Survey Advantage Press

Last month Allegra Networks, a 400 plus unit franchisor, published an article in their quarterly franchise magazine, Connections, sharing lessons learned from around the network. The article explains how Eileen Rogers and Ted Raymond, owners of the Allegra franchise in Scottsdale, AZ, focused the business on multi-channel marketing, including variable data printing and personalized URLS, while making the shift to a marketing services provider. In addition, Eileen and Ted explain how customer feedback became part of their strategy.
Click here to read the full text.

Many associations conduct their own membership loyalty surveys and exit surveys, manage their own member satisfaction metrics and research studies.  Sometimes the response rates are low and difficult to understand why.  Here are a few things to consider when  running a survey or research study.

1)Keep surveys as short as possible and know your audience. 

2)Know both their appetite for the kind of survey you are doing and also how strong your relationship is with them.

3)Look at your e-mail invitation to the survey.  Messaging is so important to grab attention.

4)Look at the words used. You may be getting caught in spam and it isn’t being delivered.

5)Look at the subject line to make sure it is enticing and connects with the responder.

Most of the time you should only need to remind once and then you become an annoyance.  If you need to go with multiple reminders then something is going on.

This is a story of how a manufacturer in a competitive industry leveraged surveying to methodically connect with key decision makers at Ford, Mercedes, GM, and Volvo. The customer feedback surprised even the manufacturer’s engineering team.

Please review the full case study at Quality Digest:  http://www.qualitydigest.com/inside/quality-insider-article/surveying-new-opportunities.html

NAPL releases Field Case Book, a new initiative to share best practices and innovations with printers.  In NAPL’s first  field book case study, a printer is highlighted for a creative customer retention strategy saving $130,000 in business within the first month of the strategy. 

Click here for complete case:  http://www.fieldcasebook.org/

Yesterday I was speaking with a good friend who was heading home for an appointment with his oil burner maintenance company.    Since I needed some maintenance I asked how he liked the business.  He said he “HAD” to use them because the business was a client.  He continued saying that he just wished he could go elsewhere and  explained all the problems he had over the years.  He felt hostage.  I call  this “Fake Loyalty”.  It is too bad this oil burner company doesn’t get it right and give this customer a reason to refer them.  I am just glad this guy told me to stay away.  Does anyone know a good oil burner guy?

Ask your customers the question “How likely are you to recommend us to family and friends?” Some of your customers may feel like hostages for now.  Why not make it right.