Reading this again, it was really clear how much the world has changed in a little over 10 years. Nowadays we’re barraged with emails asking us to rate the service we’ve just received. Now, while these are all very useful for compiling data and ticking off some KPIs, quite frankly, they’re basically useless in terms of actually learning anything about your customer’s experience. And considering how many of them turn up in my inbox, even getting a response nowadays is almost impossible. Customers are over it.
Which is why this old strategy is a great way to stand out from the crowd and really give your business some meaningful information to help you improve and grow.
I just saw a telephone survey questionnaire that had lots of questions, which could be used in a variety of situations depending on what the business wanted to achieve. The question of me was “Would I write a script for the telephone call for these questions?”
Frankly, I would never phone someone and endeavour to get answers to that many questions… it would annoy the daylights out of me and I’m sure most would feel the same! However, you could selectively ask a couple of questions, up to say 5 or 6 – providing that they were relevant to the person you were asking, and depending on how you asked them. You would need to make sure they could see that their opinion was important to you.
It would be a different kettle of fish if you were to mail the longer list of questions to them (maybe even prefaced by a phone call to advise them of it) and you offered them some sort of incentive to complete and return it (making sure you included a reply paid envelope). Your incentive could be a gift voucher or a couple of movie theatre tickets or whatever.
Now, despite my reservations, you can still achieve great results if you ring someone and start cheerfully and brightly by saying something along the lines of…
Hello Mrs Smith, its June from The Widget Factory and you bought a Platinum Widget from us the other day. I know you’re busy but was wondering if you could spare me just a couple of minutes to give me some feedback.
(Wait for response and if positive)
Great, thank you Mrs Smith, now here’s an easy one to start with… question 1.
(Listen carefully to answer and acknowledge it)
Thanks Mrs Smith, that’s great now, what about… question 2
(Listen carefully to answer and acknowledge it)
You’re doing well Mrs Smith and I appreciate it. Thanks heaps, only a couple more, lets go to… question 3.
Etc., etc.
Use lots of encouragement and sincerely thank her regularly for each answer so she knows you appreciate the feedback whether you like what she is telling you or not (people love to be asked for their opinion). You can ask extra questions if you judge that she’s not getting too tired of them by prefacing them with “by the way”, “tell me” or “incidentally.”
When you get to the end, thank her sincerely and reward her with something of value that she’ll appreciate which doesn’t cost you heaps, like a product you buy at wholesale and sell at retail (the soft dollar option).
The important thing in all of this is to be clear on what you want to know and then ask the right questions.
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