Customer Surveys – Your Secret Business Weapon

We all talk about the need to differentiate ourselves from our competition, to offer more value and
compete on more than just price. However to help us do that, we need to be asking our customers
what they know about us, what they think about us, and how we can serve them better.

Fortunately the solution is not difficult – we need to ask our customers questions and give them an
opportunity to respond. A well-conceived and executed survey is easy to perform and can be extremely rewarding, for both your company and for your customers.

Two Types of Surveys
There are two types of customer surveys and both are useful as learning and marketing tools. The
first is a brief questionnaire that is emailed regularly after print jobs are delivered, inquiring about the
service received, the quality of the work just performed, and their interest in your services. The second
is the usually annual survey that asks questions about the ongoing relationship the customer has with
the company, its overall performance and how the relationship can be improved. At a minimum these
surveys show your customers that you care about the relationship and your performance merely by
asking them these questions and requesting their response.

By sending an email survey to the print buyer after a job has been delivered, you can

• Learn of any production problems in the job, so you can respond rapidly to address the issues
• Give your sales team more reasons to speak with their customers
• Get frank, unbiased information in a timely manner
• Uncover demand for services they buy elsewhere
• Ask for referrals from highly satisfied customers

These targeted questionnaires are certainly valuable but the broader annual survey provides a better
opportunity to learn more from your customers. Here, questions can be asked about

• Your company and its performance
• Performance of specific representatives, i.e. sales reps and CSRs
• Product and service quality
• Communication and responsiveness
• What other companies they use, locally, nationally or online
• Capabilities your customers may not know you have
• New services requested, such as online web-to-print capabilities
• Willingness to recommend you to their peers

Compare the Data and Use It
You can also generate data that can be quantified and used to compare not only from survey to survey
but also against your peers, as Michael Casey with Survey Advantage does with his Customer Pulse
surveys. Each month they collect over 4,000 print buyer surveys so you can understand how you stack
up against the rest of the industry in service, quality and customer loyalty.

In addition, many companies have merged lately and a survey can tell you how your newly acquired
customers regard the new entity. What's their perception of the new company, has their service level
changed, has product quality slipped, what can the new company do better or offer, etc.?

After the Survey
You get points just by sending customers these surveys and you can learn a lot from their responses.
But you also need to take action based on the results. Let customers know you appreciate their
feedback and that you are acting on what they told you. Customers will share if they see you care about their desires and responses. Make the results a team activity – share them with the entire company as part of a team building and goal setting program. A survey should also be the first step in a company rebranding effort, in order to determine what is important to your customers. Marketing themes and your website can be focused based on the data gathered.

Look at returned customer surveys as gifts that have no downside. Bad news can be acted on for
improvement; good news is confirming and satisfying, and can be used to strengthen your company's
position both internally and with your customers. A customer survey is truly a secret weapon we all
should be using in our daily battle.