Customer Polling: The Ultimate Branding Opportunity!

How Do Your Customers Rate You? Why not ask them and pick up some brownie points along the way?

One of the hardest things to do in any business is hear the truth about your level of service, the quality of your products and so on. While any glowing feedback can be highly gratifying, any negative feedback can tear on the reigns of your soul. I mean, this is your business. How can anyone say anything negative about it? You’re doing the best you can, right? Of course you are, however, it doesn’t really matter how you perceive your performance, does it? It is really all about how your customer perceives you. And you’ll never know how they feel unless you give them the opportunity to tell you. Sure some of them might write you a short email or tell you over the phone or in person, but the richness of the feedback just won’t be up to par. Most people feel put out by giving constructive criticism to anyone unless it is solicited.

Once a year, why not give your clients that opportunity by asking for their comments? Later in this piece I’ll tell you how you can in fact turn this exercise into a powerful marketing/branding campaign as well!

A great way to take the pulse of your customer base is through a short email questionnaire or printed/snail-mailed version that includes a self-addressed, stamped return envelope. Here are some key questions you might ask:

1. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being highest), what is your level of satisfaction with our product/service?
2. Would you feel comfortable recommending our product/service to someone else?
3. How can we improve our product/service?

These are simply a few key questions you can ask that will give you a true gauge of your performance. Once you have this rich data, what should you do about it? Well, you have two opportunities here. First, you can improve upon your business based on the feedback received. Second, you have a tremendous marketing/branding opportunity before you! Make a few simple fixes (if not more substantial ones) and report back to your entire client base notifying them that you heard their concerns and made the necessary improvements… “because their opinion counts!”

Another good branding opportunity lies in the form of a new “give us your comments” section of your website. If you grant clients the opportunity to comment on your performance, they will, and you then have the ability to address those concerns and promote your improvements. At the same time you will also pick up some good will.

This is a simple, yet easy to execute, marketing opportunity. Customers love to know that you hear their concerns, and they love to know even more that their idea/comment was important enough to prompt corrective action on your part.

So don’t be afraid to ask your clients how they rate you, your products/services. It not only gives you the ability to improve, but it also affords you a wonderful marketing/branding opportunity!

Kevin B. Levi
Winning Message LLC.
www.winningmessage.com