In the book “Selling the Invisible,” Harry Beckwith states that surveys are important because your customers will appreciate it. “They’ll see you are trying to improve your service.” Beckwith suggests having customers score you in different areas and then publicizing your high scores in your marketing materials.
In the book Beckwith talks about using surveys to tell you what business you’re really in, to keep you from wondering what you’re doing wrong, and to alert you to possible areas.
People are typically more honest on a survey than they are in person. So often, I hear people talk about a place where they received poor customer service. They admit they never told the store manager about their experience or even the cashier/server that asked them about their experience. They simply never returned. (Everyone has done this at some point or knows someone who has done this.)
In conversation, they later tell friends about their poor experience. Had the store/ restaurant offered its customers a way to take a survey (or even better yet an incentive to take the survey), a pattern might have emerged that would have helped the store/restaurant fix little problems before they became big problems.
So survey your customers. E-mail them a survey. Have comment cards available on restaurant tables. This can be an inexpensive tool to gain valuable insight into the minds of your customers.
