How To Use Surveys To Increase Customer Satisfaction

Most service providers believe they're doing a good job for their clients, until the clients stop doing business with them. If you've ever been blind-sided by a long-term customer leaving you for a competitor or had a promising new account mysteriously drift away after just one or two engagements, you already know the importance of getting timely, actionable feedback on your products and services.

The most proven way to get this kind of customer input is through immediate and on-going customer surveys. But, while modern survey software like Survey Monkey™, Zoomerang™ and others have made it easier to deploy customer surveys, stand-alone applications like these are not integrated with your existing business management software or processes. That means you have to remember to send out the surveys every time you complete a service – and that means you'll have another set of tasks to consume your valuable time. That's why most service providers don't engage in customer surveys – or do so in an ad hoc and sporadic basis – and why their client retention and profitability are lower than they could be.

Fortunately, customer survey and benchmarking tools specifically developed for the IT services industry are now available, and the best of them can automate the entire process because they are fully integrated with affordable software you can use to run your entire business. As the IT services industry becomes increasingly congested with providers and competitors, becoming more efficient through automation is essential, as is ensuring customer retention and loyalty.