Ask SCORE – Collecting Customer Feedback in the Digital Age
Offering customers what they want in order to boost sales may seem like a no-brainer. And finding that valuable information is just as easy. All you have to do is ask them.
Over the years, many tools have been employed to gather customer feedback, from mail-in surveys to simply asking a few questions after the purchase. The emergence of the Internet-based shopping and interaction has given rise to a host of new and convenient tools such as the online survey. Services such as Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com) make simple surveys as easy and convenient to create as they are for customers to answer.
To get the most from you survey, Survey Monkey recommends these guidelines:
- Be clear. Say you’re surveying on customer satisfaction for a hotel stay. Don’t make your respondents guess what you mean. Tell them.
- Be specific. Don’t ask questions about general concepts or ideas; ask about specific concepts or ideas (i.e., being “a good person” is general; being “polite to customers” is specific).
- Ask a lot of questions. Asking multiple specific questions instead of a single general question will make your questions easier to answer for your respondents, and make your data easier to analyze and act on.
Blogs and Facebook pages are also good channels for soliciting and gathering customer feedback, as is a suggestion email feature on your website. Respond promptly with a personalized message or even a phone call if appropriate to thank the customer for responding. Customer rating and testimonial sites such as yelp.com are also taking on greater prominence as feedback sources.
However you gather customer feedback—either using an Internet tool or good old-fashioned in-person conversation—act quickly on whatever you gather, particularly if customers have experienced problems or aren’t finding what they’re looking for. They may also alert you to a product or service they’ll need in the coming months, giving you a head start on being their go-to choice when the time comes.
Customer satisfaction is just one of many aspects crucial to small business success. For more help, contact SCORE “Mentors to America’s Small Business.” SCORE is a nonprofit organization of more than 12,000 volunteers who provide free, confidential business mentoring and training workshops to small business owners. To find the SCORE chapter nearest you or to chat with a mentor online, visit www.score.org.
Another great source for small business expertise is SCORE “For the Life of Your Business.” SCORE is a non-profit organization of more than 12,000 volunteers who provide free, confidential business mentoring and training workshops to small business owners.
To learn more about the local chapters of SCORE, visit www.thevillagesocala.score.org or www.lakesumter.score.org
