[Customer Satisfaction] Do you really know what your customers think?

You may think you do, but the best way to know for sure is to ask them. Here's how one pest management firm implemented a customer service survey and what management did with the results.

You believe you have a pretty good idea of what your customers think of your service. Few complaints come in and they are mostly unfounded. Things are good! Your customers love the service they receive from your company….

Or do they?

This question haunted Chris Caire of DA Exterminating, a New Orleans area pest control company. As part of an ISO certification mandated by a large defense contract on which the company bid, he decided to conduct a formal customer survey. In addition, he questioned his perceptions of his customers’ opinions and decided to listen to find out for sure what they thought of his service. And, he found out more than he expected.

“We had never polled our customers in the past and quite frankly, didn’t have time to do it ourselves. So we outsourced it,” Caire said. “We expected to perhaps discover new services that our customers wanted and determine what makes our customers loyal. We have served many customers for over 25 years and we wanted to understand customer issues and their relationships with our employees. And, bottom line, we wanted to achieve, establish and maintain customer loyalty among our current customers.”

SURVEY VALUE UNDISPUTED. A customer service survey, whether conducted online, by phone, e-mail or regular mail, can provide management with valuable input on both short-term and long-term decision-making, offering critical operational and strategic advantages over the competition.

Too many businesses depend on their ability to generate new customers and fail to realize the dramatic impact they could have on their bottom line if they would just stop losing the ones they already have. What can be done to improve customer satisfaction? Caire found that the data from the customer survey definitely helped. “It was some of the best money we ever spent because we had the information we needed without having to be involved in the mechanics of the project.”

In an article published in the Journal of Direct Marketing, Charles Gengler points out that “customer satisfaction research is not only a tool to measure consumer attitudes, but can also be a proactive tool for managing customer relations.” Not only can you use the survey results to implement changes to increase customer satisfaction and intent to return, but Gengler’s study also found that just soliciting a customer’s participation in a satisfaction survey could increase intent to return. Just asking for feedback indicates to the customer that the company cares about customer relations and satisfaction.

PERCEPTION IS REALITY. When surveying, it is important to remember that you are measuring customers’ perceptions and not necessarily reality, as well as understand that customer perceptions are more important than reality. This is counterintuitive but true nonetheless. Researchers Mark Davis and Janelle Heineke examined customer satisfaction and compared customer perceptions of wait time with actual waiting time in a study published in the International Journal of Service Industry Management. They found that a customer’s perception of wait time was more important than actual wait time in determining customer satisfaction. In a sense, we are each living in our own reality. A span of time that seems like a fleeting moment to one person feels like an eternity to another. Knowing how your customers perceive your service is vital to increasing customer satisfaction and intent to return.

THE VALUE OF INCENTIVES. Research shows that adding an incentive increases response rates. Several studies indicated that the use of incentives reduced item non-response and “bad answers,” such as “don’t know” or “no answer.” It also was noted in a study published by Public Opinion Quarterly that respondents who received incentives have lengthier answers to open-ended questions.

There are logical reasons for these findings. When you offer someone an incentive, they view completing the survey like returning a favor and feel obligated to do a good job. Respondents who receive an incentive are also more likely to say the survey subject matter was interesting, and this causes them to place a greater value on their task. Though it seems likely that offering an incentive would bring apathetic participants to the study, research has proven otherwise. The data quality with an incentive, therefore, actually can be considered higher than if the incentive was not offered, as respondents have put more thought into answering the survey questions.

SURVEY RESULTS. Of the 2,500 surveys DA Exterminating mailed, 27 percent were returned by the deadline (though surveys continued to trickle in for almost a year).

The survey showed DA to have a strong, loyal customer base, most of which have been their customers for more than five years. The company’s customers, on the whole, are very happy with the service they receive. Traits of friendliness, courtesy, communication and knowledge ranked high, as well as office personnel friendliness. Ninety-one percent of those responding indicated they would refer DA to others. A relatively small percentage of customers found out about DA from the Yellow Pages with most coming from referrals and other sources.

“The real value of the survey came from the hundreds of unsolicited comments, typically positive, that respondents wrote in,” Caire said. “This is where we found suggestions for improvement or additional services.”

The final comprehensive, 45-page report yielded customers’ opinions about cost, communication, office staff, service, treatment, technicians, customer service, dependability, knowledge, reliability, effectiveness and other topics. “We continue to refer to the report as we make plans for the future,” Caire said.

CHANGES MADE. Caire said he found it difficult to list all the changes made as a result of the survey. “We found out that certain technicians were mentioned repeatedly as being outstanding and helpful. We used this information as a basis for rewarding those technicians with a monetary bonus. We also learned, to our surprise, that our customers wanted to know more about us and other services we perform. They wanted more communication from us — so we are implementing a quarterly newsletter this year.”

Information from the survey also has helped DA with its marketing efforts. “We used the information from the survey to cut our Yellow Pages ads to a minimum and reallocate dollars to radio commercials, which the customers said are more effective,” he said.

Using the report as a basis to handle complaints and objections by a few customers, Caire says they informed some technicians about specific ways to improve their service.

Considering the amount of information gleaned from the report, it is important to share this information with employees. Because it came from an independent source, it is more likely to be credible and easier to accept where there are problems or areas that need improving.

All in all, Caire says he’s glad they decided to conduct the survey and found the process easier than anticipated. Listening to customers takes all kinds of methods but a written survey reassures customers that the company is interested in their opinions and is willing to listen.

The author is president of Compelling Communications, Manchester, Mo. She can be reached at 800/779-0067.

Survey logistics

So just how did DA Exterminating implement its customer service survey? The firm outsourced the job to Manchester, Mo.-based Compelling Communications, a firm that provides marketing ideas and solutions to its clients (which are small- and medium-size service companies).

A personalized letter was mailed to a random sampling explaining why the survey was being conducted. It also included a deadline for returning the survey and the incentive for completing it. DA’s Chris Caire decided to randomly target 2,500 current customers with a written survey. The one-page survey contained 11 questions, some open ended questions, some asking the respondent to rank various attributes and some to acquire demographic information. The survey and letter were mailed in a window envelope along with a postage-paid return envelope. All response envelopes were mailed directly to Compelling Communications, where the analysis was prepared.

At the bottom of the survey was a coupon incentive for a free appetizer at a new area restaurant.

June 2008
Explore the June 2008 Issue

Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.