I have a lot of clients in the highly service-oriented chauffeured car industry. They offer absolutely first-class amenities: personalized service; beautiful, clean, well-maintained vehicles; reliable, professional chauffeurs; and the safety and security of background checks, drug screens, and insurance--yet they find themselves facing challenges from on-demand, less service-oriented TNCs with fewer guarantees and lower pricing.
In a state-of-the-industry discussion at the Chauffeur Driven tradeshow in Orlando, one of my clients said, “My challenge to myself every day is – Am I Worth It?”
If you want to make sure the answer to that question is “yes,” you cannot rely solely on yourself for that answer. You need to engage your customers. You need to know their experience--and their perception--of your service, your product, your team, and even yourself. You may have some great quality programs and staff training in place, but you won’t know they’re effective until you hear from your customers.
There’s a reason Customer Satisfaction Surveys have been around a long time: giving your customers a voice is absolutely essential. In an on-demand, technology-driven world, people more than ever feel the need to be heard.
Some tips for customer surveys in the world of on-demand:
Get your survey out immediately. You better believe if there was ANYTHING remarkable about the experience, your customers are eager to talk about it. If your customers had a negative experience, give them the opportunity to get it off their chests. Now. To you. Privately. If you don’t think this is important, take a peek at Yelp, Facebook, Twitter . . . now, do you want that out THERE, or do you want to deal with it in house? And the positive side? You’ll also receive their praise while their experience is fresh – ride their high!
Make your survey brief and easy to complete. A texted or emailed survey link is great – and just a handful of questions will suffice.
Offer anonymity. Yes, request a name and contact information, but don’t make it mandatory. Honest feedback is crucial and may be hindered by the fear of recrimination or confrontation.
Follow up. Whether or not you have contact information, you may be able to trace an issue back internally and make constructive improvements. And if you do have contact information, you now have an opportunity for service recovery, or better yet: to invite a public testimonial!
Offer an enticement. All of these tips will improve your return rate, but why not a little basic bribery, right? I won’t always advocate following the example of fast-food restaurants, but I’ll bet you the majority of their survey responses are in it for the free French fries. Entering respondents in a raffle to win a gift card is a great way to get your response numbers up.
Sometimes the old ways are the best ways, even in a new world. Customer satisfaction surveys may not be cutting edge, but they provide a connection to your clients and give you an opportunity to improve your service in a cost-effective way. In business, we are often told we can’t manage what we don’t measure. In the same way, it’s difficult to improve what we don’t measure, and customer satisfaction surveys give us the data to raise our level of service and differentiate ourselves in an on-demand world.
The LMC Group offers a range of customer service support options. For more information, please contact us at info@lmc.group.