customer satisfaction survey

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Why “No” is So Important - 9/15/26


The employee told the caller: “I don’t think that is possible.” The customer eventually hung up, and redialed to ask a different employee the same question. The employee responded to the customer: “That’s probably not the best way to do it.”  Then, the customer kept asking question after question, arguing Read more

It’s Not “You,” It’s “I” - 9/8/26


During a business writing course that I took years ago, the instructor had us write an e-mail.  I can’t recall if it was written to a co-worker or customer, but after writing this e-mail, she had us count every “I” and “You.”  We talked about how we need to Read more

It Shouldn’t Make a Difference, But… - 9/1/26


We have this conversation with lots of our sports clients, but the principles apply across all different industries.  Too many service representatives view a conversation with a customer as a transaction.  Just get him off the phone as quickly as possible.  The customer is Joe Public, not Joseph Pendergrass.  Read more

Use What the Customer Gives You - 8/25/26


Scenario #1: The customer sent an e-mail to the general inbox at the company.  The message noted that the customer needed to get a family member added to their account, but they couldn’t tell from the website how to do so. The next morning an employee opened up the e-mail, Read more

How Better Customer Service is Better for You - 8/18/26


Oftentimes, we have employees in training or workshops who really want to understand what’s in it for them to deliver better customer service.  How does the employee benefit from a better customer experience? Noted below are 5 different aspects of a great experience desired by the customer.  What if... The customer Read more

Manage New Customer Expectations - 8/11/26


The fan had never been to a motorsports event before, but they had been to concerts.  They had been to big conferences.  At those other events, they could park right next to the venue, many of the activities were indoors, and weather was a non-issue.  So, they were not Read more

Complement Empathy with Action - 8/4/26


A man falls into a hole, and he can’t get out.  He starts yelling for help, and a doctor walks by and looks down the hole.  The man in the hole yells to the doctor “Please help me.  I’ve fallen into this hole!”  And the doctor takes out a Read more

My 8-Minute Visit at the DMV- 7/28/26


I needed to get a Real ID, which in North Carolina facilitates airline travel and other identity verifications.  My wife suggested I go to one particular DMV that was a LONG way away from home, but where she had experienced great customer service.  I was lucky to find an Read more

When They Might Walk Out the Door…Permanently- 7/21/26


Have you ever had one of those conversations with the customer where they literally tell you they’re about to stop doing business with your company?  This is it.  They may bring up a competitor or found another way to get their need met, or they are just leaving. When we Read more

Transparency in Customer Service- 7/14/26


We’ve worked with a lot of clients in the local government sector, and many of these clients have Customer Service Standards and/or corporate values that include Transparency. Think about an old-fashioned transparency sheet, that malleable see-through page you put on an overhead projector.  You can see everything on one side Read more

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Do You Have Harley Loyalty?

Posted on April 8, 2010 in Business Advice, World of Customer Service Please leave a comment

Your customers are loyal. They wouldn’t consider going to another business for their products and services because your integrity, quality, customer service, and price are too good. They are loyal to a fault. Or are you loyal to a faulty belief grounded in hope or assumptions rather than fact and proof?

What outward signs do you have of your customers’ loyalty? Well Harley-Davidson, America’s most well-known motorcycle manufacturer believes it has proof that few can touch. The company believes the "definition of customer loyalty is when your customers will tattoo the name of your company on their arm."

How many people have "IBM" or "Microsoft" or "McDonald’s" tattooed on their arms? Less than 10…less than 5? That’s not to say that McDonald’s customers aren’t loyal, but how does the company know who’s loyal and who isn’t?

Long-term success is more easily achieved if your existing customer base is loyal. They will fight for your company, drive by competitors to get to your store, pay a higher price than alternatives to your service, and recommend you to their closest friends.

But unless you have all your customers walking around with your company logo tattooed on their arms, you need to generate objective measures of loyalty. Try these methods of gaining solid loyalty data:

· Survey customers and have them estimate the total amount of annual purchases of your types of products and services, regardless of whom they buy from. Calculate their purchases from you as a percentage of the total.

· Distribute loyalty cards. Track either their frequency of use or how often you’ve given discounts/rewards when customers hit a targeted number of uses.

· During purchase transactions from new customers, ask how they’ve heard about your company. Track referral rates to gauge the prevalence of effective recommendations made from your existing customers to others.

In lieu of tattoos, get solid data to confirm your customer loyalty.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more information at: http://www.cssamerica.com/


Hockey Team Listening to Learn…Today

Posted on April 2, 2010 in Business Advice, Sports Please leave a comment

The Chicago Blackhawks professional hockey team announced this week (http://blackhawks.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=523044) that they are launching a new program to improve the fan experience. Chris Werner, the Blackhawks Senior Executive Director of Ticketing and Business Development stated “Quality customer service has been an ongoing priority over the course of the recent seasons. We are working hard at using different innovative methods to gather fan feedback to measure guest’s overall experience.”

This program focuses on getting fan feedback during the games. While that’s not novel, per se (many teams over the years have conducted in-game surveys), what it does suggest is that this organization understands that if it truly wants to impact fan satisfaction, it has to go to the fans and talk to fans. It has to make it easy for fans to get in touch with them. It has to be proactive and seek the input. It has to gain the information as real-time as possible.

These are all great principles for any organization to consider. Does your organization go to where the customers are (when they’re already interacting with your business) and ask for feedback? Does your organization make it easy for them to provide feedback? Do you try to gain information on the customer’s experience while the customer is…well experiencing?

Rethink your research strategies to go away from customer satisfaction surveys conducted over the phone when all your business is done face-to-face. Make sure your research strategies are not purely retrospective, when a customer’s memory cannot always be trusted.

Make sure that you’re asking and receiving real-time input from your customers today.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more information at: http://www.cssamerica.com/


Take Flight to Learn from Your Customers

Posted on March 9, 2010 in Business Advice, Education Please leave a comment

Chester University in the United Kingdom decided that it wanted to make sure that as many final year students as possible completed a survey on their satisfaction. A recent article (http://www.chesterfirst.co.uk/news/85995/university-s-novel-approach-to-student-satisfaction.aspx) highlighted a creative way that the Administration promoted the survey. They simulated an airport check-in environment (with a bank of computers), dressed like pilots, and marketed taking the survey as an event.

Wow!

Just to get information from students they did all this? Why?

They did it because according to one of the administrators “It’s vital that as many final year students in as many subject areas as possible complete the survey so that the university can gain a true picture of where it does well and where it could do better. The results can bring about real change, for example, previous surveys have led to increased access to library facilities before exams and more copies of key texts on reading lists being made available.”

This organization realized the link between the voice of the customer (in this case, the student) and changes that would truly benefit their customer base. They understood that some of the best ideas come straight from your customers. They understood that you have to appropriately promote a survey to get maximum interest and participation.

They understood that the ideas and suggestions of the customers of today could have a positive impact on the customers of tomorrow.

The next time you consider a survey, consider how you promote it. Consider what you want to ask of today’s customers that would enable you to better serve the customers of tomorrow.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more information at: http://www.cssamerica.com/


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