Don’t Make the Customer Jump Through Hoops to Give You Essential Feedback!
Seeking to integrate customer feedback into your marketing efforts is an admirable pursuit. Effective marketing is rooted in finding ways to satisfy customer needs. Going directly to the source is one way to conduct this research. There are of course many others including ethnography based methods, which are also an excellent means of getting input. If you choose the route of surveying customers, you have to make it a simple activity for the customer – or you will lose them quickly.
As a marketer I like to comply with requests to help others market, and I recently had an opportunity to do so. Recently I had a minor medical procedure and I believe the surgeon did an excellent job. Shortly after the procedure I was sent an e-mail prompting me to fill our an online survey (on behalf of Dr. X). Personalizing this with the physician’s name was a nice touch since I immediately associated with the doctor (who I like). I was all in to help my “friend” – Doctor X.
Unfortunately the execution of the online survey was poor. In order to fill out the survey (which I started doing) I had to submit a series of security questions and answers to proceed. I realize this is likely related to patient confidentiality, but there must be a better way. My desire to help Dr. X was quickly derailed by a giant pothole on the road to providing feedback. Reluctantly I bailed at that point.
It goes without saying – your customers time is valuable and you must respect that. When seeking feedback you MUST give them a simple, clear path to providing you the information. KEEP IT SIMPLE. My experience is most customers is that they will be very willing to provide you with their feedback. Here are three keys to successfully gaining customer feedback:
Recency – the customer must clearly remember the experience on which you are seeking their opinion.
Short – if you are asking a series of questions, it cannot be longer than 5-7 questions.
Don’t ask what you already know – If you are sending a personalized e-mail to the recipient, dont ask for name, etc. you already know that and you are wasting one of your few available questions.