doesn t do you any good. For us, we needed to monitor the survey information and course correct on a regular basis. Weekly Review: At the end of every week, our support team tallied up all the surveys and put together an average score. Any time the average score fell below 90% required a deep dive into the issues and a closer look at the specific questions to understand where the points were and weren t allocated. Any survey that was returned with a score below 80% was discussed individually, in an effort to understand WHY this was occurring. Was there a problem with a team member, a technical issue that wasn t resolved, or did they omit some questions? Instant Response: Any score below 75% would trigger an automatic email to our Service Management Team. They would need to respond to the customer within 4 hours, and our typical response time was 2 hours. We wanted to act on any issues before they became a larger problem. Remember, you need some critical mass before the data starts to tell you the whole story. Be patient, as you may not see any value in your surveys until you have been using the tool for a while. Of course, you ll immediately identify some outliers who are not happy, but over time, trends will begin to emerge. Once you start to identify your trends, you can start making business decisions. Consistently and constantly monitoring your numbers for change alerts you to new areas that need addressing and confirms that your solutions are putting you back on track. Don t be shy about sharing your positive data and reviews with your clients and customers, and using your data to begin a conversation with a problem customer. Sharing survey data lets your customer know you ve corrected the problem, are addressing the problem, or cues them into the fact their expectations may need to be re-calibrated. Your survey data can also be a great sales tool. Potential and prospective customers will respond favorably to know that you take their satisfaction seriously, that you re committed to evaluating your team and processes, and that you use their input when making these decisions. When you value and validate their experience, you value their business. Customer Satisfaction Surveys That Work 2014 8
Evaluate, Implement, Calibrate There are countless ways to capture the data you need to better understand your clients and measure their satisfaction, The important thing is to get started asking questions. Whether you start with a simple Yes or No question or develop a more in depth survey right out of the box, you re moving in the right direction. Once you feel comfortable with your survey tool, spend some time getting comfortable with your data and the information it provides. Identifying immediate trigger points, evaluating long term initiatives, and analyzing performance should be done regularly. You can implement both long term strategies and short term solutions to show your customers you hear what they are saying and respect their input. Finally, you should look at the progress you re making. Your data will continue to evolve and you will need to calibrate your responses accordingly. Customer Satisfaction is everyone s job, and the more information you have, the better your response is and the happier your clients will be. How BrightGauge Can Help BrightGauge Software is the only cloud based business intelligence (BI) platform simplifying data visualization and data analysis for the IT Service Provider (ITSPs) and Managed Service Provider (MSPs) industry. Founded in 2010 by two industry veterans, BrightGauge enables its global user base to create customizable TV ready dashboards and automated reports tailored to their business. With its intuitive and powerful data discovery features connected to custom datasources, BrightGauge makes the science of custom data visualization easy for the everyday business user. To learn more please visit www. and join the conversation @BrightGauge. Customer Satisfaction Surveys That Work 2014 9