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FACTS ABOUT WOMEN

Women own 585,000 of the 1.9 million small businesses operating in Australia.

Women own almost half of all home-based businesses and one-third of businesses operating from other locations.

Women setting up business from home is the fastest growing sector of the Australian economy.

46% of women run their businesses from home - a 20% increase in the last five years.

Women make or influence 80% of all purchasing decisions.

Women owned businesses have less external debt, are more profitable and profitable much earlier than those owned by men.

94% of all Australian businesses have an annual turnover of less that 2 million dollars.

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Gauge Your Business Success

Killer Customer Surveys

by Kirsty Dunphey, Unleashed Knowledge

Customer surveys are a fabulous way to do research on a highly specified portion of the market and an excellent way to gather information to improve your future service to customers and clients.

Consider some of the following points and questions when designing surveys for your customer base.

n Contact details. Ask for their email address so you can add them to your email database. But ensure you ask for permission so that you can email them in the future. Also ask customers to confirm any details that are already held on your database.

n Rate 1-10. I like to ask clients to rate their overall experience on a 1-10 scale (10 being the best experience they could imagine). This allows for more flexibility and honesty - anything other than a 10 you know you could have done better - now you just need to find out how. You can also ask them to rate certain other aspects (such as your website, marketing, office, administration, individual salesperson etc) with this same method which allows you to ask a lot of questions in a way that isn’t very time consuming to the person filling in the survey.

n Method of attraction. If you aren’t already aware of the reason the customer first came to use your services, these surveys are a great way to find out how your clients found out about you. This gives you an opportunity to either thank the person who referred them or find out what method of your marketing is working best (ie great shop front, smiling staff, excellent advertisements etc.)

n Marketing/testimonial statement. Always ask your clients for a statement or testimonial about your service and ask for permission on the survey to use any of their comments and their name for future marketing purposes

n Improvements required. Ask what you did right - but also ask what could have been better (it's just as important to get this information). Consider phrasing the question: Describe three ways we could have looked after you better, or list three things we could have improved upon. By asking for three things you often get more than by not specifying a number. (Don't forget you can use this technique with finding out what they liked as well.)

n Memorable moments. Consider a question such as: “What was the most memorable part of dealing with XYZ company?” A customer can be satisfied or happy but they won’t rave about you to their friends and family unless you are memorable in some way.

n Recommendations. I personally like to ask if they would recommend your services to friends / family and then to leave a spot on the survey asking the client to leave details should they know anyone else who could use your services. (You may even want to consider mentioning some sort of a reward if they do successfully refer business or provide a special introductory offer for friends / family of this client.)

n Future service. Don't lose out on potential business staring you in the face by forgetting to ask them if there's any way you can be of further service now or in the future.

n Follow up. If you're going to ask the questions on this survey - be prepared to get some negative responses - that’s a part of life, but  ALWAYS let the people who fill in your surveys know what you're going to do to either fix the issue, or ensure it doesn't happen again in the future. Always follow up surveys with a thank you for a completed survey in some way (email, phone call, card etc).

n Look wide. Surveys aren’t just for the clients who have done business with you. Consider surveying potential clients, your current suppliers or clients you’ve pitched to but who have decided to go elsewhere as well.

Article reproduced with permission from the Kirsty Dunphey weekly email.

Author: Kirsty Dunphey
Business: Unleashed Knowledge