You might assume that you are doing a superb job selling whatever you are selling, because your customers are coming back for more, right? Think again! According to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs:

• the average business never hears from 96% of its unhappy customers.
• for every complaint received, a business will have 26 others that are unreported, six of which are serious.
• those non-complaining customers do complain -- not to business owners, but to as many as ten other people.

And here is a really big surprise:

• complainers are more likely than non-complainers to buy from the same business again, even if the complaint is NOT resolved to their satisfaction!

Now, do you still believe that you know what your customers really think about you and your business? If you are serious about your enterprise, you should implement some system of regular assessment of how you are doing in the department of customer satisfaction. I say "system"-- because it should be a method allowing you to measure results, to quantify them and to compare them so that you can track your progress.

Where should you start?
There are several methods you could use. Which one you need will vary from business to business. It depends on the type of your industry, the size of your business, and its physical location. But most of all it depends on who your customers are. You need to take into consideration their life styles, their convenience and their preferences. I suggest that you begin by experimenting with different methods. Here are some from which to choose:

1. Ask some focused, survey-like question whenever you have an opportunity to talk with a customer -- and don't forget to record the answers in some systematic way to compare the results later
2. Provide feedback forms in your place of business -- this works great if you have a store or office that is visited frequently by customers.
3. Create a box for customers' suggestions and complaints -- it can even be placed outside of your business place, to be accessible after hours.
4. Conduct the telephone survey - call a selected group of customers one by one for an informal chat or for a full blown formal questionnaire. If you have someone do this for you -- you will get more honest feedback.
5. Mail survey questionnaires - be prepared that not all of them - indeed very few - will be returned and even these will require some special incentives.
6. After sale feedback - write a thank you letter with an attached return card.
7. Provide refreshments and invite a group of your customers for a special "focus group"

Whatever you do, remember the KIS acronym - Keep It Simple -- developing an effective survey is not as complex as it seems at the beginning.

Understanding the customer
Before doing anything, you need to understand what is really important. Realize that every business transaction consists of two parts.

1. One is your product/service. Customers evaluate quality, features, benefits, price, and how this all compares with your competition.
2. The second part is the experience. Customers evaluate how easy, how fast, how convenient, how satisfying and how pleasurable the total experience of conducting business with you is.

Do you know any business that delivers an inferior product, yet is able to survive... maybe even does remarkably well? Chances are that what's lost in the quality of the product is somehow compensated in the quality of the experience. And I'm sure you know some business -- maybe it's even yours-- which delivers superb quality product or service, but somehow is not able to attract as many customers as it could. Quite possibly, the PROCESS needs a tune-up.

Customers' basic needs
A while ago I received a survey questionnaire from my landlord. It read something like this:

- Are our leasing agents professional, tactful and understanding? Yes No - Are they dressed professionally? Yes No - Is your entry area well lighted? Yes No.. - and so on with these alternative choice questions.

It was one of the most annoying and pitiful pieces of business literature I've ever seen. At that time the apartment complex I lived in was under heavy construction and there was a HUGE number of problems to resolve. Residents, myself included, had some serious concerns and complains, but the survey didn't even mention our problems. Instead, it addressed things that were important to the management. Residents didn't care whether leasing agents were well dressed or professional - what does "professional" mean anyway? And just because the company produced this piece of literature, the managers thought that they were actually measuring customer satisfaction! Here is one mistake you can now avoid!

Here is a list of basic wants and needs of customers. All of us - customers of stores and airlines, customers of doctors, lawyers and restaurants, of taxi drivers and Internet providers, customers of marketing gurus and software producers - all of us are customers of someone's business and all of us have similar basic needs:

• we need to feel welcome
• we need to be taken seriously
• we need to feel comfortable
• we need to be understood
• we need to feel important
• we need to get what we want
• we need to be served quickly

Now, before you begin to create your survey questions, before you measure your results - make sure that you understand not only these general customer needs and wants but also understand the business-specific needs of your own customers. And make sure that you address these needs in your regular way of conducting your business.

How specifically are you trying to make your customers feel welcome, understood, important? When you figure this out - create a relevant feedback question measuring how customers feel about it. As you can see, it boils down to feeling. Yeah, it is not about what kind of degree you hold, how many years you are in business, and if you are on the web -- how many "hits" your site has. It is all about how your customers feel..

Make it easy to complain
It might come as a surprise to you, but people don't like to complain to business owners. On the whole, it is much easier to say nothing, than to give a constructive feedback. Customers, even if they would like to complain, usually say nothing. For various reasons. Some of them don't want to waste time and energy, others don't believe that it will make any difference. The rest might lack skills and assertiveness.

If you really want to know what they think, structure your questions in such a way that it will encourage people to share with you any negative experience they have with your product or service. Make it safe to complain. Welcome negative feedback. Make it easy. Even offer a price! In my newsletter I offered a drawing for a free advertising in exchange for a constructive feedback. Needless to say, I receive many responses.

Remember: if you make if difficult to complain, you are doomed forever to get feedback only from the very assertive or hostile customers.

Design a survey metric - measure the answers
Survey metric is a standard measure to assess a performance. Use it in your questions. Each question MUST be measured some way. Only then you will be able to quantify, compare and improve your results in the future.

• Use "scaled" questions, for example: "On a scale 1-5, 1 being below satisfactory and 5 well above satisfactory - how do you rate the simplicity of our instruction book?" or "Will you recommend our business to others? - very likely, likely, not very likely, very unlikely" or "How would you rate the attitude of our people? below expectations - met expectations - or exceeded expectations"

• Use close ended questions, such as: "Are you connected to Internet? Yes - No"

• Use multiply choice questions: "Which one of our mailings do you enjoy most? Coupons, letters, newsletters, invitation to events, free reports?" or even better, "Which aspect of our business needs most improvement: product quality, speed of delivery, guarantee, instructions, price - others?"
• Use open ended questions: "Share with us a problem you wish we could solve?" (watch out for these answers - although not very measurable and quantifiable, they're worth their weight in gold!)

After getting responses to the same question from 10, 20, 50 customers you will be able to come up with some very specific performance measures that will reflect your customers' opinions. Based on that number, you will be able to plan and evaluate your future progress.

I'm sure now you're getting the picture...

Don't wait for pain
Most of us go to doctor when it hurts. Some people go only when they suspect some serious illness. And we all know that prevention can work miracles. The same is in business. Don't wait for pain, for time when something will go wrong... Get wise and remember about prevention.

Finding out what your customers really think might be a scary thing at the beginning, but the beauty of the customers' feedback is that even when it is poor, it provides you with a terrific opportunity to recover and WOW! your customer with your ability to respond.

No matter what, on the whole it is much better to find out what your customers really think. And if you do something right, an effective survey will also provide you with some of the best testimonials you can use in your marketing! And I'm sure you will like that...