When reading through companies webpages, many businesses put in their mission statements that customer service and satisfaction is paramount. However, only few set up a system to ensure they provide it and measure customer satisfaction. If you are certified with a management system such as ISO 9001, this should be a part of your procedure!
There are 6 reasons why customer satisfaction should be important for every business:
- A leading indicator of consumer loyalty
- A point of differentiation (from other businesses with unhappy customers, not willing to recommend the business)
- Reduces customer turnover
- Increases customer lifetime value
- Reduces negative word of mouth
- Cheaper to retain customers than acquire new ones
Food for thought
When it comes down to sales growth and business development, many companies forget about their bread and butter, their cash cows – also known as your current customers who bring revenue on a regular basis. Here are some facts:
- The probability of selling to an existing customer is about 60-70%.
- On average, a loyal customer is worth up to 10 times as much as their first purchase.
- The probability of winning a new prospect is about 5-20%.
- It is also 6-7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one.
Is it, then, correct to think that business once won is secure forever? Not in the current world connecting everyone online and offering a platform to share views, complaints and dissatisfaction on Social Media. A dissatisfied customer will now complain on Twitter and, if the competition is vigilant, they will ensure this customer is offered a ‘better deal with an improved service’.
Did you know?
According to White House Office of Consumer Affairs, news of bad customer service reaches more than twice as many ears as praise for a good service experience. This is only the tip of the iceberg! For every customer who bothers to complain, 26 other customers remain silent but will not come back!
So how a business can make sure their customers are happy?
There are several ways to gather intelligence from customers. The simplest way to find out how customers feel and what they want is to ask them.
Using a Customer Satisfaction survey will provide a standardised set of questions, which means the information collected from the whole data sample will cover the same issues.
Areas to consider covering are:
- Quality of service
- Quality of products delivered
- Speed of Service
- Pricing
- Complaints or problems
- Product knowledge
- Would they use your services/ products again?
Quite often there is one question for customer satisfaction surveys that gets overlooked and forgotten: “Are your current customers aware of the full range of your products?”
For example: A loyal customer might only be aware of your business producing shoes, but do they know you also offer handbags, belts, gloves and wallets? Do they know you offer post-sale service and repair of your products? A customer satisfaction survey is a great place to ask these questions and see what answers are provided!
One thing to remember when planning a customer satisfaction survey is that few of your customers will be interested in “filling out a questionnaire”. It’s work for them without much reward. Very few surveys are being returned, even if it’s an internal survey! So what is a solution to this?
At Momentum Partnership, we conduct phone customer satisfaction surveys on behalf of our clients and our success rate speaks volumes: we receive relevant feedback from 9 out of 10 customers contacted!
Convinced you need to measure your customers’ satisfaction but not sure where to start? Ask the consultants… Click here to get in touch for more information.
Momentum Partnership will work with you on creating a customer satisfaction survey that covers all the important questions that are guaranteed to give you a deeper insight into your customers’ satisfaction and buying behaviours.