Why You Should Be Collecting Client Satisfaction Feedback

May 18th, 2021 by

GuildQuality Team

Top 5 Reasons You Should Be Collecting Client Satisfaction Feedback

As a home service professional, there’s a good chance you know your customers pretty well. You probably know what the average homeowner wants, and what the average homeowner expects. You probably also know what the average homeowner doesn’t know!

But as much as you know about your clients, there are almost certainly some blind spots, too. When it comes to what homeowners think of you, it can be hard to accurately gauge their opinions.

And yet, few things are as important to your business growth as client satisfaction feedback.

The only way to know with certainty what your customers like (and what they don’t like) is to ask them. In fact, contractor client feedback can easily make or break a home services company. When you have clear insight into what your customers think, it’s much easier to make growth-oriented decisions.

In this article, we’ll cover five reasons home service providers should be collecting customer feedback as an ongoing process. Plus, learn how to start collecting feedback, along with questions that prompt clients to leave candid opinions.

What is client satisfaction feedback?

Client satisfaction feedback is any opinion shared by a customer about your business. In the home contracting sector, it’s about the services you provide.

Feedback vs. reviews vs. surveys

Client feedback is a bucket term that includes all kinds of customer opinions. These days, most are given online, but feedback can also include letters, emails, and phone calls to customer service.

Reviews are one type of feedback. They’re considered unsolicited because customers leave them voluntarily. For instance, after you unclog a drain, a homeowner might leave you a Yelp or Google review. This indicates whether or not they were pleased with the service and might say if they’d recommend your plumbing company.

A client satisfaction survey is solicited feedback. You, or a third party, initiate the correspondence with the client requesting their opinion. The advantage of a survey is that it can target specific questions to give you the answers you really need.

Why contractors specifically need it

Why collect customer feedback? Those reviews and survey responses are essential, no matter what size contracting business you have. Surveys help you both identify areas for improvement and who your brand champions are.

Reviews can also offer constructive criticism. But as one of the biggest customer feedback benefits, they give social proof for your business. A recent study showed that 91% of homeowners read reviews before selecting a contractor—that’s huge! You’ve probably done it yourself.

1. Customer feedback helps you measure customer satisfaction

Believe it or not, you can measure happiness. That’s what customer satisfaction really is: the degree to which your customers enjoy the experience of working with you.

Measuring satisfaction with NPS

One simple way to gauge customer satisfaction is by measuring Net Promoter Score (NPS). Just ask customers to rate their experience (or the likelihood they would recommend your company to a friend) on a scale of 0 to 10.

Those who respond with a score of 9 or 10 are considered “promoters.” These are the folks who are your most loyal customers.

Those who rate your business with a 6 or less are “detractors.” They may not recommend you…and might even recommend against you.

In between—scores of 7 and 8—are “passives.” They’re happy enough with your goods or services. But they’re not excited enough one way or another to be a promoter or detractor. For this reason, they’re considered neutral and don’t figure in NPS calculations.

To calculate your Net Promoter Score, use this equation:

NPS = % of promoters – % of detractors

Benchmarking against competitors

While a simple approach to your NPS will give you some insight, you’ll get the most out of these numbers by comparing them to your competition. A professional customer survey company can help you with that.

If you’re not ready to invest in customer feedback on that level, you can seek out the detractors and ask for more information. If you approach those conversations with humility and a desire to help, you might even be able to woo them back.

At the very least, you can learn from what went wrong.

2. Customer feedback empowers you to improve the customer experience

Customer experience refers to how your customers feel about the entire process of working with you, from getting a quote to a completed job. Customer experience is about more than the quality of your work. That’s important, no doubt, but customer experience includes an emotional component, too.

What customers notice that you do not

Customers often notice things that your company is blind to. Examples include:

Punctuality
Reliability
Cleanliness
Organization
Follow-through
Noise level

When they share those observations with you, it can help you improve the customer experience. This is particularly true if their opinions are on the negative side.

A concrete contractor example

Let’s look at an example that helps illustrate this fact. Imagine you’re a home remodeling business that specializes in high-end kitchens.

You learn that customers are frustrated by your unpredictable work schedule. It drags out every project timeline, leaving homeowners living in a mess. This is because you often have to wait for finishes, fixtures, and appliances you need to complete jobs.

You’ve been doing this for years, so it doesn’t seem unusual. But why aren’t these materials ready at the start of each project?

A major reason is how you do your invoicing. You can’t afford to purchase chef’s ovens and marble countertops without completing other work first. Once you finish demolition and the first milestone on another project or two, you use that money to fund the rest of the first project.

This “leapfrogging” is a common practice in contracting. But it’s a headache for clients. And it makes you look disorganized, unreliable, and unprofessional.

As a solution, you decide to charge a larger deposit up front to cover expensive materials. You tell clients that they’ll be happier in the end because their remodels get finished much faster. Also, if there’s a problem with any item, you have more time to fix it.

After 6 months of doing this, you watch your reviews improve and Net Promoter Score climb. Success!

3. Customer feedback gives you insight into invisible processes

Invisible processes are another element revealed by customer feedback. They may seem trivial, but to customers, they often aren’t.

What an invisible process is

What’s an invisible process?

What kind of background music plays while customers are on hold? Where do trucks park when installing landscaping materials around a new home? How easy is it to read and understand your invoices?

Invisible processes are the little details that typically aren’t top-of-mind for you—but can easily be a big deal to customers.

Turning small complaints into process fixes

Customer surveys give you a chance to find out about potential issues. That leads to improving processes that ultimately create happier customers. For example, if you get consistent feedback that your hold music is too loud, it’s probably time to turn down the volume.

Since you’re rarely on hold with your own office, you might not even know this is an issue. Unless, of course, you ask.

Likewise, comments about the etiquette of an on-site crew could inspire you to make site visits or to review company policies. You might discover they need to revisit how to address clients and proper cleanup at the end of each day.

RELATED ARTICLE: What to Do with Customer Feedback

4. Customer feedback makes it easier to build meaningful relationships

You want to develop long-term relationships with your clients, right? That leads to repeat business and referrals—two cornerstones of revenue growth. Customer feedback facilitates this.

Feedback as a conversation

Good customer relationships come with mutual respect. Homeowners should enjoy doing business with you, and you should enjoy doing business with them.

Of course, building relationships takes time and patience. But the benefits are well worth the effort. And there is no better way to strengthen customer relationships than by engaging your customers in real dialogue.

What’s one vital type of dialogue? Soliciting customer feedback and then responding to it.

Closing the loop with the customer

Following up on legitimate client opinions is known as “closing the loop.” It might mean dealing one on one with customers who have concerns. Or it could involve making a company-wide policy change based on customer opinions.

After all, that’s what customer feedback is: a conversation. Closing the loop with customer feedback shows your customers you value their opinions. This is your chance to let them know you take their point of view into account when making decisions.

That’s the kind of communication that naturally leads to stronger relationships—and loyal customers.

5. Customer feedback can even increase customer retention and referrals

As noted above, retaining customers for more business and word-of-mouth referrals is a top goal for financial stability. Strong customer retention lets you scale sooner too if that’s the plan.

Repeat customers and referrals as your warmest leads

What’s true in other industries is just as true in home services. Your warmest leads are repeat customers and customer referrals. Some people refer to this as “low-hanging fruit.”

Who is most likely to fall into this category?

Clients who have hired you more than once
Clients who have already made referrals
NPS promoters (have a score of 9 or 10)
Customers who leave unsolicited rave reviews
Customers referred by brand champions

It should be relatively easy to pick that fruit, i.e., close those leads. But you can still lose happy customers to the competition by failing to keep in touch.

You need to follow through with prospects who were referred by your loyal customers. And you need to periodically reach out to past customers asking for feedback.

Structuring questions that prompt referrals

Asking past customers for their opinions prompts new interaction. If they have more home improvement projects, a simple customer survey could result in repeat business. Or it could remind the customer to refer your company to a friend or family member.

What’s the best way to approach past customers? Structure questions so that folks naturally remember the best parts of their experience. Ask what they liked best about the completed job, for example.

Other questions that lead them in the right direction include:

What do you think is our company’s greatest strength or specialty?
Why did you pick us over a competitor in the contracting market?
Do you have family or neighbors who might need similar work done?
Would you be able to leave a review, if you haven’t already?
Would you consider being a featured client with a website testimonial?

You can also mention loyalty clubs or discounts to customers who want more work or want to send you some business.

Of course, you can include opportunities for them to provide critical feedback. But be sure you end the survey on a positive note.

How to Start Collecting Client Satisfaction Feedback

Do you want to beef up your client feedback collection? Or perhaps you’ve never really done it properly?

Timing and channel

What method is best for surveying customers? That depends on their personal preferences and demographics. Some people prefer text messaging, for instance, while others find it a nuisance.

Ideally, you want to set up a process where you ask about that at the start of a job. And if you need to send someone to your website or a review platform, don’t forget to include the link.

Usually, the best time to collect feedback from a customer is right after you finish a job. In fact, you can train staff to initiate the feedback. “If you’re happy with the results, we’d really appreciate it if you left us a Google review.”

You can also ask again when you send an invoice. Calling a week or two later to make sure everything is working as it should is another way to touch base and remind them.

Later, decide on an appropriate time frame for re-contacting customers. That might be 6 or 12 months later. “How’s that new bathroom been working out for you? Is everything still running great?” That’s a good segue into inquiring about a referral or more remodeling work.

Self administered vs. third party

It’s a good idea to put all your past clients into an annual or biannual calendar for follow-up. But once you do that, it often becomes obvious that this will entail a lot of extra labor. If you’re a small contracting business, you may not have time or staff to devote to this.

That’s why many contractors partner with a third-party service to solicit customer feedback. It lets you focus on billable hours in the field. And you can put all your attention on solutions and customer recognition, not repetitive survey work.

Frequently Asked Questions

Below are some quick answers to the most common questions about client satisfaction feedback. But when you have more time, read the detailed information above to really master this skill.

Why is client satisfaction feedback important for contractors?

Customer feedback helps you identify what’s working and what’s not when it comes to customer satisfaction. You can make changes to improve the customer experience. Plus, getting positive online feedback gives your business credibility to attract new customers.

How do you collect client satisfaction feedback?

This is typically done through online review requests and surveys. You may send the request via email, phone call, or text message.

It’s also possible to have a third party collect this information for you. You get more accurate results targeted to what you need. And it’s not taking away from time you need in the field to bring in revenue.

What is the difference between feedback and a review?

Feedback is the general category of customer opinions. Reviews are simply one type of feedback.

Conclusion

Are you ready to get started collecting customer satisfaction feedback? It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and a bit lost.

GuildQuality is here to help administer surveys as a neutral third party. This not only frees up your time, but it also offers other benefits. Using a third-party platform lifts response rates and encourages customer candor. You get the public proof you need in the form of verified results.

Click the “Get Started” button on our homepage. You’ll be on your way to building your reputation fast with GuildQuality customer surveys.