In Part One of this blog, we established the basics of tracking customer satisfaction. Part Two covers the differences between a relationship-based or a transaction-based approach to tracking satisfaction. Plus, we’ll also talk about writing persuasive email introductions for your surveys.
If you missed Part One, you can find it here.
Relationship vs Transaction-Based Approach
Choose a relationship-based approach to tracking satisfaction if you are planning to contact the same people several times over a year. Starting from your initial approach, you need to acknowledge that this is an ongoing process. This approach works best as part of a long-term partnership.
Don’t be afraid to take a slightly emotional approach, telling customers that everyone can improve what they are doing. Thank customers for the baseline feedback they provided previously and let them know how it has led to the survey in front of them.
Make sure it’s clear that you are only asking for three to five minutes of your customer’s time with your tracking surveys.
Transaction-based satisfaction tracking is focused on an event or a big purchase, for example. The latter often applies in the B2B space. This approach also works well when you are, for example, producing a series of four major corporate events for your clients.
After each event, you ask your contacts to give you a few minutes of their time to complete a satisfaction tracking survey. The survey invitation works both after the transaction or after the event itself. Which option you choose depends on your KPIs.
(You can listen to the full episode of the podcast below.)
Getting it Right – the Importance of the Email Invitation
It’s impossible to overstate the importance of the email invitation for your customer satisfaction surveys.
Think about it this way – you are asking to take up your customers’ time several times a year. To do this successfully, you need to give a good reason. Here are some pointers that help persuade recipients to take part in your survey:
- Lessons learned: let your customers know what you learned from their baseline survey answers and what you’re doing with them. Everyone likes to know that their efforts in answering your questions have made a difference.
- Share your insights: tell recipients what you learned from the previous surveys. Highlight some of the most important nuggets of information you received from all respondents and what you are using these insights for.
- Benefits to customers: make it clear how their answers are transforming the service you deliver to them. Going back to our example of a series of corporate events, it’s important to let customers know how the feedback from event one has impacted event two.
Without demonstrating the value of the survey, response rates will drop.
Bringing it All Together
When measuring KPIs, they must align with previous measurements to be comparable. Perhaps you have used a five-point scale? Continue using that. In the B2B space, it’s also critical to understand who is responding to your questions. The main distinction here is between senior or junior level personnel.
Make sure you’re sharing the results with your staff. Therefore, allowing them to see the impact their changes have already made on customers is highly motivating and empowering. Lastly, remember that the information you share needs to be tailored to the person reading it and to the frequency of reporting. A monthly 60-page slide deck is overwhelming. However, a one-page summary highlighting progress made will be well received.
Over the course of a year, you will be able to track satisfaction clearly by using these pointers.
Additional Resources
FOR EXPERIENTIAL MARKETERS
- Experiential Measurement Blueprint
- Event Impression Calculator
- Experiential ROI Benchmarking Reports
- Event Measurement Video Tutorials