Perfecting the shop customer satisfaction survey

Jan. 1, 2020
Simply put, happy customers generate higher sales and profits, and customer service surveys measure our customers’ overall satisfaction. But where should you start?

Whether it is one of those little cards we stick on our customer’s front seat, an email follow-up inquiring as to the quality of our service or a follow-up phone call, most of us are aware of and have occasionally performed customer service surveys. Repair shop owners and managers have long understood that happy and satisfied customers lead to improved sales and higher profits, though far too often we are not listening to what these surveys are telling us and miss out on opportunities to better understand and meet customer expectations. Surveys have proven to be one of the most effective tools for measuring customer satisfaction.

Customer satisfaction surveys can measure customer attitudes toward many aspects of our business, including service experience, perceptions of quality, marketing effectiveness, pricing and employee competence. In addition, they can measure customer satisfaction and tendencies toward loyalty. Shop owners and managers can use the data collected from a survey to make adjustments to offered products, services and our customer process, to better meet our customers’ needs.

Surveys also build good will, because they show that we care about our customer’s opinions and experiences. Customer surveys are ideal for shops that wish to understand what our customers are experiencing, gauge the effectiveness of our marketing and selling techniques as well as understand what we do well and what we need to improve upon. They assist us in developing tactics and strategies toward improvement and are an effective way of test marketing new services. Surveys are a very direct insight into what our customers want and what they are experiencing.

Simply put, happy customers generate higher sales and profits, and customer service surveys measure our customers’ overall satisfaction. Customer service surveys can help us retain long-time customers by identifying their needs and concerns. They also help transform new customers into loyal established customers by demonstrating our concern for their service experience and satisfaction. Surveys offer insights into customer attitudes that may otherwise go unnoticed, shining a much-needed light on our business strengths, weaknesses and challenges for the future.

Where Do I Start?
Let’s face it, we are surveyed to death, and while our customers are somewhat less likely to fill out mailed surveys, the response rate still can be very good. It is imperative that these surveys are simple to fill out and are not confusing or overly lengthy. On one hand, our customers are responsive to mailed out surveys because they know and like us (hopefully), and because they can be filled out at a time of their choosing. However, it can be very easy for mailed surveys to be lost in the mounds of junk mail each of us receives every day, causing the response rate to suffer.

Telephone surveys can be especially effective when surveying consumers about recent shop experiences, but it is extraordinarily important to avoid being mistaken for a telemarketer. Anyone representing a shop doing a customer service survey must identify themselves quickly so that our customers clearly understand the purpose of the call. Most customers actually feel good about follow-up calls, especially if they had questions or concerns coming out of their visit.

The state of customer service out in the broad world is so poor, that even the slightest efforts toward care and concern is likely to get a great response. Even more so is if you actually care about your customers and would actually do something to address concerns or issues that would come up. These phone surveys often are the last opportunity to salvage a relationship when a customer has suffered a bad service experience. In doing a phone survey, we must listen and respond aggressively.

The next and fast emerging area in our doing customer surveys is new and very different from mailed or telephone surveys, and that would be email combined with the many mobile tools now available. These great tools allow us to send timely surveys right to our customers’ cell phones. With the combination of email, smartphones, social media and emerging mobile technology, we have greatly enhanced abilities to reach out. This is where a great many of our customers and would-be customers spend time, and for that reason alone, we have to be there as well.

In 2011, for the first time ever, more people signed onto the Internet via a mobile device than a desktop computer, and that trend is both increasing and accelerating. Customer surveys to be effective need to follow suit. Survey applications such as Question Pro and Survey Monkey have taken that leap along with familiar names like Mitchell, NAPA Tracs and R.O. Writer, now providing cutting edge mobile enabled survey tools.

Did You Know?
Let’s take a look at some statistics that might make you pause.

  • 75 percent of online adults 18 to 24 have a profile on a social network site
  • 57 percent of online adults 25 to 34 have a profile on a social network
  • 30 percent of online adults 35 to 44 have one
  • 19 percent of online 45 to 54 year olds
  • 10 percent of online 55 to 64 year olds and…
  • 7 percent of online adults 65 and older… I think you get the picture.

It’s a trend that your suppliers are noticing, too.  

“Mitchell’s Customer Experience Management solution, powered by AutocheX, a module in the company’s shop management solution, RepairCenter, helps shops track their Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) and translate CSI into focused action plans,” says Jim O’ Leary, Mitchell’s vice president of Repair Solutions. “Mitchell’s vision for CSI is to enable shops to be an even more powerful force in driving customer satisfaction in the automotive repair industry, with the goal of understanding, measuring, creating and retaining the purely satisfied customer. Shops’ relationships with their customers are changing today with Net Promoter Scores (NPS), Brand Passion Indexing, the empowered consumer, voice-of-the-customer, SocialCRM and digital marketing. Mitchell can speak directly to how shops are putting the customer experience at the center of the equation and profiting as a result.”

How Do I Use It?
Surveying our customers is very serious business. Companies like Mitchell are helping shop owners do the heavy lifting and providing results that allow shop owners to respond intelligently and in meaningful ways.

Using carefully crafted questions, customer service surveys can measure an individual’s attitude toward many aspects of our shop operation. In addition, they can also measure customer loyalty and overall satisfaction by defined group or demographic. These questions provide the ability to analyze results and provide direction and opportunities to change and react, based on what the surveys are telling us.

For a customer service satisfaction survey, demographics may include a variety of variables which would classify customers, such as location, education level, profession or employment status, age, service need, gender and buying habits. Shop owners and managers can use the data collected from a survey to make adjustments to how we meet and greet our customers, how we market, how we sell and what types of services we offer to better meet our customer’s needs and expectations. Surveys also build good will because they show that we care enough about our customer’s opinions and experiences to ask them how they feel. It is certainly hoped that we are listening and responding to the things these surveys are telling us.

Customer satisfaction surveys validate the things we do right, let us know the things that we need to do better, taking the guesswork out of this critical process. They are a clear path to happy and satisfied customers.  

Walt Disney said, “Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.” Whose friends are showing up at your counter?

The answer is a survey away.

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