Are your customers telling you the whole truth?
Surveys have a bad rep. Companies have caught on to the fact that feedback from their customers is an asset to their success, so they’ve begun surveying in a big way, and in every communication channel possible. You don’t want to overwhelm your customer with another survey, but alas, you need to know how they’re feeling.
Fortunately, homebuilders, remodelers, and home services contractors have a unique advantage when it comes to surveying customers. Because homeowners have invested a considerable amount of money toward their new home or home improvement project, and the project directly impacts their quality of life, they are more emotionally invested and motivated to share feedback. Even though homeowners may view your survey as a priority over others, remember they’re still combatting survey fatigue that you need to overcome.
Position surveying as a value proposition
Our members with the highest survey response rates are masters at setting the stage with customers about their surveying process. They place Intro Cards about our multi-touch surveying process in new customer kits, they introduce and explain the survey process during initial customer meetings, and they advertise surveying customers on their website. While expressing that customer surveying is a part of each project, these members are also emphasizing how valuable they think their customer’s opinions are.
Does your company review every survey response together as a team? Do you take immediate action when you receive negative feedback? How has customer feedback changed your company’s processes? Share that information with your customers. Not only will it make them feel like your company holds their experiences in the highest regard, but it’ll also show that your company really does care about improving.
Determine how your customers would like to be contacted
In addition to sharing how much of an asset customer feedback is to your company, sometimes avoiding survey indifference can be as easy as finding out how your customer prefers to be contacted. For homebuilders, remodelers, and home services contractors within our community of quality, 61% of surveys were completed via phone this past month. Email surveys reigned second, followed by mail cards.
Ask engaging questions
Your survey itself is the most important tool you have to combat survey fatigue. Ask concise but engaging questions regarding your customer’s experience. Take a look at some of my favorite questions from our most-widely used survey:
• How can [Company Name] make your life better?
• [Company Name] is always seeking ways to improve; do you have one suggestion for something we can change?
• What concerns, if any, did you have about the building process prior to starting this project, and how did we address these concerns?
• In what area(s) do you think [Company Name] fell short of your expectations?
While engaging questions are clutch, be sure to keep the total number of questions on your survey low and avoid asking questions that are redundant in nature.
Check out this article “Will my customers be bothered by surveying?” to find out why so many homeowners actually appreciate when you ask for feedback.
