How to Turn Customers into Valuable Business Partners?

See the added value in your customers

In today’s world, it is remarkably easy to gather information about customers. A proven and effective method for gauging customer satisfaction is through the use of smart surveys.

A well-crafted smart survey will allow you to get to the core beliefs and values of your consumers.

But even though today’s businesses have an exponential amount of data available at their fingertips, this data is useful only in so much that it helps a business to create positive change.

Here are five suggestions for using satisfaction surveys to improve the overall performance of your company.

Measure performance at every step of the customer journey

A single survey will provide your business with a clear picture of your customers’ views at any given time.

But through repeated use of surveys you can create a story of your customer, one in which you clearly track their experience at each step of engagement with your product or service.

Surveys enable you to gather, analyze, and assess measurable hard data throughout a customer’s journey which will enable your company to make necessary improvements.

You could think you are meeting your customers needs but without real-time, tangible data, you really won’t know how you are measuring up.

Segment customers by level of satisfaction

B2B international reports that there are three customer satisfaction “zones”, into one of which a customer will fall at any given time: the zone of defection, the zone of indifference, and the zone of loyalty.

Of course, the higher the level of satisfaction you achieve, the more likely it is you will safeguard customer loyalty.

But if you aren’t checking in with your customers from time-to-time, you will be shooting in the dark, unsure of which zone a customer falls into.

Customer satisfaction surveys will shed a light on each customer’s level of satisfaction, an especially important consideration with small businesses for whom the customer pool is relatively small.

Make customer-centricity your company culture

Customer surveys will provide you with feedback – both positive and negative – to better understand the internal operations of your company, to see more clearly what is working and what needs to improve.

If a business claims to be customer-centric, management must ensure a clear vision of customer-centricity.

But, if this vision is to be carried out, there must be centricity among all parties: customer-service reps, sales people, website designers, etc.

In other words, companies must ensure that customer-centricity is fully realized at all levels of a business’s infrastructure.

Satisfaction surveys enable you to evaluate how well customer-centricity is carried out at all levels of a company.

Customers will provide you with an objective, third-party evaluation to troubleshoot inconsistencies or problems within your company’s operational framework.

Show your customers that you care

Customers want to know that the people whom they do business with are listing. And they want to share their opinions, especially in today’s social media saturated world.

Asking your customers to share their opinions shows that you care about what they think and want to take into account their views so that you can deliver the best possible service or product.

Moreover, surveys mitigate the chance an unhappy customer may take to publicly complain about your business.

And, as plenty of research demonstrates, companies with a bad reputation for customer service are likely to see a sharp decline in sales compared to those who are perceived to be more available and responsive.

So, simply put, gather your data, analyze the results, and implement a plan based on those results. Don’t be afraid to let your customers help you design and/or refine how your business works.

With satisfaction surveys, your customers will become some of your most thoughtful and useful business consultants.