Using Customer Surveys to Build a Better Environmental Business

by Paul Cochrane

According to some reports, companies may lose up to 30% of their customers every year.  This sobering statistic makes it imperative that companies understand their customers' wants, needs and expectations so they can continue to service all their customers, not just the remaining 70%.

Environmental and indoor air quality business professionals need to regularly engage their customers to find out how they feel about the services and products their companies provide.  One of the best ways to go about collecting this information is through the use of customer surveys.

Customer surveys allow companies to gain valuable insight into how their clients think.  This enables companies to make the necessary changes to continually improve and grow.  Surveys can enable companies to discover not only what customers think about them, but also how they are perceived against their competition.  Surveys also demonstrate to customers that a company is committed to listening to their opinions.

When building a customer survey there are important criteria to consider:

Define the Survey Target - This can vary depending on the size of a company's client base.  If the client base is large, consider segmenting the client base into categories.  These could be broken down into groups such as residential versus commercial or large versus small customers.  Surveys can even be used to target such groups as lapsed customers or new customers.

Determine Survey Format - The three primary ways to administer a survey include: mail, phone and internet. Written surveys delivered by mail should not require the respondent to answer more than 10 questions and they should be able to be completed in less than 10 to 15 minutes.   Phone surveys are a good method when the questions are probing and complex.  The most common type of survey for most companies in our industry is online surveys.  Online surveys are easy to administer and the responses can usually be automatically tabulated.  Services such as Constant Contact and Zoomerang offer online survey services for as little as $15 to $20 a month.

Develop the Proper Types of Questions - Probe for customer satisfaction in your survey questions.  Be sure to avoid imparting your bias with the language used or with the formatting of the questions, and avoid leading questions.  When possible ask open-ended questions that allow respondents to ponder their answer and hopefully provide helpful insight.  Follow-up these open ended questions with questions that ask respondents to rate your company on specific areas on a 1 to 10 scale.  A great way to finish a survey is with thanking the respondents and asking them for any final suggestions.

Use the Data - Once your survey has been administered and the results tabulated and calculated, its time to act on what you have learned.  Chances are that several themes will appear in the customers' responses.  Focus immediate attention to any themes that the company can address right away.  This is a great way for customers to see that the company has listened and likely will make for happier customers across the board.  Analyze the rest of the data and determine which areas the company can further focus on to improve the customer experience.  
The survey process should enlighten management about what their customers think about their brand and what they can do to improve the customer experience.  It should also give an understanding of the likelihood that current clients will remain customers and not switch to the competition.  Finally a well administered survey should help a company determine if they are basing their business decisions on the majority of the customer base or just a vocal minority.
Cochrane & Associates, LLC, the environmental, mold and indoor air quality industries' only dedicated marketing, public relations and business development consulting firm has been working with clients to develop customer surveys that work.  Understanding what clients want and expect from your company is essential when building your brand.  It is well worth the time and effort to regularly conduct customer surveys to answer these critical questions.
We hope you make surveys a regular part of your marketing and customer service process.  To learn more about conducting customer surveys or to learn how you can improve your customers' experiences we invite you to contact the professionals at Cochrane & Associates.