marketing & sales: Listen and Learn
3. Survey your people. Have your organization complete the survey first. You will want their perception of what your customers have to say before they hear what the customers actually said.
4. Survey your customers. Use the same survey and the same method for grading, and this step will be golden. My recommendation for the most effective method of conducting this step is to hire an outside organization to make telephone calls for you. A phone call adds a personal touch, unlike electronic or snail mail surveys. A competent telephone researcher will be able to get your customers to relax when asking them questions on the survey. In turn, your customers will give their true beliefs and feelings, which is the information you need. If you enlist one of your staff persons to do this, the respondents may not open up as freely and your results may be flawed. For most small to mid-sized organizations, actual survey results from approximately 50 of your customers should be adequate; larger organizations will want a larger sampling.
- People:
- Ed Rigsbee
- Places:
- Southern-California