Getting the Customer Feedback Survey Right

You can hardly go into a business anymore without being asked to complete a customer satisfaction survey. Home Depot, Chili's, my local grocery store--check your receipts--the invitations are everywhere. Knowing that I'm interested in such things, my wife called me over to her computer a few days ago and said, "Look, another survey for you to take." Sure enough, DexOnline.com was asking for 10 minutes of my time to complete a customer survey. I started the survey with good intentions but never made it to the end. It wasn't that I didn't have the time or the interest; it was that after a while I couldn't remember enough about my experience to give them a good answer. I felt like I was in the chair at the eye doctor, "Is this better or this?" I couldn't remember. So, feeling like a failure, I gave up and logged out.

I've often wondered what becomes of all this data? Does anyone ever look at it? Does anyone ever do anything with it? Here is one thing I know for sure: they never get back to me to solve my problems. But then, how can they? They don't ask for my contact info. I know what the theories are. I know that in general we as humans don't like to disappoint and we are more likely to be honest (especially if the news is bad) behind someone's back than we are to their face. So anonymous surveys are thought to be more honest than those we "own." I get that, but if I just had a bad experience at the grocery store and I'm willing to tell them about it, I want them to take care of me. At that moment, as a consumer, I don't care about making their process better. I care about me. If they make it right for me, then I'll be loyal. I'll be back and I'll tell my friends about it. But if you ask for my feedback and then I never hear from you again--even if you do improve your process--from my perspective you've done nothing for me. And that chance to win $10,000? Forget about it. If I wanted to play the lottery, I'd go buy a ticket, where I'm sure somebody actually wins.

So does that mean asking your customers for feedback is a bad idea? No, not at all. It is a great way to better understand your customers and begin a dialog with them. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you develop your strategy:

1. Remember it is About Them, not You or Your Business. Your customer's job is not to make your business better. Ask them what they think so that you can understand and please them, not so you can make your business better. It is subtle, but there is a key difference here. The great thing is as you focus on them and pleasing them, your business will get better.

2. Get Back to Them. If you are going to ask your customers for feedback, make sure you are committed and have the logistics in place to get back to them. At the very least, thank them for their effort and do what you can to make any thing that might be wrong, right.

3. Keep it Short. I can't stress this enough. A short survey will increase your response rate and increase the accuracy of the feedback. Remember my experience with Dexonline? About four minutes into it, I was clicking on whatever came up first just to get done.

4. Remember your Goal. This goes hand-in-hand with number three. The customer feedback survey is not the place to try to get the answers to all of your questions (no matter how critical they may be). Your real goal is to get an indication of customers' overall perceptions and start a dialog. If you really need answers to other questions, get back in touch with them and ask them if they'd be willing to participate in a more in-depth study. Think of it as one more opportunity to increase customer loyalty.

5. Use an Automated Tool. There is no reason not to use an automated tool to collect feedback. Your results will be more accurate and timely and it will be easier for you to get back to your customers quickly (see number 2). I'm biased, but I think PromoterZ(tm) (http://promoterz.com) is the best tool for gathering customer feedback and acting on it quickly.

Dave Free is president of Zeryn, makers of PromoterZ(tm) (http://promoterz.com), a customer care system for small business growth. Mr. Free received an MBA from BYU and has worked as an Intel executive domestically and internationally, at a Washington think tank, and entrepreneur.