I first blogged about customer surveys back in July with the premise that, without some form of closed loop communication with the customer, they are not going to be a successful, long term source of customer feedback. As a consumer if you don’t know that the business is listening to you then you stop participating and embrace the myriad of social networking options to leave feedback – “from the brand backyard to the consumer backyard”.
One of the companies I mentioned at that point was Villa Plus. I had rented a villa in Portugal through them at the end of June and then responded to their on-line survey (a mix of radio button scoring and verbatim feedback). I wasn’t happy with the villa and let them know in, I hope, a constructive way.
I heard nothing. And then, more nothing. I thought I would wait until they sent me their next outbound marketing and pick it up with them then. Well, the outbound arrived earlier this week and I asked the obvious question – had they read my survey feedback? Had anything changed?
I got a reply! Here it is (minus the name of the person who sent it to me):
Dear Mr Hartley
As you know we actively encourage our clients to share their experiences and this is why we send customer questionnaires to all those people who have travelled with us and we would thank you for completing yours. Although we do not respond to the questionnaires we find the information provided is invaluable as the data can be analysed and any underlying issues brought to our attention can be quickly acted upon. As stated on the questionnaire, if a response is required then we request that you please write under separate cover to our customer services department. We would assure you that on receipt of your letter our customer services department would conduct a full and thorough investigation in to your concerns and respond accordingly.
Yours sincerely
Firstly, I was pleased to get some form of response and happy that it was polite and somewhat constructive. However, as a customer who was sent a survey immediately on return from vacation, am I supposed to read the fine print to figure out that, if I expect a response, I should use a different channel? Is the survey only for good news? More likely, is the survey really only there to provide a quant. score for customer satisfaction? If so, then don’t ask the open-ended questions requesting feedback.
The reply also states that underlying issues presented in the survey are analysed and acted upon. How would I know that? Where is the communication that shows me that the issues I raised have been fixed? Given the lack of communication then I can only assume that a) my feedback wasn’t read, and b) even if it was, nothing was done about it. Clearly then why would I book again using this supplier?
None of this is rocket science and, yet, I’m sure Villa Plus are very typical. Here are some simple ideas to treat customers better and retain their custom:
- If you ask the question, then expect a response and do something with it.
- Communicate with customers. Outliers of customer satisfaction may be worthy of direct contact. More general trends/feedback/service improvements can be communicated via your website or by e-mail. Let people know the top 5 things they said they liked/disliked via the survey. Acknowledge us and tell us what you’re doing. If you do this the chances of repeat business will increase dramatically.
- If you receive only a small number responses then read them manually and treat them appropriately.
- If you receive too many verbatim responses to manage manually then talk to a company such as Top Right Corner to see how technology-based services can help you manage the problem.
- If you do adopt a technical solution then make sure that when you analyse your verbatim you can still maintain the link back to the original comment. See my last blog for more hints and tips in this area.
- If you can’t do any of this then, really, you are better off not asking for the feedback in the first place!
As always comments are welcome. The link is at the top of the page.
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