Survey says…?

What do your customers think of you? It’s a vitally important question for any business, one we’re willing to spend lavishly to have answered. Yet few companies go about it right. …And getting this wrong can seriously damage your relationship with your customer.

There’s a great story in “Branded Customer Service,” by Janelle Barlow and Paul Stewart, about a cruise line that really delivered personalized service throughout a cruise, only to ruin the entire feeling of intimacy they had created with the customer by slipping a survey under each door that asked for the customer’s name, cabin number, and the date.

There goes the special relationship they had successfully built all week long.

We recently moved, and decided we’d try out Comcast’s bundled Internet/phone/cable TV services. Everything’s fine, and the local operation here in Naples is surprisingly pleasant to deal with – it’s a world apart from the experience I wrote about in “Five-Star Customer Service.” However, I am disappointed with the follow-up phone survey I received about a week after installation. It was conducted by an outside firm, and was just about their new phone service. I had a comment to make about installation of our cable TV lines, but too bad: this wasn’t about cable TV.

To me, Comcast was calling, and I had a Comcast issue to report. But Comcast didn’t see itself the way its customer does, as one entity. From their perspective, the Phone Division was calling.

I love my convertible Saab. I’ve test driven other convertible sports cars, including Lexus, Jaguar, and two models of Porche, and none has outperformed the car I currently drive. It’s my second Saab, but it will be my last (I’m leaning toward Porche right now). Why am I turning my back on this car that I love so much? The dealer that I bought it from, the only one near our house, gave horrendous service in its “service” department: really, really terrible. GM, owners of Saab, sent me a survey, and I told them my feelings in no uncertain terms. That was almost two years ago, and I’m still waiting for a reply.

If you ask your customer a question and he’s kind enough to answer, you are obligated to address any questions or concerns he shares with you. This isn’t optional.

This last point – not responding to surveys – is a form of customer abuse that even good companies routinely get wrong. How many times have you received a personalized reply, addressing your specific comments, from a company that asks your opinion? How loyal has that made you feel?

Coine Training works with two companies that get surveying right. In both cases, the surveys are online, the results instantaneous, the information easily manipulated so that managers can focus on one particular item out of eight, say, or they can track answers according to demographics – they’re both amazing tools. Our favorite part? Managers can also reply to these emailed surveys instantly – how’s that for personalized attention?

Instant feedback. Now that’s Spoiling your customers Rotten!

If you’re interested, you can reach me through my email, and we can discuss which company is best for your needs.