Client Surveys

Opinions Count

In less than two decades we have moved from the computer age (processing data faster) to the information age (understanding data and trends) and onward into the communications age (sharing information so we can do something productive with it). People want to be heard now more than ever before. Are you ready to hear what your clients have to say, and if so, are you ready and willing to adjust your practice to accommodate your clients’ wishes?

People want to be heard

Your clients are no different from anyone else. They, like most all of us, wish to be heard, but they often lack a polite, upbeat, face-saving forum for doing it. They may also be reluctant to offer their time and feedback to you for fear that the information they provide will not be liked or believed, and therefore not heeded. They not only need to be heard, they need to know that they are heard by receiving your feedback on their feedback.

To obtain and maintain effective, timely information about how your clients feel and what they really want requires your initiative to provide the right questions and the appropriate forum for answering them. Conducting regular client surveys may provide your best source of marketing information ever.

Client Surveys

Client surveys can take many types and styles. When asking for personal introductions from your best clients and centers, leading a one–on-one conversation about your business relationship can work remarkably well to find out just how your client expects and wants to be treated. A mini board of directors comprised of clients (sometimes in specific target markets) can help you keep your finger on the pulse of your evolving clientele. Conducting focus groups of people representative of your client base works well too. Sending questionnaires or "report cards" for your clients to tell you how you are doing with them is also effective.

The major differences between styles of communicating are easy to see when you compare letters, newsletters, announcements and bulletins with calls, voice mail, meetings and surveys. The first group conveys messages, the second set discusses issues. So the focus here is on conducting client surveys—report cards you employ as the basis for developing meaningful marketing dialogues with your clients to raise and discuss important issues.

Which client feedback method you employ is your choice; the only sin would be to guess, rather than know, how your clients perceive your performance compared to their expectations. The choices you make about how to obtain good client feedback should consider the types of clients you have, how they are accustomed to communicating, how they are used to hearing from you and communicating with you.

It isn’t what you don’t know that hurts you;
it’s what you know for sure…that just ain’t so.

Report Cards

Generally, you should seek to discover two things:

1. how your clients rate you now in certain key areas of concern
2. trends in how your clients feel

To learn how your clients rate you, conduct a survey. To spot trends, conduct regular, periodic surveys and compare results over time. Here are some tips.

• Offering clients anonymity in your survey is not recommended. In fact, this common error is not necessary and will complicate the survey psychologically if you try to guess who sent in those critical responses that got your back up. If you receive anonymous critical responses and try hard not to guess who sent them in, or quietly guess wrong, the harm can be serious to important relationships--and unmerited. Obviously, anonymity precludes your being able to fix individual problems by forcing you to respond only to the collective input and not violate the anonymity you’ve offered. It just does not work because your normal human tendency would be to over-interpret critical-sounding data and comments, misread their meaning or deny what the data and comments suggest. Dialogue is needed to resolve issues, and your survey should raise the issues you should be talking about with your clients.
  
  
• A report card is not just a questionnaire--it is a method for developing meaningful dialogue with your clients. The steps to developing and using a report card with your client are pretty straightforward.
  
  
  • decide what you want to know
  • formulate your questions
  • format the questions (yes or no, true or false, rate on a scale, write out a response, etcetera)
  • produce the questionnaire (the layout, customized to fit your image)
  • mail the report card to clients with a compelling cover letter
  • call responders to say thanks, taking the opportunity to fix problems they raised or make additional progress in key areas of concern
  • call non-responders and ask for their valued input
  • log/tabulate the data
  • summarize the data
  • interpret the data
  • decide your courses of action
  • report back to clients on general findings and what you are going to do in response
  • repeat every 6 to 12 months
    
    
• When surveys are addressed to each individual client, the source of each response is known and the client knows this. Responders are called and thanked. People with problems are contacted immediately to resolve the problems. Non-responders are called and asked to participate, if only to encourage them to participate next time.
  
  
• A semiannual client letter can mention significant findings in the surveys and steps you are taking to improve your practice, all of which is good news for clients who want to know that your advisory services are keeping up with the times. Clients will feel that they are participating, and this helps keep the lines of communication open, frank and mutually productive. It also helps you continue to inform your clients of the full range of services you provide, reminding them of things they are apt to forget.

In all, client surveys--whether they take the form of report cards, questionnaires or some other media--are excellent for keeping up with your clients’ attitudes in changing times.

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