Customer surveys for retention and growth

Customer feedback can help companies to increase service quality, innovation, and customer retention. Indeed, it is important enough that the International Standardization Organization's (ISO) has made it part of the ISO 9000 quality standards.

For more on the benefits of customer contact, click here.

The best way to stay in touch with customers is through personal phone calls or meetings, where that is possible. However, many companies, particularly small businesses, do not have the resources to formally speak with each customer - especially when the customer base is large.

Telephone interviews are a "second best" way to stay in touch, and we generally recommend them where possible. They can gather the same information as paper surveys, but with more opportunities to probe, and generally a higher response rate.

Paper-and-pencil and electronic customer surveys are also good for staying in touch and get customer feedback and input. These surveys can provide a good source of product or service ideas, in addition to their usual function of providing feedback on the company.

If customers provide their names, surveys can also be used for customer recovery and efforts to raise "wallet share." These two initiatives can quickly repay survey costs.

Toolpack Consulting can work with you to develop a phone, paper, Internet, or interview-based survey, gather the information you need, and, optionally, link it with your internal measures (employee and operations).