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Q: When is 10 greater than 20? A: Customer Satisfaction Surveys!

Okay, Okay. I know that mathematically the title of this post doesn't make sense.  Yes 10 is always less than 20 when you're crunching numbers mathematically but there ARE times where the number 10 is greater than 20.  10 is always greater than 20 when you are talking about the number of questions in customer satisfaction surveys.

So, I'm sure you're saying to yourself, "Okay I'll bite... How do the laws of mathematics get flipped upside down and inside out when you talk about Customer Satisfaction surveys?" and I'll answer your question with another question.  Think about the last time you took a survey from the restaurant down the street or the local electronics store and tell me this, how long did it take you?

Some of these customer surveys companies are conducting on their own are a million questions long because why not? It’s a rare opportunity where they have you nailed down, you've volunteered to take the survey, this is their chance to collect customer feedback, so they may as well squeeze as much information out of you.  They think, may as well ask 25 questions and because you started, you'll have to finish. Win/win, right?

Not really... As someone I recently met explained when describing his business, "If my clients are my life and life gives a lemon, I'm going to make myself some lemonade. What I learned though, was at the end of the day you HAVE to make sure it still looks like a lemon when you're done with it."

Customers and clients that take surveys for you lose interest and don't care if your survey drags on. In our 29 years of measuring customer satisfaction, we've found that surveys should be limited to 3-5 minutes, which ends up being about 10 questions, give or take.  Let’s face it, your customers are doing you a favor and are volunteering to help you improve the way you do business.  So instead of squeezing too hard, ask them a few questions, thank them for their time, and let them go.

This way, your lemon still looks like a lemon when you come back in a few months to ask for more help.

SERVICE 800 can start a customer satisfaction measurement program for you in days, so you can start simply and evolve your measurements over time. Why wait? Can you afford not to know?

 

Topics: CX Blog

Written by Iresha Herath

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