The customer experience of determining customer experience

So you want to know what your customers think about you. Are they happy? Will they continue to buy, or visit your website? You want to know all the good and all the bad. So you ask, and ask, and ask. But wait! What if asking your customers about their experience actually impacts their customer experience negatively?

Like an over-anxious waiter asking you for the n-th time whether your food was alright, asking too much too often can actually be worse than not asking at all. On the other hand, by not asking you might miss valuable information as to what you’re doing right and wrong. So how to do this right?

Ask the right customer

Unless you want to know statistically how happy your customers are, “everyone” is not the right customer to ask. You need to ask those who have something to say which would actually improve the customer experience you provide:

• The super-shopper who has just run amok in your online store. What made him buy so much?
• Mr. Loyal customer who has stayed with you in thick and thin for 5 years. What made him stay?
• The angry ex-customer who after talking with support immediately canceled her subscription. What made her cancel?

Ask the right question

After you have found the right customer to ask, find the right question(s) to ask him, and ask just those questions. Personalize the survey. Make it clear that you genuinely care about the customer and his/her opinion and feedback.

• To “Mr. Super-shopper”: Thank you for shopping with us. We really appreciate large volume customers like yourself and would like to ask you a few questions. What made you choose [website name] as your supplier? What made you choose to purchase more than 3 items?
• Dear “Mr. Loyal customer”: We’d like to celebrate long-term customers like yourself with a 10% discount on your next purchase. To claim the discount, please answer the following questions: How happy are you with the following aspects of [company]: What do you like the most about being a customer at [company]?, What do you like the least about being a customer at [company]? To claim your discount, please use the code ‘xxxx’ when making you next purchase.
• Dear “Mrs. Angry customer”: We are sorry to hear that you have canceled your subscription with us. In order for us to improve our service in the future, we would like to ask you a few questions: What made you decide to cancel your subscription? What would it take for you to consider a subscription with [company] in the future?

Decide what is essential to know for this type of customer/ex-customer and ask only the questions that will provide the most accurate answer to that question.

Ask at the right time

Ask the customer when he/she is most likely to have something to say, or when his/her thoughts are most critical for you to know.

When the customer should be asked based on fresh customer experience (examples):

• Just made a purchase
• Signed up a week ago
• Just called support
• Returned a package
• Checked out
• Canceled subscription
• Posted negative feedback in social media

When you need to know based on important actions (examples):

• Renewal date is soon due (you don’ want to loose the customer)
• You’ve released a new product/product version
• You’ve experienced technical difficulties

Bling-bling

No, I don’t like bling. But I like things to look good, and so do your customers. It’s the little touches that can make the customer’s experience of you measuring customer experience a tad more pleasurable.

So we ask the right person, the right questions, at the right moment, and make sure the survey (or whichever other method you use) instills confidence in the professionality of your brand. What more can you do? Honestly?

The next step is taking action based on the feedback you receive – take a look at my colleague Ronnie’s post “Do satisfaction surveys decrease satisfaction?” for more information about this topic.