Are you forgetting these important stakeholders in your client satisfaction surveys?
Client satisfaction surveys have long proved their worth in collecting valuable feedback for a company, but that feedback only goes as far as the people who hear it.
Are you including the right people in your feedback strategy?
Client satisfaction surveys do not only provide a benefit to the people who run the company. Surveys provide valuable insight into every aspect of the client experience, and you need to be prepared to use their comments to maintain your strong points and boost your weak areas.
When it comes to sharing feedback and deciding how to leverage it, don’t overlook these four authorities that can transform your customer feedback loop into your company’s next success story:
4 Stakeholders to Empower in Your Client Feedback Strategy
Sales & Customer Service
As the beating heart to your bottom line, your sales and customer service teams should be among the first to learn what customers have to say about your company.
In discovering how clients feel about particular experiences, your surveys can reveal the pain points that your products alleviated, reasons why customers continue to do business with you, what they liked or disliked about the sales process, and a host of other information that your salespeople can use to continually hone their sales strategy to boost their closing rates.
Research & Development
Using your customers as an extension of your R&D department can help to deliver valuable products and services your customers truly care about, rather than wasting resources on developing useless features.
Client suggestions on how you can improve or add to your products or services should go straight to your research and development team to see which suggestions are the most probable (and profitable). Your R&D department already knows how to build and test new features, but the more you include them in client communications, the better they can prepare themselves to deliver exactly what your customers want.
Human Resources
HR affects your customers’ experiences every day, mainly through the talent your company has selected to represent its brand.
Recruiters need to know how outsiders view the company so they can be prepared either to leverage a solid reputation or defend a negative one during recruiting efforts. In addition, if surveys reveal a particular area of your company is suffering, your HR team will be better prepared to help find the right people that can turn those departments in a better direction.
Clients
Your clients provide you with feedback in a variety of ways, from formal surveys to unsolicited social media and Google reviews. But only 31% of people feel their input is used effectively. Let your clients know that you have not only heard their opinions, but also what actions your company is taking to address their feedback.
If you are gathering feedback via social media or online reviews, you can easily reach out on an individual basis. However, if you are relying on anonymous surveys to generate a bird’s eye view of client opinions, you may want to consider compiling data and releasing a report stating the results of the survey and your planned course of action. You can email the report to your clients, or simply make it visible on your website.
Every person in your company, from the front desk receptionist to the President, has a vested interest in the success of your business (their jobs depend on it, right?). If you want to use your feedback in the best possible way, make sure you share survey results with the people who can apply that information to your company’s advantage. Gathering feedback is important, but only if you know how to use it.
