Client Survey

I came across a blog post on Valeria Maltoni's Conversation Agent Blog not too long ago where she outlines the Top 10 Reasons Why Your Customers are Being Difficult. The list includes things like changing the rules, being negative and being the only game in town, but there are four I liked best. They are also, in my opinion, the easiest to rectify:

• Not listening to what customers have to say. Customer questionnaires are too structured so that you're leading the conversation, instead of giving them the opportunity to tell you what they want to tell you. Valeria makes the comparison to a trial: Objection! Leading the witness!

• Not soliciting feedback. I have to agree with Valeria on this, not asking is worse than not listening. If you're making any changes to their product, ask them first. I've mentioned before it's important to run customer surveys and conduct customer research particularly when it's a decision that is going to impact your customers big time!

• Not following up on customer feedback. I've written entire posts about how conducting any type of feedback questionnaire causes customers to set expectations that you will act on your client survey research. This should be a no-brainer, because if you're not going to act on the data you get back, why are you even wasting your time (and customers' time) with a survey?

• Not everyone is going to like you. While this one is not directly related to creating an online survey or questionnaire, it's important to keep in mind when reading through feedback. Not everyone is going to like you, and you can't please everyone. Particularly if you're one of those lucky (or unlucky) organizations to be the only game in town.