In today's economic climate most organizations are cutting back on expenses like travel, entertainment, raises, bonuses, company outings, sponsorships, free lunches, office equipment, retirement contributions and, well, basically anything that isn't mission critical. Some look at the customer survey as a potential expense that falls under this "not right now" category. However, doing so does pose a risk -

1) Identify unmet customer needs - if you don't know what your customers want, then how can you meet their needs? Simply asking your customers about their current needs and whether you are meeting them can help identify new products/services.


Sample questions: Overall, I feel that meets my needs. (Agree-Disagree Scale).

If they disagree to this question, you can add a follow-up open-ended question - What can we do to better meet your needs?

2) Build customer awareness of your full product/service line as well as any promotions or offers - if your customers don't know about your full line of offerings, then you may be missing out on incremental sales. Using a survey can be an effective way to inform customers about your full line of products/services.

Sample question: Did you know that Critical Metrics can help you with both your employee AND customer survey needs? (Yes/No)

3) Identify customers who aren't happy before it is too late. Finding out which of your customers aren't having the greatest experience with your company and addressing their issues proactively can go a long way to keep them as customers. In order to maximize the impact, you may want to start surveying customers after key milestones in their experience with your company like on completion of a project or on taking delivery of your first order.

Sample questions: Overall, how satisfied are you with the latest project we conducted for you (or latest shipment of products)? (Satisfaction scale). If dissatisfied, then you can ask this follow-up question: What can we do to improve your satisfaction in the future?

4) Make sure customers will be receptive to new offerings before investing in development. If you are thinking about offering new products or services, simply asking your customers about their needs can help you ensure there will be adequate interest in new offerings before you invest in developing them further. Just ask the following:

Sample questions: How likely would you be to use (new product description)? Or if you are looking for additional ideas, you can ask the following open-ended question: What additional features/products/services would you like to see us offer?

5) Bolster your marketing collateral - If you have satisfied customers, then the results of a survey can be used for marketing collateral. Sharing survey results such as "96% of our customers are satisfied with our company" or "94% of our clients would recommend us to others" are valuable pieces of information that can be woven into marketing materials. If you use open-ended questions, the responses can be used as short testimonials or quotes in the same materials.

Sample questions: Overall, how satisfied are you with our company? (satisfaction scale). How likely would you be to recommend our company to others? (likelihood scale).