To understand how your customers feel about your products and services, it is essential to speak with them on a regular basis. When you keep in touch with customers, you will not only learn about customer satisfaction but you will also provide them with a positive message that you care about their opinions. Below you will find some suggestions for how best to keep in touch with your customers.
Decide how often you want to contact customers to keep in touch
Depending on your industry, best practices for when to contact or survey customers to gauge customer satisfaction vary from semi-annually to surveying a different 25% of your customer base every quarter.
Develop a customer communications calendar
Once you have decided on a strategy regarding when to communicate with your customers, create a communications calendar and make certain to coordinate it with all of your company’s departments. This allows your team to plan and ensure they are not duplicating efforts (which can alienate customers, rather than positively impress them).
Create questions that ask only for the information you need
Because your customers’ time is important to them and they are doing you a favor by participating in a customer satisfaction discussion, don’t ask them questions that you already have the answers to (i.e., “How long have you been a customer?” or “What have you purchased from us?”).
Your questions will vary based on whether you are asking them about a product, service, or for an overall impression of your company. The following are a few examples of how some customer satisfaction survey questions are categorized:
- Overall Satisfaction – request a rating of the company as a whole
- Attribute-based Questions – emphasize particular areas of satisfaction or dissatisfaction and provide actionable insights.
- Behavioral Questions – cover the likelihood of the customer using your company again or recommending it to others.
- Likeness Questions – ask for customers to say what they like least and most about your company’s products/services.
- Open-Ended Questions – provide information about customer responses and encourage them to share any experiences they have had with the company and how the company might improve. These generally come last in a survey and usually are optional.
Briefly explain to customers why you want the information they are providing and emphasize the company’s appreciation for the feedback.
Begin your communication by thanking them for their time and by emphasizing how important their feedback is to the company. If customers feel that you highly value their input, they are more likely to be forthcoming with more information. Remember to thank customers at the end of each communication.
Northwest Telephone Answering Services Can Help
We understand that keeping in touch with your customers is important to you but you and your staff may not have as much time as you would like to devote to this important aspect of your business. This is where Northwest Telephone Answering Service can help.
Founded in 1970, Northwest Telephone Answering Service has over 35 years of experience as a provider of dispatch and answering services in addition to customer outreach. Our professional staff can work seamlessly with your company to speak with your customers to get the information you need. We offer the latest technologies and reliable, affordable customer contact service for a variety of business categories.
Contact us today to talk about how we can help you keep in touch with your customers. Whether it’s designing the survey, or executing the calls, we can help.
