The Encounter

The Banana Nazi starting barking out orders right from the start.

Banana Nazi: “You need to shower before you get on the boat, give me your glasses, hat, and anything else you have.” (No smile. Stone cold.)

I started thinking this lady must have had a rough summer and couldn’t wait for it to be over. She acted like the owner so I let her slide on this one. Maybe she was having a bad day.

I went on to say, “I can’t see without my prescription sun glasses so do you think I can wear them as we drive out to the tubing area? Also, I am a little light in the hair department so can I wear my hat to avoid sunburn of the head?” All said while chuckling a little to loosen things up and maybe brightening her day.

Banana Nazi: “Well, you are better off leaving your glasses here and being able to see the rest of the day than losing them aren’t you? The hat needs to go. I will do you a favor and put your stuff in my car so nothing happens.”

Again she was stone cold looking at me like I said something offensive or idiotic! I starting boiling a bit and thinking “She didn’t really say that?”. I couldn’t go on that boat blind no matter how she felt about it. I handed the Banana Nazi my stuff while white knuckling my glasses before she left me blind!

Banana Nazi: (No reaction as she took my stuff).

I was thinking “I don’t need this abuse and arrogance. I’m leaving.” Then looking at my son I had a change of heart. For my son’s sake I sucked it up and said “Thank you.” With a smile of course!

At that point we met two other people working the boat. They were great! Very polite and made the trip a memorable one. The driver with dread locks was awesome and fit the part perfectly, looking like he grew up water skiing and knew how to throw people! They explained to me right out of the gate why I could not wear my glasses on the boat. It made perfect sense since I was getting dragged out on the tube from the dock! Why didn’t she say that?

Customer service people make or break the deal. They got lucky this time.

Lessons learned:

1) Be careful with who works directly with customers. They may be blowing deals before you have a chance to know about it. The best customer service people are other-centered, patient, and listen to customers. What employees work directly with customers, but are not trained in customer service skills? Be careful.

2) Don’t assume prospects and customers know the reasons you do what you do. I now know why I could not bring my glasses and hat, but she did not listen to me, explain and communicate the reasons! Do customers know why you do what you do?

3) Customer Service people must start with communicating before we can show what your product or service does. It all starts with connecting and communicating the way your customers prefer. Be flexible and change your communication approach to fit your customer.

4) No product or service is so good that customers will put up with arrogance to get the goods. The Soup Nazi found this out the hard way and hopefully the Banana Nazi figures this out before it is too late.
Is your business just pumping out product? Are you in the customer service business? The end product is important, but customers want to buy from those they can connect with.

*Learning what others are doing.
*Leaving with fresh ideas.
*Being held accountable for results
*Networking and cultivating friendships with successful people.
*Trending and driving performance over time.
*Hearing candid feedback and opinions from industry experts.
*Specific, expert advice from owners dealing with the same issues.

Standardizing Customer Loyalty Metrics

Most peer groups standardize on reports to pinpoint opportunities for improvement and growth. Many use benchmarks similar to those published by their industry; benchmarks such as wages, pricing, and financial benchmark studies. The best peer groups benchmark customer loyalty and share at each meeting a standardized SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) based on customer feedback. Benefits of implementing customer feedback into peer groups include:

*Customer-centered goal setting.
*Increasing customer loyalty levels with all members of the group.
*Challenging peer group members to drive improvements based on facts.
*Disciplined, focused discussions around marketing, customer service and sales efforts
*Quantified, fact-based decision making tied to customer needs.

Standardize on the customer loyalty question(s), the way customer feedback is obtained and how it will be shared. Make each owner responsible for bringing one improvement area and one opportunity for growth identified from customer feedback. Each owner brings his or her customer loyalty scores to the meeting, and those scores are displayed, side by side, to help during discussions.

We all stress how important loyalty is to our survival and growth, yet we know we can do a better job measuring, monitoring and leveraging customer information in a disciplined, deliberate way. Standardizing on how customer feedback is shared during peer group meetings and setting better, customer-centered goals is one more way best-in-class businesses continue to distance themselves from their competitors.

The best way to follow up on quotes it either to call them directly. If you don’t have the resources then send out a simple, to the point e-mail blast. Smaller businesses sometimes have a difficult time following up on quotes so I recommend a very simple, personal, direct email Leverage your estimating and quoting software to pull all “open quotes” for a date range. Leverage the fields you have in your estimating system to use variable data and personalize the mass follow-up eblast.

Dear (first name),

This is a follow-up to the quote we sent to you on (quote date). Thank you for giving us the opportunity. We are very excited to work with you, but have not heard anything. Could you please give an update or status? Thank you.

Sincerely,
Your name
Title
Phone
Website.

Nothing fancy. It should be short, to the point, and ask the one question. You already quoted and maybe spent time with them understanding requirements for the work. Now is the time for them to decide or engage. Nothing is more effective than calling, but in these economic times you may not have that luxury and may need to batch process in a disciplined, automated way using technology.

Style flexing is an easy concept to grasp, but difficult to do. Style flexing is not manipulative, but other centered. You need to concentrate on the other person’s needs and how they want to be communicated with when making decisions. One way to break this down is to look at each person’s leadership style. We are all leaders in some way and leaders make decisions. We all make decisions. There are four types of leaders; Peer Oriented, System Oriented, Boss Oriented, and Goal Oriented. We all know people who lead with one of these styles, but the best leaders are able to style flex when working with others and don’t get stuck in one leadership style all the time. By the way, we all use each of these orientations at some point, but have a predominant style. When we are under stress, one of our predominant styles jumps out in front and it is beautiful or ugly. Let’s see how this helps in selling and servicing customers and prospect.

Peer Orientation. These people for the most part need support and love badly. They need support, need others to make decisions for them, and decisions are made by committee. They love to chat and know how you are doing, they hate getting right down to business, and they want to get to know you extremely well. The problem is they have difficulty making decisions especially if it could hurt anyone or leave someone out of the decision process. Let’s have a group hug! A few things to consider when working with this group:

• They need assurance that this is the right decision.
• Don’t stress alternatives and variables. Simplify
• Help make the decision easy.
• Be friendly and polite
• Slow down
• You need to help or make the decision for them.

System Orientation. This group is very set on what has proven to work in the past. They are very conservative and systematic about decision making and are risk averse. At one point some of the major defense contractors got caught off-guard by new, more nimble competitors. They kept the management philosophy that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. You would hear things like “We always did it that way”. In the computer industry names like Data General, Digital Equipment Corporation, and Wang found out the hard way that being conservative can put you out of business. The motto of this group is “Let’s go find the play book”. A few things to consider when working with this group:

• Answer all questions they have and get into the details
• Provide more facts than you would think necessary
• Encourage evaluation time
• Don’t let their skepticism get you down
• To close on an idea, be patient, but firmly by presenting facts

Boss Orientation. This group is great at making decisions and feel that everyone likes that they take control. Sometimes that is the case, but after the 20th time hearing “Just do what I say” can beat you down. The early 1900’s was big into this style of decision making. Entrepreneurs are typically this way since they don’t have time to think before making decisions since they are blazing the trail. They want control and it must be their decision. OK Boss, whatever you say! Here are a few pointers.

• Don’t let ego get in the way. Give in.
• Be prepared for a tough contest, don’t be sensitive, and no touching!
• You must provide facts, but let them develop the answer and make the decision.
• Give bottom-line answers and concentrate on high points
• Let their ego come through, let them feel important.
• Don’t feel rejected by their bluntness and don’t apologize.
• They will make decisions quickly which is great. Don’t close, they will close for you.

Goal Orientation. Everyone says they are goal oriented, but this group feels that you are OK and they are OK, but we have that mountain to climb. They understand compassion, but don’t let that get in the way of the big picture. They are long term thinkers and are able to balance priorities with decision making. They will get input from others, but not let them drive the ship like a peer oriented person. And they won’t get stuck looking at how things have been in hopes it gives them answers to the future. They will balance the approach with the end in mind. Here is how to work with this group.

• Be open and take time to explain the objective or hear it from them.
• Appeal to team involvement to make the best decision.
• Communicate vision and long term benefits. They will get it.
• Return on investment is always in the discussion. Be prepared.
• Share excitement. They are very positive and love driving goals.
• Have a well defined plan of action with appeal to future needs.
• The two of you will collaborate on the best solution.

In summary, a challenging aspects of Style Flexing is consciously analyzing the situation and how the person wants to make decisions. One size does not fit all. The second and most challenging part of this is that they are not going to change their style for you. You must change yours for them! Sound tough and uncomfortable? You may be reading and thinking you are more of a boss style person. Well, then if you are working with a high peer person you can’t get right down to business the way you love to operate. You will alienate them, they will feel they haven’t been served, and you will lose a customer or prospect. Style Flex to give others what they need to comfortably work with you and feel good about it. It is all about serving others and truly understanding them.

Over the past two weeks while attending the MFSA(Mail & Fulfillment Services Association) and IPMA(In –Plant Printing & Mailing) Annual Conferences I noticed sessions were focused more on customer relations and less on technology. Keynote speaker, John Foley, President of InterlinkOne, presented at the MFSA Conference in Charleston, SC and stressed the importance of social networking to share knowledge, help others, and stay connected. John is successful because he lives by the three foundational principles of trust, credibility, and rapport. Next stop was IPMA’s annual conference in Albuquerque, NM where the keynote, Bill Farquaharson, President of Aspire, explained why customer loyalty isn’t dead, unless you do it to yourself. He stressed the importance of you showing customers how much YOU care. Show them the love!

Yes, you are only as good as their last experience with you, but build up an “emotional bank account” or reserve with your customers. You make a deposit in this emotional bank account every time you go the extra mile, give great advice, connect with a customer in special ways, or whenever they feel unique and special. You withdraw from your account every time you stretch the truth, miss commitments, give poor advice, have awkward communications, or ask them to jump through hoops.

Trust:
Trust involves your honesty and integrity. Trust takes much time to earn and little time to lose. Just ask Tiger Woods. Compare Tiger Woods to John Wooden. Both sports super stars, yet in my opinion, complete opposites. Today while flying back from IPMA I am reading all the John Wooden testimonials and stories in USA Today. During his 99 years with us he touched so many lives in special ways. Tiger is incredible to watch on the course, but John Wooden had such integrity and honor. What a remarkable person. What an emotional bank account he established with so many! What are you doing to build trust? Are you ALWAYS honest with your customers and employees, leading by example under ALL instances, both personal and in business. Trust goes a long way toward building that emotional bank account. Sounds simple, yet how many of us are challenged to remain trustworthy when under stress to perform? Don’t waiver on this core principle. Stay strong!
How can you build trust?
* If you mess up, claim it.
* Always explain facts and don’t stretch it
* Respect confidentiality under all conditions
* Don’t gossip or others will wonder if you will gossip about them

Credibility:
Credibility is a proficiency issue or how good you are. This involves being proficient at your craft, is measured through performance, and expressed by the company you keep. Pick your friends wisely and do things right. Know your customer’s business or industry to help add credibility and be more helpful. Roll out services and products only after you perfect them or have piloted first. Tell the guinea pigs that they are just that. Show honesty and set expectations upfront. Credibility is conveyed to customers by offering great advice, and delivering quality products and service. How can you drive credibility with your customers?
* Continue to learn. Never stop.
* Invest in education and show them what you are doing.
* Hang out with people who are credible
* Offer advice in areas you are proficient.
* Get to know your customer’s business and internal processes

Rapport:
This is extremely challenging and what is called the soft stuff. You want customers to like you and want to be around you. Most know what trustworthiness is and how to be credible, but rapport building doesn’t come natural to most. Rapport is how you connect with your customers and communicate on their wave length. Style flexing is changing your communication style to meet the needs of each customer. Not easy. Don’t show sensitivity toward George Steinbrenner when the Yankees are losing, or don’t get right down to business with Woody Allen. What can you do to build rapport with customers?
* Get good at style flexing. Practice.
* Get good at reading people and adjusting your communication style
* Change your mindset from one of “customers just need to get to know me better” to “I need to know how my customer is wired to be effective”.
* If you can’t style flex, then pick customers who appreciate your one size fits all
mentality.
* Don’t expect customers to change their communication style to fit yours.
* Get psyched about your customer’s business and get personal.

In summary, deliberately watch your emotional bank account with customers. You must earn their trust, prove you know your stuff, and be someone they connect with. Get all three in line and everything else falls into place. Don’t forget the best way to monitor these foundational principles is to ask customers through an effective, ongoing survey process.

Bottom line is that you must take action on the results or don’t bother surveying. Surveying should be conducted for process improvement and expansion. It shouldn’t be to get that ISO auditor out your door and do it just to say you do something! Surveying is not an event, but an ongoing process.” Below are the top 5 questions we are asked when printers are setting up a print buyer feedback process.

Should I survey customers with every print order?

For repeat buyers we suggest surveying no more than every 90 days. If surveyed too often, regular repeat buyers will become annoyed and you will drive down loyalty. Also, in your email message state something like “You won’t get this survey more often than every 90 days if you buy from us regularly.” Tell customers upfront so they won’t assume the survey process is going to turn into a spam issue. If you are correctly managing the frequency of surveys to repeat buyers, you can anticipate a 20% to 35% response rate on a continuous basis. Let the feedback flow and let customers know that the survey is just another way to stay connected and responsive.

How many questions should I ask?

Keep the survey to less than 30 seconds (5-7 questions maximum). State In the email invitation that it will take less than a minute of their time and stick to that promise. Don’t say that it will take 30 seconds and then ask 30 questions. You may want to change the questions regularly and the invitation email to keep it fresh and inviting.

When considering the number of questions, be aware that there are two types of surveys. A strategic survey helps to map out necessary investments during the upcoming year. Customers appreciate this type of survey. If it’s positioned correctly and you promise to share the results with them, they will give you 5 minutes and answer around 20 questions. The second type of survey is the post-job survey or the 90-day pulse type survey to keep connected in an ongoing fashion. We suggest doing both because one is strategic and one tactical, but if budget and time is a constraint, go for the tactical survey asking customers for 1 minute to answer 5 or 6 questions and keep communication open all the time.

If I can only ask one question, what should it be?

“How likely are you to recommend us to colleagues and friends?” This is the ultimate question and there is an entire book dedicated to this question called “The Ultimate Question.”

What are the biggest mistakes I should avoid when surveying customers?

1. Waiting too long between surveys. I spoke to a printer last week that hadn’t surveyed customers in 10 years. He got good results, but when I asked why he waited 10 years he said it took too much time. Using today’s technology, surveying should not be that time consuming. Just read Lori Fuller’s case study from University of Nebraska at www.surveyadvantage.com/printers
2. Making the survey too long.
3. Making the process too complicated so it isn’t done continuously.
4. Assigning the wrong person to manage the process. I have seen “gaming” of the system where an internal person doesn’t survey certain customers because they don’t want to hear complaints. That’s a bad reason not to survey. You need to hear from everyone.
5. Not continually monitoring the process. If management doesn’t watch the process and the person assigned looks at surveying as an optional task, it might not get done regularly. Or it may stop and management never realizes that it has stopped. Gathering and monitoring customer feedback starts at the top and must be part of the culture of the operation — not just another task thrown out there.

Once the information is gathered, what should I do?

The best, most successful printers contact every customer who responds to the survey. That is right, every one. There is a story behind every survey even the glowing ones. Thanking those customers with great comments shows you listened and appreciate their comments. If you get a referral call, thank them so you get more referrals. Thankfulness breeds more good work. Those who are neutral about the experience should be asked how you can change to get top marks. Comments that are positive should be acknowledged and once again respondents should be thanked for their time and candidness. Negative survey results are typically the ones that gain the most attention, but there is usually more opportunity to sell to those customers who are happy and will share with you other services that they buy elsewhere or provide a referral. Remember contacting respondents builds loyalty, and they are more likely to fill out the survey once again later in the year.

The best, most successful printers also share the glowing comments with their teams to build moral. Post it on the lunchroom bulletin board. Managers can tell an employee that their efforts are appreciated, but it means so much more to get it from the customer directly. Approximately 95% of survey comments are positive. Don’t bury them in the customer feedback database. Share them. In addition, the best printers put questions on the survey that probe for other selling opportunities. Keep the survey to around 5 questions, but build one question in to learn what services they are buying elsewhere or to ask for a referral.

Don’t just look at surveying as a reactive, passive process. It can be a selling process as well.
Take the compiled information and do something with it. Just today I spoke with a printer who had 30% of his customers share what they bought elsewhere. Sadly, he hadn’t followed up on any of them because he was so busy in production. He did say over the next few months he is going to make a conscious effort to pursue those leads to expand client share. The good news was that he followed up on every referral and closed two new accounts.

Another great strategy is to print out the survey results weekly and review them with your team. Discuss what customers are saying and together come up with a game plan. One printer does an annual survey and then goes through all the nearly 300 responses, does his own SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats), and delegates at the account level and strategic execution level. This printer has done this for 4 years now and has had tremendous success even in a weak Michigan economy.

If sending out a survey is the first and last step, you are dropping the ball at the most important time. Put the information to work for your business. If conducted properly, surveys are indispensable tools for growing your business, enhancing performance and making informed decisions about the allocation of resources.
For more information, read printer case studies at http://www.surveyadvantage.com/printers

]]> http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2010/04/28/top-5-questions-printers-ask-about-surveying-customers-and-the-answers/feed/ 0 http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2010/02/04/we-can-learn-a-lot-from-a-business-owner-who-closed-his-doors/ http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2010/02/04/we-can-learn-a-lot-from-a-business-owner-who-closed-his-doors/#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:53:45 +0000 Michael Casey http://surveyadvantage.com/press/?p=378 It is easy to hear the success stories of businesses that have gone to the moon, but most of these business owners have lived through tough times as well.  Just read a book on Edison’s life and you will see the # of failures he had before his great invention.

 

Recently a business owner closed his doors, but shared his lessons learned with “What They Think”, an organization focused on sharing lessons with the printing industry.  Below is an interview and details.  Any business owner dealing with this economy can take some valuable lessons from this.

 

The Rise and Fall of Mallard Press

 

By Cary Sherburne
Published: October 12, 2009

 

The recent closure of Mallard Press caught our eye. While I don’t know Bob Gay or the company personally, a review of its web site revealed a company that appeared to be on the right track and making the right investments for the future.  Bob Gay was kind enough to speak frankly with us about the factors that led to the demise of the company.  Perhaps there are lessons here for others in the industry who may be teetering on the edge or worried about the future. Mallard Press was an independently owned and operated commercial printing business that had been in operation in the Chicago area for 30 years.  At its peak, it brought in revenues of over $5 million.  Here’s what Bob had to say. In Part One of the article, he discusses what happened; in Part Two, we move to what perhaps should have happened.

 

WTT: Bob, what would you say was the major contributing factor that led to closing the business?

BG: My biggest problem was that I had taken on too much debt.  I had made investments that were required to take my business where I wanted it to go, and I had about three and a half years to the finish line.  We were doing fine until about December of 2007, which was our first bad month, with sales off 18%. I remember seeing those numbers as if it were yesterday.

 

WTT: What were some of those investments?

BG: We had invested in Canon color and black & white digital to the tune of $10,000 to $15,000 per month.  We were into Komori for about $14,000 per month.  And the KBA press, which is a marvelous press and probably the most versatile printing press in the world, bar none, was an $11,000-per-month investment.  That is a lot of debt service for a company with $5 million in revenues.  We were building to grow, but any downtick in revenues was painful because of that debt service.

 

WTT: When you saw the December 2007 results, what actions did you take?

BG: We did make some adjustments to the business, and as a result were able to go through the spring of 2008 fairly strong, although the June through September period was below average, down 15-20%.  It gets tough to recover from four months of consecutive losses.

 

WTT: To what did you attribute the revenue decline?

BG: To a change in customer buying habits.  We did an analysis of our client base.  We were not losing clients; they were just spending less, due to the economy and possibly to more use of electronic media.

 

WTT: So what did you do next?

BG: We then looked at increasing our client base through acquisitions.  AGS, a die cutting operation, was basically closing its doors and we made a deal with them that would keep their company together, because the services they offered were services we were outsourcing anyway. There was also another company that was closing its doors and we purchased some of their assets as well. This was about $2 million in business and we took 10 of their 18 employees on board. As a result of all of that, we had a terrific December.

 

WTT: Then what happened as the new year began?

BG: From January through now, everything tailed off.  Sales were down 27%.  We again looked at our customer base, and it was the same Top Ten customers, but their sales volumes were down.  We even had some loyal print brokers that were getting less work for the same reason—their customers were also dialing down.

 

WTT: I am sure all of this must have led to some painful decisions.

BG: Absolutely.  We made some first quarter adjustments to get things in line, but I knew that it wasn’t going to be enough.  After the second quarter, I really needed to make some deep cuts.  This was extremely painful, because people who had done nothing wrong were losing their jobs.  The remaining staff took pay cuts to keep their jobs.

 

WTT: In hindsight, would you have made staff cuts earlier?

BG: Yes, but I was slow to do so because it is just not in my nature.  These people worked hard, and I was optimistic that the services we provided would help bring the business back.  This is how we had always survived before—because of our diversification.  If one area was not performing, the other two areas could pick up the slack.  But with the decrease in sales and additional 10 employees, I increased payroll by $400,000 but only increased sales by 1.5%. I was operating as a man in business, not a businessman.  A businessman would have made the cuts sooner, but the man in business had hoped it would come back.

 

WTT: What else did you do to try to salvage the situation?

BG: We went to the equipment finance companies, Wells Fargo, GE and IKON Financial, and working with them was tremendous; they were all on board to help us. We were able to negotiate six months interest only payments to help us weather the storm and work to get our sales up.  We also went to our landlord to see what they would be willing to do.  We let them know that others were participating and we weren’t just coming to them for help.  They were a bit reluctant to help and I basically had to sell my soul a little to get their cooperation.  They gave us six months at half rent, but the negotiations gave them the full right to kick us out if they didn’t think I was going to perform after these six months.

 

WTT: I take it that resulted in the crowning blow, then.

BG: About three-quarters of the way through the process, we provided the landlord with a financial statement per the agreement.  It was a bad June and we were not making any headway.  They performed their fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders by exercising their right to evict.  We looked around for other spaces and looked to our lender for some additional support.  Even though we eliminated 12 employees and took some other steps that brought us back to break-even, our lender decided not to extend our line of credit or to provide us with the funding to move the business to a different location.

 

WTT: Why was that? Presumably you had been doing business with them for a long time.

BG: Yes, but their position was that we were maxed out on our line of credit with no good outlook for being able to pay it all back, and they were simply not in a position to lend us the $100,000 or more it would have cost us to move.  This was on a Friday afternoon, and rather abruptly, the next Monday, per the request of the bank, the company went into receivership in order to pay down the line of credit and the other creditors as well as take control of all receivables.  That obviously brought the business to a screeching halt.

 

WTT: Why do you think the banks took that position after working with you for so long?

BG: I have probably always been the exception when they have discussions in their board room.  I can just hear the discussions:  “They are out of factor, but Bob has a passion for the business and we believe in what he is doing. He has built a unique company that has advantages over standard printing companies, and he will be a survivor.  He has done it before.” To be honest with you, in 2008, I was swinging back and forth between being three to five months behind in rent.  I never thought 2009 sales would still just not materialize. Clients are simply buying differently, and I don’t know if those levels are going to continue to decline or whether they are even going to continue to use print in many cases.

 

WTT: What about all of the government talk about bailing out small businesses, stimulus, TARP and all of that?  Did you try for any of that money?

BG: Sure did.  I asked about an SBA loan that could spread the short-term debt over a longer term with a lower interest rate and I couldn’t even get that. Now 38 people are without jobs. So much for economic stimulus.

 

Read the second half of this interview

]]> http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2010/02/04/we-can-learn-a-lot-from-a-business-owner-who-closed-his-doors/feed/ 0 http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2010/01/26/yeh-but-what-about-survey-burnout-we-get-so-many/ http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2010/01/26/yeh-but-what-about-survey-burnout-we-get-so-many/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:11:32 +0000 Michael Casey http://surveyadvantage.com/press/?p=371 Recently there was a discussion between business owners who were concerned with surveying their customers and causing a negative reaction. They shared how much they hate getting surveys. In a Business to Consumer relationship many times we get pounded with surveys and get numb to them hitting “delete” as quick as we can. But, I would warn you not to generalize. Know thy customer!

Depends on the relationship one has with the specific supplier, how important that supplier is to their business, how long the survey it, and most importantly if the company responses quickly the first time the customer shares their thoughts. If I have a good ongoing relationship with the supplier as a partner, they are important to my well being, the survey is short and covers points most interesting to me and not you, and the company responds quickly maybe even call me, then I feel it is a way to get things changed and get a reaction. I will fill out surveys for them.

Example, if I have a partnership type relationship with my printer, rely on them to perform to drive marketing efforts, the survey takes a minute, and they call to discuss, then I DO NOT get survey burn-out.

If you are just another printer, who puts out average work with no skin in my game, the survey doesn’t respect my time, and you do nothing when I gave feedback of any kind in the past, then I hate to get your survey, wouldn’t take it, and WOULD get survey burnt out quickly. I would be burnt out the first time I got a survey and maybe even use it as an excuse to stop using you because I was thinking of moving on anyway and needed a reason.

We get so many surveys, but the ones I take are the ones where I respect their business, enjoy working with them, they know me, or I know they will do something with my information.

I would argue that burnout is an indication that the supplier is missing something in their relationship with the customer or they lack an understanding of how frequently to go to the well for feedback or how to approach customers for feedback.

]]> http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2010/01/26/yeh-but-what-about-survey-burnout-we-get-so-many/feed/ 0 http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2009/12/22/survey-on-obama-gives-surveying-and-research-a-bad-name/ http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2009/12/22/survey-on-obama-gives-surveying-and-research-a-bad-name/#comments Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:32:53 +0000 Michael Casey http://surveyadvantage.com/press/?p=366 I am not going to get political here, but I hope this entry educates people on how “not” to ask questions.  This survey is an example of how questions can lead or push people into a direction you want them to take.  It frustrates me when I hear on the news about polls and surveys and don’t hear how the question was asked or who was asked.  When you see the results of this newest survey out of Washington I hope you discount the results.  This weekend I recieved in the mail a very offiicial document from Washington wanting my opinion.  In big letters it said “Obama Survey”.  Here is the list of questions that were asked and all were “Yes/No” answers.

1. Do you agree with Barack Obama and the Democrats that taxes should be raised for the sake of “fairness” regardless of the negative impact it is likely to have on the economy?

 

2. Do you believe that the best way to increase the quality and effectiveness of public education in the U.S. is to rapidly expand federal funding while eliminating performance standards and accountability?

 

3. Do you support the creation of a national health insurance plan that would be administered by bureacrats in Washington, D.C.?

 

4)  Do you believe that the quality and availability of health care will increase if the federal government dictates pricing to doctors and hospitals?

 

5) Are you confident that new medicines and medical treatments will continue to be developed if the federal government controls prescription drug prices and sets profit margins for research and pharmaceutical companies?

 

6)  Are you in favor of reinstituting the military draft, as Democrats in Congress have proposed?

 

Wow!  I wouldn’t expect more than 1% to pick “Yes” to any of these questions if they read the entire question.  I wonder who is managing this “objective” study?  I wonder what the statitical signficance will be when they publish it?  In research it is easy to get the answers you want “to hear” if you just ask the questions in the proper way.   OK, I am a little sarcastic here, but beware of published results without seeing the actual question and who the questions were asked to.  I am considered a conservative so my guess is that they felt they would get the data they wanted.  Sorry, but this datapoint will not be included in this study.   The survey is now carefully being placed in the round file.

]]> http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2009/12/22/survey-on-obama-gives-surveying-and-research-a-bad-name/feed/ 0 http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2009/11/05/customer-retention-and-loyalty-book-list/ http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2009/11/05/customer-retention-and-loyalty-book-list/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:52:21 +0000 Michael Casey http://surveyadvantage.com/press/?p=363 I was asked recently while presenting at the National Association of Quick Printer Owner Conference to post the list of books referenced during the presentation.  Below is the rundown of some books you may want to consider and a brief summary of what you may find interesting.  Happy reading.

Book List & Summary:

 

1) Customer Retention by Michael Lowenstien

Summary: Covers the myth of customer satisfaction and how to set up retention strategies.  Between 65 and 85% of customers who defect say they were satisfied or very satisfied with their supplier.  Stay close and know your current situation all the time.

 

2) The Ultimate Question by Fred Reichheld

Summary: Driving profits and growth by driving loyalty. Create promoters of your business by measuring and increasing the # of very loyal customers

 

3) Customer Intimacy by Fred Wiersema

Summary: Pick the right customer base.  Know you “A” customer

 

4) Customer Service on the Internet by Jim Sterne, 1996

Summary: Funny how some things have changed, others have stayed the same, and how still so very far behind printers are after 12 yrs of internet evolution. Quote: “If you have an unhappy customer on the internet, he doesn’t tell his six friends, he tells his 6,000 friends.  Jeff Bezos, President, Amazon.com

 

5)  101 Ways to Build Customer Loyalty by Debra Schmidt: www.theloyaltyleader.com

Summary: 5 Fs of loyalty:  Family, friendly, flexible, follow-up, fast.  The #1 loyalty killer is the difference between a customer’s expectations and his or her actual experience.  Very tactical, simple,  and practical things to consider.

 

6) Balanced Scorecard by Paul Niven

Summary: The typical Quick Printer is the Nordstroms(intimacy) of the printing industry.  Not the Walmart(operational) or Sony(innovator). Measuring customer feedback is one of three top areas to keep the score.

 

7) Website Magazine: 

Summary:  Cutting edge information reporting on the evolution of email marketing, websites, and social networking.

 

Purple Cow by Seth Godin

Summary: Be remarkable.  Be different in a big way.  Be amazing.  Drive word of mouth.

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