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Fine Tune Your Business
with Customer SurveysFORM, June 1992
BY KATHERINE LEUPOLD
As the forms industry matures and buying habits change, independent forms professionals are emphasizing the needs of end users. But there's a small catch: Many distributors say they aren't sure exactly what end users want. That's where a customer survey program can help by increasing communication with clients.
Customer surveys take many forms, including written formats and end user focus groups. Your company can choose to send one survey to clients or develop a series of surveys to determine key information from a number of sources, such as several buyers within an account.
"The purpose of a survey is not to find out how wonderful you are," says Frank Burgess, president of Yankee Systems Inc. in Reading, Mass., and a member of NBFA's Board of Directors. "We all already think that. The point is to find out how messed up you are." Surveys often tell you about small irritations, things that won't elicit a complaint from a customer but are troublesome nonetheless, says Burgess, who conducted his first customer survey in 1987.
Unfortunately, within the last few years, the number of written comments on Yankee's surveys has decreased, says Burgess. He fears clients spend less time on the surveys because they have been oversurveyed by other vendors, community groups, retailers, membership organizations and others. Now Yankee commits more time and resources to customer focus groups. For example, it recently paid the expenses of a group of users of a software package, which Yankee supports with forms and other products, to travel to the Boston area and meet with Burgess. Written customer surveys can remain an effective tool, however, says Burgess, especially for smaller companies that lack the time and resources to mount a massive focus group effort.
Like Burgess, Cliff George is expanding on the written customer survey he developed about three years ago. George, president of GBF Information Systems Inc. in Portland, Maine, and a former member of NBFA's Board of Directors, plans to send written surveys to employees, customers and suppliers, including forms manufacturers and freight carriers. All three groups, he says, can provide details critical to the success of his business. For example, if a handful of employee surveys indicated that GBF doesn't serve small accounts adequately, George would consider making changes within his company to do so. And such results would help him revise GBF's survey sent to clients. Likewise, results of vendor surveys might suggest new markets or products or ways to serve certain markets.
George's plan includes several surveys sent to different people within buying organizations. Employees in the shipping department, for example, might answer a short survey enclosed in an order asking about the condition of goods when received and the condition and suitability of the packaging. Another survey sent with invoices might ask accountants or bookkeepers about the accuracy and timeliness of GBF's invoices.
GBF also plans customer focus groups. George says customer surveys can help forms professionals determine if they are satisfying or exceeding customer expectations. "If you are just satisfying expectations, you are vulnerable," he says. "The competition will exceed expectations as soon as they can get in the door."
Most forms professionals are opinionated about survey methods. Obviously, some methods work better for certain companies than others. But nearly everyone agrees that feedback is critical to the success of a survey program. Buyers who know they will receive regular feedback realize they have a vested interest in answering your survey, says Sid Chadwick, vice president of Gorelick and Associates, a West Chester, Pa., consulting firm, and a popular speaker at this year's Regional Roundtable series sponsored by NBFA. Feedback can take many formats, including phone calls, letters or a regular section in your company's newsletter. Your reports should outline survey results and explain how your company changed or is changing to meet the needs expressed by respondents. Burgess says such reports are essential today when clients, jaded from being oversurveyed, may think you will not change regardless of their input.
How often you survey also is a critical aspect of your program. Again, this will depend on several variables, including what you're asking, whom you're asking, and how rapidly business conditions are changing. Chadwick recommends that surveys be done at least every 18 months.
Developing a Survey
Use these tips to help you get started:
- Proofread the survey carefully for clarity, legibility and typographical errors. Determine if small details are important to your clients. For example, one distributor recommends against using a rubber stamp to sign the president's name on the cover letter. Doing so, he says, would indicate that the principal does not think the survey worthwhile. George, however, doesn't think clients notice such details.
- Design the survey so it is easy to read and understand. Use check boxes or ask clients to circle selections so it can be filled out quickly. Use your logo or company colors to clearly tie the survey to your firm. For example, the survey sent to clients of Centro Business Forms Inc. in Bend, Ore., last year, was printed in the red and blue colors of the company, which appear in logos, envelopes, note pads and other printed products from the firm.
- Use a numerical scale, not expressions such as "Good," "Excellent," and "Fair." Burgess says a 1-10 scale works effectively. Other companies report success with a 1-5 scale.
- Keep it brief. The surveys that Gorelick and Associates prepare for clients never exceed four pages, says Chadwick, and the letter of introduction appears on the first page.
- Determine whom to survey. This depends on the survey's purpose. Some firms use different surveys for different segments of their account bases-buyers, forms users, shipping personnel or accounting personnel. Darrel D. Hansen, CFC, president of Centro Business Forms Inc. and president of NBFA, sent one survey to everyone on his customer list last year. Multiple surveys were sent to large client companies. Some forms professionals prefer to survey top customers only, figuring that 20 percent of clients likely account for 80 percent of sales. You could even survey former customers to find out why they stopped buying from you. Or, poll prospects about the types of products and services they seek in a printing vendor.
- Include a letter from the company president indicating why the survey is important to your firm and to clients. It can appear on separate letterhead or be incorporated into the first page of the survey. Burgess also has sales reps sign the survey to indicate that they will receive results of the survey and to show that they are committed to the program too. Keep the message short, and thank participants for their help. You may want to say that results will be kept confidential or explain how and when results will be shared.
- Tell clients about the survey before they receive it. A phone call, advance post card or a warning from a sales rep may increase response.
- Make sure you pay for return postage by enclosing a business reply envelope or placing a stamp on an outgoing envelope or post card. This saves time and money for the client and emphasizes that you value survey responses.
- Be sure to ask questions about topics other than product quality. Burgess says his first survey focused too much on products. Now, 80 percent of Yankee's survey questions are about services. Questions can cover the readability and accuracy of invoices and the suitability of packaging methods, for example. Hank Visio, CFC, president of Executive Data Control Inc. in Springfield, Mo., and a member of NBFA's Board of Directors, sent a 5-question survey to clients last year. Although the firm scored high on all questions, its lowest scores came on a question about billing procedures. When sales service people followed up, they discovered that the descriptions of stock items were so abbreviated that clients found them difficult to decipher. Executive Data then made a change in its computer system to accommodate longer descriptions.
- Use product names and industry terms only if they will be familiar to your clients. For example, Hansen modified the survey from NBFA's Partnering Tool Kit and sent it to all his clients. He retained questions about "just-in-time delivery and ordering," "on-demand printing" and "formal partner/supplier agreements." From the results, he concluded that his clients did not define these services the same way he or the Tool Kit did. To ensure understanding, have a spouse or friend outside the forms business review the survey.
- Leave space for clients to write comments. Although you may not want to do this on every question, most distributors and manufacturers agree that written comments are the most valuable because they provide insights into respondents' thoughts.
- Provide a place for customers to list their names. When Hansen did this, only three or four respondents failed to sign their names. Having client names linked to surveys can help you follow up.
- Update the survey regularly. Delete or rewrite questions that were misinterpreted. Be sure to add questions to help you keep up with changing business conditions.
Katherine Leupold is managing editor of FORM magazine.