Client Surveys: Two Birds With One Stone
Posted By Rob Millard - 2 Comments -
Leo Bottary over at Client Service Insights (CSI) has a post on using client surveys not only as a source of vital competitive intelligence, but also as a relationship-building tool. Not a new idea, admittedly, but important enough to bear repetition. The main bullets:
- Thank your clients for their business
- Send the message that client service excellence is a priority for your firm
- Don't be afraid to ask
- Involve all your client contacts, not just the primary contact
- Share the results with your clients
- Develop an action plan
See Michelle Golden and Jim Hassett on this topic, too.
http://www.robmillard.com/admin/trackback/16422
You're absolutely right, I'm sure it's nothing new, but I'll tell you one of the big reasons I brought it up in the first place. Often times, when an office is asked to conduct a survey of its clients, it's only thinking about getting a good score, and forwarding outstanding results to the CEO. There's a tendency then to "cherry pick" the clients asked to participate. This really doesn't help anyone. By looking at the survey as a way to strengthen client relationships and grow your business, I hope (for everyone's sake) that all parties involved will take a broader view at a client survey's real value.
Also, I read Michelle Golden all the time and look forward to exploring posts from Jim Hassett. Thanks, Leo
Great reminder, Rob, and Leo makes another excellent point about skewing results by filtering who's surveyed. When we conduct surveys, we won't allow any de-selection. There are instances, though, where certain key clients wouldn't receive a paper survey because their service level simply merits a real discussion. In this case, we tabulate paper results separately from interview results because all things are not equal between the two...
But there's much more on the personal interview process in the links Rob refers on Jim Hassett's and my blogs. Caused quite a stir, that discussion!
Thanks for the kind words, Leo!