Ask people their opinion and they are usually more than willing to give it to you.

Smart businesses are constantly asking questions of their customers. A lot can be gained by asking customers about their experience when they do business with you.

You need to understand the value of a customer experience so you can provide a way to help a local business capitalise on such information.

Just as you can be the source for setting the process up for these businesses, you’re also setting yourself up to be their ongoing resource for interpretation of results. What you’re creating is an ongoing source of valuable information, a kind of perpetual research engine.

As a business builds transaction records of customers, it might also capture customer records of lost customers through cancelled appointments, etc. A lost customer file is also a great resource of learning for a business.

One of the additional services that we are offering business clients is the ability to set up a customer experience survey process. We are adding this as a service for large contract advertisers, or making it available for a set-up fee and a monthly ongoing fee.

The process is simple and flexible. The questionnaire is designed and set up as a Google Form. The survey can be executed in person as a live interview via a tablet or smartphone. Or, it can be e-mailed and self-administered on any device by the respondent via a link to the survey.

Another solid valuable piece to the business client is the fact that with Google Forms, the moment a respondent survey is submitted, the results can be aggregated and displayed as simple charts that are available for viewing immediately.

Including fields that also either capture or are pre-populated with the customers’ postal and e-mail addresses provide valuable variables that can be used to further segment results and then actively reengage in messaging if so desired.

With the customers’ postal addresses connected to their responses, you can now append PRIZM codes and segment customer responses by customer types. For example, PRIZM codes might enable you to determine if younger, less affluent customers answered questions differently than more mature, more affluent customers.

Information like that can help build out future strategies about consumer behaviour and attitudes that continue to improve the customer experience.

Having an e-mail address on the records provides an opportunity to engage in action messaging if desired. You could thank each individual for taking the time to provide you with valuable information regarding the experience with your business and address particular issues or opportunities at the same time.

The ability to offer such services to our business clients and either charge a fee for small advertising clients or roll the service into a package of added value for our largest clients just makes the relationship stronger by delivery more value and insight to the client relationship.

The fact that it is simple and fast to construct and execute, puts little to no strain on resources, and delivers information that continues the ongoing discussion required in account relationship management today are huge benefits. And, there are cases where you can make some incremental money at it too.

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