A follow-up strategy is crucial to the success of your feedback program. Send an email communication to everyone who received your original survey and tell everyone what you learned from their feedback and what you plan to change. This will help those who responded AND those who didn’t respond to understand that you take feedback seriously, you are listening, and you are making changes in order to be better. Over time, your clients will trust and rely on your survey as a means to improve their relationship with you.

1. Personalize the Message: I received a survey request the other day from a phone conferencing service that I haven’t used in two years. When I opened it, it was addressed “Dear Valued Client”. Nothing tells me faster that I’m not a valued client, then an email that starts “Dear Valued Client”. It was a good reminder as to why I left them. No personalization in their service, and none in their email. Personalize the email message by including the name of the person you are sending it to and electronically sign it with the name of someone at your organization they will recognize (account rep, regional manager, etc.). We’ve seen response rates nearly double simply by making this change.
2. Shorten the Survey: When we move from a traditional customer satisfaction survey to a shortened Net Promoter-based survey of 10 questions or less, our clients’ average response rate jumps from just over 20% to nearly 35%. Make it known in your email message the number of questions in the survey. Researchers have broken the trust on telling respondents a survey will take “less than 10 minutes of their time”. It is more credible to be able to tell clients you want them to answer 7 questions about their recent experiences.
3. Turn Follow-Up Into A Game: We recommend following up by phone to those clients who haven’t responded and asking them personally if they would like to participate. Most will say yes, and it is a great excuse to talk with clients about something other than the next order. You can even turn it into a game. One of our clients conducts a 7 question NPS-based survey and recently offered an extra half day of PTO for the business units who had the highest response rate and the largest increase in responses. Their response rate jumped from 25% to nearly 40% and they had engagement from all levels of the organization.

Within the professional service environment, clients make a conscious decision about their willingness to participate in your client satisfaction survey. The equation, in my experience, is simply the ratio of perceived value (enhanced service, etc.) to the perceived amount of time spent (cost). I use the term perceived multiple times for a reason. The perception is truly reality here and there are things you can do to improve the perception of value (pre-survey description of the client program, follow-up letter describing what was learned, etc.) and the perception of time spent (our subject lines often include the actual number of questions, such as “two questions about your recent experience with us). If you have designed a brief survey, do everything in your power to get the benefit of that in your response rate.

Finally, the most important mistake that professional service firms make with their surveys is assuming they need to come up with 3 action items and implement them across the firm, and across multiple offices. While there may be a few “global” changes that come from survey findings, the most important step (often overlooked) is to get the information to the people who can change it. If Jane feels like she doesn’t get a quick enough response, Jane’s professional contact in the firm should a) know that, b) act on that, and c) be held accountable for improving Jane’s perception. It is that simple, it is that direct, and it is that important.

Customers do not want spend time answering surveys. Completing a survey that takes longer than the delivery of the service in question is annoying. The mere act of sending a customer a survey can so greatly annoy some people that it tarnishes the company’s brand. Thus, customers often race through surveys to get them over with, and their haphazard responses are a precursor to the collateral damage that will result from relying on such information.

I certainly agree that this is a concern with customer surveys.  However, in a professional services, or B2B environment, when the relationship is one-to-one, personalized and ongoing, we find respondents make a tradeoff between the time they spend answering the questions and their perceived future value (based on whether they believe their feedback will invoke changes in the company).  In fact, if done correctly, it should increase loyalty and retention, as indicated in this short Harvard Business Review article.

Excessive soliciting of feedback will inevitably result in criticism. Unwarranted criticism is most likely to be evoked when people believe that their ability to criticize is a sign of their intelligence. A serious problem arises when this criticism shakes the employees’ confidence. This criticism can demotivate sales people and render them less effective.

We find just the opposite, and I feel that this is addressing the exception – not the rule.  In regards to this we have far more instances where our clients have felt the feedback helped the employees take pride in their service delivery, and the results have even been utilized to help recognize outstanding service delivery, where it wasn’t recognized prior.

Some customers are not worth having. The peril in soliciting extensive feedback is that the most critical and demanding suggestions are likely to come from customers who offer the company diminishing prospects for profitable returns.

This can be true – and should be considered outside of the context of customer surveys as well.  That being said, we have found that when given the opportunity, more than one-third of professional service firm clients will opt out of anonymity…..providing the opportunity to weigh the concerns against the value of the client and make an informed decision about how to proceed.

Customers who are only moderately disappointed with a company may become irate when their concerns are not addressed. Thus, companies that rely on extensive surveys are faced with a dilemma: either bend to the customers’ wishes or suffer their wrath when failing to do so.

This point I agree with wholeheartedly.  While we have found that customers don’t always expect EVERY concern they have to be addressed, they absolutely expect (and deserve) to have their concerns heard and acknowledged.  Don’t ask the question if you don’t want to know the answer, or aren’t prepared to take action to address the concerns.  This often overlooked piece alone can change a traditional survey into a true retention and loyalty improvement.

“The survey research and marketing industries need to recognize that the Internet and cellphones, not landlines, are likely to be the wave of the future for contacting” 18- to 29-year-olds, the Rochester, N.Y., public-opinion company said in a news release. Humphrey Taylor, chairman of the Harris Poll, cited the results in an email to me as “further evidence of the reliabilty of our online data — validated by an impeccable source.” He added, “Quite soon landline penetration will surely be lower than Internet penetration.” And people without landlines can still potentially be reached online. I often get the question……phone versus email for client or employee survey?

The answer in a professional service environment obviously depends on what types of questions you are looking to answer, but for most general client loyalty and satisfaction surveys, in my opinion, it is online. There are certainly those who would prefer to give their feedback but Inavero’s experience is that number is dropping every year.  When doing a mixed mode survey, our phone calls are twice as likely to yield requests for another email than a completed survey.

Clients want to respond when it is convenient for them; not when it is convenient for us. I am sometimes amazed at the market research industry. In marketing overall, the consumer has clearly begun to dictate the when, who and how of marketing communication – why would research be any different? While marketers scramble to find ways to better engage their target audience, market researchers resort to paying more for less reliable data than ever. Now, more than ever, you must engage your audience with concise, focused surveys about topics and relationships they care about. Remember, if your clients and employees don’t think anything will happen based on their feedback, they won’t take the time. Would you?