Poll, Don't Pester: 7 Ways to Measure Customer Experience at Key Touch Points Without Driving Customers Crazy
Survey fatigue is a challenge we can all relate to. Don’t fall into the trap of making customers unhappy by perpetually asking them how happy they are.
March 19, 2018
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One advantage (there are many!) to surveying lost customers is there’s no risk of annoying the customer enough to lose them. They’re lost, so fire away! Plus, if done right, these will point you right to your problems. Keep your questions open-ended and make sure you ask them what it would take to win them back so they don’t think you’re using the survey as a pretense for a win-back call. Need help? See our guide to lost customer surveys right here.
POWER TIP: Survey customers that never turn up services, too. It’ll not only help you find problems on your side of the fence, it can help you uncover practices by your competitors that are impeding your success.
Customer-satisfaction surveys give vital feedback, but in an age of survey fatigue, it’s important not to bother customers with surveys every time they come into contact with you. Sampling started as a means of cost-effective evaluation. Today, when customers are bombarded with surveys at every turn, sampling can be a sensible approach to getting the data you need while sparing many of your customers the additional probe.
POWER TIP: Sampling doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make sure your customers’ needs are met in service and other situations. It just means you don’t have to survey every customer every time you engage in customer satisfaction (CSAT) measurement efforts.
Some touch points serve as “moments of truth” in that they offer insight into other key touch points. The customer’s first bill is a classic touch point. Not only is the customer deciding at that point if the experience with your company has been worthwhile, virtually every step in the customer on-boarding process comes into view. Are your salespeople overpromising on savings? Did your startup team underdeliver or deliver late? Is the bill itself correct?
POWER TIP: The classic rule is that post-touch-point surveys should be performed within 72 hours of the customer experience while thoughts are fresh in the customer’s mind. Given the rapid pace of events today, surveying sooner might give you a greater response rate.
While it’s sometimes true that customers are more apt to rant than rave, understanding what’s happening – or what’s normal – in your social media comments can be vital to helping you understand changes in your company. Take weekly or monthly snapshots of your comments, so you can detect important changes in your overall sentiment — something as simple as positive/negative/neutral can be meaningful.
POWER TIP: Want a simpler score? Assign values to your sentiment scores (e.g., Neutral = 0, Positive = 1, Negative = -1) to create an average running number that instantly communicates upward and downward trending.
Your customer-service department is another one-to-many opportunity. A surprising number of companies take customer calls and leave notes in comments sections of their CRM, but don’t quantify what those calls are about. Even a simple code system can help you get a bead on what’s happening with your customers. Your staff may balk at recording every interaction at first, but as soon as they see you use the data to fix problems or processes that make their jobs easier, they’ll be on board.
POWER TIP: Don’t have a flexible CRM? Tick sheets and spreadsheets can work here in a pinch.
Customer-effort scoring has been gaining traction as a stronger tool for measuring customer experience. In its basic form, the questioning is simple but powerful — your customer is asked how much effort it took to resolve a problem. The scale is usually five or seven points, with the outer numbers being “very easy” or “very difficult,” and the middle number (the neutral measurement) being “neither.” It’s a simple, immediate follow-up question to gain valuable feedback following customer service or troubleshooting interactions with your firm.
POWER TIP: Don’t forget to use these measurements strategically – you don’t have to measure every interaction a customer has with your company (see Slide 2 – sample, don’t saturate) – and they should be focused on specific processes or interactions.
None of your efforts at measuring customer satisfaction in any form are meaningful if you rig the game against yourself. Today, as often than not, survey bias is intentionally introduced when customers are given survey links or even given heads-ups by the people they interact with.
Here are examples: When the cashier at the grocery store gives you a link to a survey and says you could win $500 for participating and to please give good ratings on your experience, or the service rep at your auto dealer tells you he’ll give you a free service next time if you rate your experience as “excellent,” they’ve ruined the objectivity of your responses. If you really want to know what’s happening in your company, your surveys need to be independent pursuits of honest feedback.
POWER TIP: A great benefit of random sampling is your employees won’t know who is getting surveyed and who’s not, so there’s no opportunity for them to rig the system — they have to be on their professional toes with every customer.
None of your efforts at measuring customer satisfaction in any form are meaningful if you rig the game against yourself. Today, as often than not, survey bias is intentionally introduced when customers are given survey links or even given heads-ups by the people they interact with.
Here are examples: When the cashier at the grocery store gives you a link to a survey and says you could win $500 for participating and to please give good ratings on your experience, or the service rep at your auto dealer tells you he’ll give you a free service next time if you rate your experience as “excellent,” they’ve ruined the objectivity of your responses. If you really want to know what’s happening in your company, your surveys need to be independent pursuits of honest feedback.
POWER TIP: A great benefit of random sampling is your employees won’t know who is getting surveyed and who’s not, so there’s no opportunity for them to rig the system — they have to be on their professional toes with every customer.
By Casey Freymuth
Touch points matter. As we discussed in our blog, “From Buzzword to Business Imperative: 5 Tips for Improving ‘Customer Experience,” customer experience is more than just touch points, but it’s nearly impossible for a customer to have a positive overall experience if she is dissatisfied with any touch point.
Think of it this way: If you decide to take a drive up the Pacific Coast Highway and encounter unexpected road closures, a lousy hotel experience or get food poisoning from a roadside diner, you’re not likely to enjoy your journey — even though you experienced some of the world’s most spectacular views. Similarly, the most effective product or service in the marketplace can be undermined by unsatisfactory experiences along a customer’s journey with your company. In other words, you can’t take any of your touch points for granted.
Measuring your company’s performance at these critical customer touch points is vital to determine if and when you’re falling down. How? Ask your customers. Sounds simple. It is and it isn’t. Survey fatigue is a challenge we can all relate to, and you don’t want to fall into the trap of making your customers unhappy by perpetually asking them how happy they are. Here are some tips on how to poll, not pester.
Khali Henderson is senior partner and Casey Freymuth is managing partner with BuzzTheory Strategies, a marketing and strategy consulting firm specializing in the channel.
Henderson has more than 25 years of marketing, communications and content development experience in the technology industry. Well known for her leadership at Channel Partners, the telecom and IT industry’s leading channel media and events brand, Henderson is one of the country’s foremost experts on channel strategy and marketing. She also has developed and managed marketing and public relations programs for a range of technology companies and trade associations. At BuzzTheory, she heads up business development and serves as the chief content officer. Henderson serves on the boards of The Telecom Channel Association, Cloud Girls and Women in the Channel. She can be reached via email at khenderson@buzztheorystrategies, Twitter @khalihenderson and LinkedIn at /in/khalihenderson.
Freymuth is a strategy and marketing executive specializing in high-tech markets, disruptive and rapidly evolving technologies and value generation. His client list includes many of the world’s best-known brands as well as emerging market leaders, their investors and the media that cover them. With deep roots in management consulting and analysis, Casey has extensive experience in identifying growth opportunities and helping clients position their companies to capture, retain and defend revenue and market share, and to bring their internal operations in line with marketing and positioning objectives. At BuzzTheory, he advises clients on a wide range of strategic and marketing matters and is responsible for BuzzTheory’s operations. He can be reached via email at cfreymuth@buzztheorystrategies and LinkedIn at /in/caseyfreymuth.
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