Ask Customers for Feedback

The most successful businesses are always striving to improve. Accordingly, you should solicit feedback from your customers so that you can find which areas you excel in and where you fall short. Generally, you can solicit feedback using a customer survey or a feedback box. If you want customers to share reviews with the public, then provide links to review sites in emails or on your business cards.

Steps

Soliciting Feedback

1. Use a survey. Surveys are the easiest method for collecting feedback. You can create a survey on SurveyMonkey and then send an email to your clients. You can also post a link to the survey on your Twitter and Facebook pages.
   • Consider posting short surveys on your website using Qualaroo or an equivalent tool. Make sure the survey is super short: only one or two questions only.
2. Personalize your requests for feedback. If you send a survey link in an email, don’t have it come from the company. Instead, have an employee send it so that their name shows in the “From” line. Also address the email to your customer, such as “Dear Melissa.” You’ll reap more feedback with these personal touches.
3. Set up a feedback box. The old-fashioned method is to put a box on your counter. You can also provide pens and either a form or a blank piece of paper. Ask the customer to write down any feedback and put it in the box. You can also ask for their name and contact information so that you can follow up.
   • Feedback forms shouldn’t ask more questions than online surveys. Ideally, ask fewer than 10 questions.
   • You can also use a virtual feedback box and put it on your webpage. You can insert a “Feedback” button which people click on. However, don’t link to a survey. A survey looks like a lot of work, and people don’t generally click on feedback buttons expecting to be asked questions. Instead, give people space to complain.
4. Conduct telephone surveys. Telephone surveys are expensive. However, you generally will get a higher response rate with a telephone survey than you will with an online survey. Because of the expense, you might want to use an online survey to identify a subset of customers to follow up with.
   • You probably aren’t set up to perform your own survey. Instead, you can hire a market research company. To keep costs down, hire an independent market research consultant who works out of their own home. They charge around $75-150 an hour.
5. Remember to thank your customers. If a customer takes the survey, you should thank them for their time. Send a thank-you email and let the customer know if you implemented their suggestions.

Asking the Right Questions

1. Ask only questions you want answers to. You shouldn’t feel pressured to bulk up a survey with questions. The more questions you ask, the less likely it is that a customer will finish the survey. As a rule of thumb, ask no more than 10 questions, and preferably fewer.
   • For example, you might only want to know someone’s overall experience. In that situation, you can simply ask, “Please rate your overall experience on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the worst and 10 the best.”
2. Consider open-ended questions. You can glean more information from a customer if you ask questions that can’t be answered with a “yes” or “no.” For example, don’t ask, “Were you happy with your experience?” Instead, you can ask, “What would you change about our business to improve it?” The second question can't be answered with a "yes" or "no."
   • If you use open-ended questions, you must decide where to put them. Some experts suggest putting them at the front of the survey so they are answered first. However, recent research suggests that open-ended questions can make a customer more positive than they normally would be when filling out the rest of the survey. Accordingly, you might want to put them at the end.
3. Tailor questions to your customers. You’ll only waste people’s time if you ask a bunch of irrelevant questions. Instead, you can segment your customer base. For example, you don’t need to ask recent customers their opinions about your customer support, since they probably haven’t used support yet.
   • Segment your customer base any way you want. For example, if you offer many different services, you can segment them based on the service they use.
   • Alternately, you can segment customers based on how long they have done business with you.
4. Promise to respond promptly. One reason so few people offer feedback is that they don’t really think you care. However, you should assure customers that you will respond promptly if they have a problem. Write, “We will respond ASAP to any concerns.”
   • Remember to follow through. You’ll harm your business' reputation if you promise to respond promptly but don’t.

Requesting Reviews

1. Ask for a review. Make sure your staff is trained to ask clients for reviews, preferably in person. You can get eight times more reviews by asking in person than by email. Wait until the end of the business transaction to ask for a review. For example, if you perform landscaping, ask after you finish the job and present the customer with the bill.
   • Say something simple, such as, “I hope you had a great experience and will tell others.”
   • Of course, you should first gauge the customer’s overall satisfaction before you ask for the review. Avoid asking customers who are unhappy or overly picky.
2. Make leaving a review easy. Most people don’t leave reviews unless they are furious with a business. If you want positive reviews, you’ll need to make the process as painless as possible, otherwise people will forget. Consider the following tips:
   • Create business profiles on websites such as Yahoo Local, Google Plus, and Yelp.
   • In an email, include a link to the website so that all your customer needs to do is click on a link.
   • You can also print your profile URLs on a business card or on a receipt so that customers can find them easily.
3. Offer incentives for leaving a review. Some review sites (such as Yelp) prohibit you from asking customers for reviews or for providing any incentives. However, Yelp isn’t the only review site, and you can encourage your customers to leave reviews at other websites by offering a discount coupon or small gift.
   • Remember to ask for a review, not a “positive” review. You can’t buy positive reviews from customers.
4. Thank customers for their positive reviews. Remember to mention something specific about the review in your thank-you. For example, you can write, “Thanks for the glowing review, Christina! We’re happy you liked the lobster salad.”
   • You can also include a call to action. For example, encourage the customer to return and bring a friend the next time.
5. Respond carefully to negative reviews. Remember that you aren’t responding only to your critic. Everyone else on the Internet can also see the review, so you need to be professional in your response. Use the following tips:
   • Don’t lash out. Nothing makes you look worse than getting snarky with someone. Wait 24 hours until you’ve cooled down before responding.
   • Admit if you made a mistake, but don’t admit to something that isn’t true.
   • Provide missing context. Some customers will offer only a one-sided critique, so you should supply missing details. For example, if someone complains that your prices were too high, you can mention that you post your prices on the website and outside your door.
   • Offer to correct a problem for free. You might be able to win back a customer if you can address their problem.
   • Ask the person to call you so that you can resolve the issue offline.

Sources and Citations

See also

• Give Great Customer Service Using E Mail
• Get Clients for Consultants
• Prepare for Customer Service Jobs
• Make Customers Service Your Priority
• Ask Customers for Reviews
• Calculate an Early Payment Discount
• Build Barber Shop Clientele
• Improve Service Quality at Your Business
• Write a Customer Service Email
• Defuse a Situation With a Difficult Customer

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