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Experiencing the Economic Rollercoaster?
Survive by Keeping a Finger on Your Customer's Pulse
Pick up a newspaper or click to a news website, and the economic news may be wildly up or down depending on when you last checked it. In this dramatically changing economy, it's more important than ever to get ongoing feedback from your customers.
Here's the good news: You can survive (even thrive in) a recession because as a small business you have the ability to be very nimble. While changing direction for large corporations can be a bit like turning a battleship, small businesses are the speed boats that can react quicker to changes in customer needs, perceptions, and behaviors. That gives you a huge advantage to stay vital and stand out ahead of the competition in this economy.
But you can only make real-time adjustments to your business if you have information on what your customers are thinking and feeling right now!
Drip Intelligence Keeps Business Flowing
Don't wait to do an annual survey to find out what key indicators are affecting your business this month or this quarter.
In this kind of economy, it's more important to be getting a constant flow of customer feedback. It's called "drip intelligence" and it gives you customer feedback on a regular basis. If you ask the right questions, the feedback you'll get will be easily actionable, timely, and will give you a leg up against your competition.
It's simple to do. Simply include one customer feedback question in every email newsletter you send. Here is how it might work.?
4 Questions That Take Your Customer's Pulse
If you're publishing a quarterly email newsletter, insert a link to one of these questions in each newsletter. If your email newsletter goes out monthly, do the same thing and then start the cycle over again the fifth month, repeating each of the four questions in sequence. Compare your results to the first communication and track your results over time.
Month 1: Your customer's perception of the products/services you provide
Q. What is your overall level of satisfaction with our products/services?
Single select multiple choice answer options - highly satisfied, somewhat satisfied, neutral, somewhat dissatisfied, highly dissatisfied.
Include a comment box so people can explain why they rated you as they did.
Month 2: Your customer's perception of your approachability
Q. If you had a need for the services that we provide, how likely would you be to turn to us first?
Single select multiple choice answer options - highly likely, somewhat likely, neutral, somewhat unlikely, highly unlikely.
Include a comment box so people can explain why they rated you as they did.
Month 3: Your customer's propensity to tell others about you
Q. How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague?
Rating scale - Very likely, somewhat likely, neutral, somewhat unlikely, very unlikely.
Include a comment box to find out why respondents rated you as they did.
Month 4: How you can provide even better service
Please provide suggestions for improving our products/services. Open-ended text box.
Month 5: Start over again at Month 1
Follow-up on Your Customer Pulse Survey Results
Once you have your results...
Thank respondents for their participation. Send a special email to all of the people who answered the survey, thanking them for taking the time to share their thoughts with you.
Share your survey results. Once you've made business adjustments based on what you learned from your survey question, report those changes back to your customers in your next communication. Let them know you're not only listening but you're acting based on what customers want and need. And let them know how other survey respondents who shared their concerns answered the question. There's comfort in numbers during times like these.
Write smarter, better newsletter content. It also goes back to something Constant Contact coaches our subscribers on every day: writing really good content that speaks to their customers' wants and needs. The more you know about your customers and their interests, the more you can tailor the content of your email marketing communications to hit on the topics of most importance to them at that point in time.
Track your results over time. As the economy changes, so will your customers' answers to survey questions. Track these changes and make adjustments that help your business stay vital, current, in touch with customers and ahead of the competition.
To sum up...
- It's critical, to get inside and stay inside the hearts and minds of your customers.
- You are uniquely suited to win in this environment if you stay connected to your customers.
- By getting feedback, you not only gain critical information to help you adapt quickly to changes in customers' perceptions about your business, but you also can stay one step ahead of your competition.
The closer you are to your customers-the more you're seeking their feedback and answering their questions-the more likely they are to turn to you when they need the products or services you offer. Customers will see you as someone they have a relationship with-someone who cares about their needs, appreciates their hardships, and wants to know what they think.
In difficult times in the economy, customers would much rather buy from a business that they have a good relationship with than from one they don't. Keep their pulse? Keep their business.
