Surveys
are an invaluable tool for researching the attitudes, feelings,
concerns, and priorities of your customers. By constructing a
questionnaire and collecting responses, we can draw a profile of the
group as a whole and/or gather their feedback. The survey findings can
then support fact-based continuous improvement projects aimed at
long-term competitive advantage.
The
findings from well-constructed customer surveys can provide critical
information about customers’ expectations and future needs when creating
new service and product offerings. Surveys conducted after an
interaction can monitor service delivery quality and product performance
from the customers’ viewpoint and identify those customers in need of
service recovery actions.
However,
a survey program is only valuable if the surveying effort is properly
designed and executed. A small mistake in the survey instrument or
administration can skew the data, leading to erroneous conclusions.
