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If you’ve bought anything online or with your email address attached to it lately, chances are you’ve received an email asking for your opinion on your experience.
These automated emails are generated by companies who use your feedback to drive their future business decisions, and you can do the same thing, regardless of how few or many clients you have.
Feedback collection is an integral part of having a client-centric business. It helps you know what’s going on between your employee/customer interactions and gives you insight into your client’s minds. But there’s a fine line between sending out mass emails that most people will ignore and truly showing your clients that their opinions matter to you. Here, we’ll share the dos and don’ts of client feedback collection.
Do Be Specific About Your Requests
Asking someone their opinion on their experience is an extremely vague question. You may end up with information unrelated to your business and the interactions you are concerned about. On the other hand, you don’t want to be overly specific and lose out on hearing about something that frustrated your client and then learning about it after they complained on social media.
Start by focusing on the key metrics most important to you using your CRM reports, as discussed in this article by Accelo. CRM metrics provide information on your sales, but they’re also vital for optimizing your client interactions and team efficiency.
The right metrics can show you what’s happening to your clients once they’ve signed a contract. How many issues are they reporting? How long does it take for your team to respond to and resolve the problem? What are the main issues that seem to be occurring?
Follow these metrics up with pointed, strategic questioning in your feedback requests. Did the client feel their issue was handled satisfactorily? Was the response time adequate? Would they recommend your business to others based on how the matter was settled?
These questions are specific to things that matter to the overall company. But if there are other metrics that you notice need to be addressed, you can adjust your feedback collection requests to focus on those concerns. Evaluate, monitor, and adjust as necessary.
Don’t Collect Feedback Randomly or Too Often
Consider how you feel when your inbox is bursting at the seams with unnecessary emails asking for your input. Even a few seconds can be too much when it’s an ongoing thing.
Be aware of how often you’re requesting feedback. Is it sporadic? Weekly? After a specific milestone in the client’s contract?
Not every business needs to send out emails or surveys after every client interaction. Determine when you want to know what your clients are thinking and what kind of feedback format would be best for your type of business. For example, you may prefer a long-form survey using platforms like Survey Monkey or a short, multiple-choice survey in your app. Customer satisfaction scores using numbers can also be quick, easy, and helpful.
Don’t Expect Immediate Results
Most of us don’t check our emails immediately, and once we do, we’ll let requests for feedback sit in our inbox until we have the bandwidth to complete it. In many cases, your feedback request will be deleted. Yet, those who do complete it may take days or weeks to circle back and get it done.
It can be tempting to analyze those first results as they trickle in, but remember that you won’t see the whole picture until you have multiple answers. For example, one of your clients may have had a poor interaction with your top employee and filed a negative response with you in their survey. However, dozens of later reactions show that the team member is customer-focused and everyone else loves them, yet you already chastised or fired them and lost their trust.
According to statistics from research like PeoplePulse, consider waiting two weeks before compiling your final responses. Most of your surveys will likely come in within three days, but you may get better results by encouraging your clients by making the surveys simple (10-14 minutes or 7-10 questions). Research shows that if a person feels like a survey is taking too long, they will abandon it midway through.
Use simple, concise wording, and only use open-ended questions when the client’s opinion cannot be obtained through multiple-choice answers or by ticking a box. These tips give you the best possible chance of receiving honest and timely feedback.
Conclusion
Obtaining feedback from your clients before they air their frustrations online or to their network can help you do damage control. On the other hand, hearing about the positive aspects of your business aids you in decision-making and gives you the chance to pass on compliments to your team and keep doing what’s working.
These three practical dos and don’ts will guide you as you use feedback and metrics to create and grow your reputation as a business focused on client satisfaction.
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