Most people recoil when hearing the words client satisfaction survey, normally with good reason as someone waves a clipboard at them or sends them an impossibly long web form or document. Even worse – they probably only do this once a year?!
Let’s get smarter – it really shouldn’t be like this. Annual surveys are a waste of time (damage is already done) and customers don’t like filling in forms – so let’s make it easy for them.
I used to work for an agency which got it right.
Every two weeks, they’d send an email to their principle clients, each working on projects at that time. On the email was a simple traffic light scheme. They were simply asked to click the relevant button:
Purple - I’d like to award a gold star to my account team.
Action taken – Account team rewarded.
Green - Things are going OK – we love you guys.
Action taken – greens noted and recorded.
Amber - I’m a bit concerned we’re off track.
Action taken – immediate call to client from account director to find out where concerns are.
Red - I’m really unhappy with progress.
Action taken - lights and sirens would go off, cries of “I’ve got a red one” would be heard across the office. Within hours of receipt, the MD would call the client personally to figure out what was wrong and to put a plan in place for resolution.
This was such an excellent way of working – you catch clients before they walk off in a huff and stop paying bills, you reward account teams for great work and you can very simply analyse trends across the business.
Why not try it today?! (oh and please get rid of the giant forms too!)
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