Customer satisfaction and loyalty surveys - evaluate your effectiveness

Key information:

• Customer satisfaction and loyalty surveys are essential for the proper operation and development of a company, allowing us to assess the quality of services and efficiency of operations.

• Satisfied customers will not only return, but may also recommend the company to others, which creates what is known as whisper marketing.

• Companies with a monopoly should also conduct research, as the loss of a monopoly position can lead to large losses.

• Customer loyalty is not only the absence of complaints, but also their involvement in promoting the brand to other consumers.

• Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the primary indicator used to measure customer loyalty.

• Surveys should be conducted regularly in order to react quickly to problems and adjust offerings to market needs.

• Responding to customer feedback is key, increasing customer engagement and improving perceptions of the company.

Consumer research as a key to success

The strategy of acquiring and keeping loyal, regular customers with you often proves to be more effective and beneficial than acquiring new ones for two simple reasons. The immediate benefit of using such tactics is the following. limitation of expenses related to advertising and marketing. An indirect, but no less important, advantage of embracing such a strategy is that some satisfied customers, in addition to using the offered service again, will also recommend it to friends, readers of an online forum or users of a social networking site, where they will speak positively about it - this is the so-called whisper marketing. To achieve such results, you need to turn to consumer research.

Customer satisfaction and loyalty surveys - what and how?

Conducting customer satisfaction and loyalty surveys is an essential activity for the proper operation and development of a business. In simple terms, the results of customer satisfaction and loyalty surveys are a reflection of the quality of a company's services and the effectiveness of its operations. There is a correlation between them and focus group research, such as the fact that they allow you to look at your own company from the consumer's perspective. For more information on customer satisfaction and loyalty surveys, refer to our previous article. They involve learning about customer opinions and the degree to which they are attached to a particular brand, but it's how you do them and what you do with the results that determines their success.

Who should perform them and when?

As a general rule, conducting these studies is recommended for companies that do not have a monopoly on a particular product or service, but any company that cares about development and improvement should conduct them. Many companies holding a monopoly or enjoying a temporary lack of competition assume that customers need not be particularly happy with the cooperation, since they are doomed to it anyway. However, it should be remembered that a monopoly can be lost, in which case it will not be easy to repair a tarnished reputation in a short period of time and overcome resentment among customers, who will choose the newly-established competition in the hope of a higher quality of service.

Satisfaction vs. loyalty

Before performing the previously mentioned research, it is important to realize the separability and specificity of the terms "satisfaction" and "loyalty" as used in relation to customers. A loyal customer is necessarily also a satisfied customer - barring the absence of available competition, but loyalty is much more than that. A satisfied customer is one who will not complain about the experience with our company and is somewhat likely to return to us, while a loyal customer is one who identifies with the brand and promotes it to other consumers. It's also worth remembering that Krakow wasn't built in an instant, and customer satisfaction is the key to achieving customer loyalty.

How to do it?

Customer satisfaction and loyalty surveys are usually done in the form of a survey, and the easiest way to do it is to provide it to the customer electronically. The primary indicator used to measure customer loyalty is the Net Promoter Score (NPS), and this is what we should use in our survey. This is a simple system in which respondents give a company or a specific service a rating on a scale of 1 to 10 points. In addition to obtaining NPS scores, it is worthwhile to allow the respondent to express his opinion and justify the rating given in the previous question. To do this, include an open-ended question in the survey and ask the respondent to describe in it the reasons for giving such and not another rating. It is very important not to inundate the customer with questions, because in such a situation the probability increases that he will simply not answer them.

The important role of communication

A key issue in performing customer satisfaction and loyalty surveys is the continuity of the surveys, because if we do them too infrequently we are not able to respond to problems quickly enough. A good strategy is to survey a small fraction of our customers on a daily basis, which provides constant access to up-to-date information and an overall picture. Because what good is it if we find out in April that the skis we sold in December were crooked and the salesman was abusive, if the December customers have long since crossed off our company and gone to the competition?

The culminating activity of the entire survey process is to respond to customer feedback, because simply knowing that changes are needed is not enough to make a real difference. It is also worth making the customer aware of the inclusion of their opinion, as this will positively affect the perception of the brand. This can be done, for example, by saying thank you in a high-rating situation or expressing remorse in the opposite situation. In both cases, it is also worth asking the reason.

Since you are working hard for the success of your business, you need to monitor the results of your efforts. Customer satisfaction and loyalty surveys will show whether you are running your business in the direction you want.