Filed under: Uncategorized
Survey On The Spot has announced several new features to help streamline the mobile survey client’s experience. Customers are more responsive to user-friendly surveys, leading to more data for analysis to improve business operations. The following features help to make this possible.
- Ranking: Surveys now allow ranking functionality. For example, survey-takers can rank their favorite things about your restaurant (menu items, service, etc). Users rank their preference of choices for a question with the reporting showing these specifics.
- Multiple questions: Further improving user-friendliness, surveys can now display multiple questions on a single page. This is especially useful when collecting customer information: survey-takers will no longer have to continue to flip through pages when entering their name, email address, and birth date, thereby enabling them to complete the survey more quickly and efficiently. This feature also allows better use of the real estate on the larger screens of tablets.
- Auto-formatted telephone numbers: Surveys will now automatically update customer-entered phone numbers to US format. This will make it easier for users to input their phone numbers and will also allow for more uniform data collection. Customer phone numbers are particularly useful to collect when building your customer loyalty list, especially as part of the Sundrop mobile loyalty system (link: http://www.surveyonthespot.com/how-it-works/build_loyalty_list/). This program provides incentives to customers for completing the survey and signing up for the program, and continues to provide coupons and special deals for repeat visits – ultimately developing a loyal customer base.
- Month & date birthdays: Birth year will no longer be required when collecting customer birthdays. This feature is useful when combined with marketing campaigns and customer incentives, such as offering special birthday coupons to customers who have provided their information. With birth year no longer required, more customers will be inclined to supply their birth dates as part of the survey, allowing you to reach more customers with incentives that are likely to inspire repeat visits.
These new features make for an effective, user-friendly survey that will produce a higher volume of more comprehensive responses. The updates underline Survey On The Spot’s commitment to creating a comprehensive survey system in order to help businesses improve their guest satisfaction.
Survey On The Spot has introduced new features that will improve data collection for businesses utilizing the survey system to gain feedback from their customers. The following features make it easier for businesses to collect, manage, and analyze guest satisfaction survey information by maximizing user control.
CSV files: The Survey On The Spot system now allows users to download responses as CSV files. This feature increases data compatibility by allowing businesses to more easily integrate survey data with other systems. In addition to the Survey on the Spot system’s reporting feature (link: http://www.surveyonthespot.com/how-it-works/reporting/), exporting data to Excel and CSV files gives users total control of their data by enabling them to organize and view data entirely to manage it how they prefer, and to integrate with different systems they like using (such as email marketing tools).
Scheduled reports: Save time with scheduled data reports. With this new feature, Survey On The Spot will email you automated data reports on a schedule that you determine – daily, weekly, or monthly – to one or more users. Rather than having to log in to Survey On The Spot to view these reports each time you would like to see them, they will be waiting for you in your inbox when you begin the day, or week, so you can work with them a little easier. For example, you can begin morning staff meetings with a comprehensive view of your guest satisfaction insights, with clear visuals of what you can improve upon today based on yesterday’s survey responses. You can brief staff members on specific areas of improvement before customers arrive so they can begin the day’s work already ahead.
Offline surveys: Mobile phones or tablets no longer need to be connected to the internet to collect survey responses. Once the survey has been loaded onto a smartphone using an internet connection, the survey can be completed and data can be collected without requiring connectivity. Data is then uploaded to the Survey On The Spot portal once an internet connection is reestablished. This can be useful for restaurants that want to collect surveys from customers on provided iPads or mobile devices but do not have an available WiFi connection. Staff members can then upload the survey results through a wired connection once the customer has returned the mobile device or at the close of the business day. It can also be effectively used for intercept surveys in locations where there is no wifi or cellular signal.
These new features provide users with more streamlined data collection and analysis capabilities. Survey On The Spot is now better than ever at providing business with the tools for faster and more precise guest satisfaction improvements.
Filed under: Healthcare
In the current competitive healthcare market, providers must strive to meet the highest patient satisfaction standards in order to earn their business. One of the most important factors in the patient’s perception of the quality of care is the healthcare environment. The physical setting – especially the waiting room – is the patient’s first impression of the facility and it sets the tone for their entire visit.
Whether patients are visiting their doctor for a routine check-up or for something more serious, they want to walk into a welcoming, low-stress environment. Doctor’s appointments can be associated with anxiety, so patients should be welcomed into a soothing atmosphere when they enter the waiting room.
Patient experiences in the waiting room are about more than just the physical setting, however. Long wait times can have a significant negative effect on the patient’s overall experience. Even if the patient had a pleasant interaction with his or her doctor, it can be easily overshadowed by a prolonged waiting room experience. In addition, staff members can positively or negatively affect a patient’s visit, with qualities such as responsiveness, courtesy, competence, and communication playing an important role.
With all of these factors that can make or break a patient’s experience, there is a lot for healthcare providers to stay on top of. Survey On The Spot’s real-time survey system allows providers to hear directly from their patients about what they did or did not like about their visit, giving providers the opportunity to quickly make any necessary changes and remain at the top of patient quality standards.
Is it too cold in the waiting room? Is the music too loud or unpleasant? Is the restroom’s cleanliness sub-par? Instant alerts notify managers of these and any other potential issues so the problem can be fixed before it’s too late and the patient leaves having had an unpleasant experience. Patients can also give feedback on more long term issues, such as long wait times or unfriendly staff members, and providers can then use this feedback to improve their services.
With Survey On The Spot, healthcare providers are able to ensure that their waiting rooms are setting just the right tone for their patients’ visits.
Filed under: Healthcare
As we previously reported (link: http://blog.surveyonthespot.com/2011/12/07/happy-patients-profitable-hospitals/), maintaining patient satisfaction is now even more of a priority for hospitals as it is closely tied to revenue. A new rule mandated by the Affordable Care Act pits hospitals against each other in a competition for reimbursements, and the scores are based on patient satisfaction rates determined by Medicare-approved surveys.
With money on the line, we suggest that hospitals be proactive in improving patient service by implementing real-time patient satisfaction surveys to complement traditional feedback collection. By using Survey On The Spot’s real-time surveys, hospitals and other healthcare offices can catch potential problems before they grow and reflect poorly on ratings.
Survey on the Spot surveys will be most effective if given to patients during Available Guest Time: the period of time when a transaction is being processed. The best way to ensure survey participation is to increase convenience for the patient as much as possible. Patients typically won’t go out of their way to fill out a survey unless they’ve had a particularly positive or negative experience, so your best bet to obtain the most comprehensive and accurate survey results is to present the survey during a downtime when the patient would otherwise just be waiting. A Survey On The Spot survey on an electronic device can easily be administered at the end of an appointment while a co-payment is being processed or new appointment is being set.
Healthcare offices receive more survey responses from patients when they take advantage of Available Guest Time, which means more comprehensive data with which to improve services. Whether or not there are reimbursements up for grabs, healthcare offices have a lot to gain from these surveys. In this competitive healthcare market, it is extremely important for providers to achieve the highest level of service possible.
Patient surveys can be customized to gain feedback on important concerns such as wait time, ambiance, cleanliness, staff attitude and attentiveness, and more. Surveys will help healthcare offices better understand patient service standards and will illuminate any pressing issues, allowing providers to adjust their services to meet these standards and address problems – ultimately improving performance.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Effective surveying isn’t just about asking the right questions, but about presenting those questions at the right time. Based on this understanding, our company takes an entirely unique approach to customer surveying by taking advantage of Available Guest Time®, the period of time when a customer transaction is being processed – a perfect time to request survey participation. Our primary goal in using this approach is to increase convenience for the customer as much as possible in an attempt to encourage more survey responses. If a customer feels inconvenienced by a survey in any way, the chances are much higher that he or she will simply not take the time to fill it out.
There are many different ways you can approach this scenario. One way is to give the customer a paper survey to complete while waiting for their check to be processed or other work they have to wait for during a downtime (such as when insurance papers are being filled out at a doctors office). Another method is to provide surveys for customers before their meal with the instruction to fill it out whenever they have time. A third option is to provide the customer with a survey available on a mobile device or tablet as they are given the check, or to be filled out while they wait for their transaction to be completed.
The appeal of Available Guest Time® is that it embodies a very simple, but too often overlooked concept that the customer’s convenience is key to ensuring survey participation.
By capitalizing on customer convenience in your surveys, your company can count on a more accurate representation of overall performance. Think of it this way: customers who had an exceptionally bad or exceptionally good experience will likely go out of their way to report this experience, but a customer who may have had an uneventful or mildly satisfactory experience (yet still valuable) probably won’t go through the trouble of filling out a survey unless it’s convenient for them to do so. Surveys that require extra effort on the customer’s part could easily skew your results to a mix of great and terrible experiences, which, though important, don’t reflect the overall customer experience of your business.
Available Guest Time® eliminates this risk by making it easy and convenient for all customers to fill out a survey during the lull in their experience where they are usually tapping their fingers waiting for the check. With this unique approach, your company can have a larger pool of data to analyze and respond to as a means of improving every customer’s experience.
Filed under: Running a better business
First impressions are crucial for creating a strong, positive perception of your business in the minds of your customers. People often make their major impressions within the first few seconds of coming into contact with a person or place. Your reception staff affects whether that customer has an overall positive or negative initial experience with your business.
In industries where receptionists are the primary component of the customer’s first impression, it’s important for businesses to ensure that the reception experience is both positive and reflective of business values for each customer who walks through the door. Ensuring a positive reception experience is the most effective way for hospitality-focused business to make these first impressions beneficial for the business overall.
To properly ensure a positive impression, businesses must first have a good understanding of where this impression stands currently. One of the most effective ways this can be done is by surveying guests and analyzing the feedback for strengths and weaknesses of the business, as identified in each customer’s review.
Although first impressions have a strong influence on the customer’s whole experience, this influence can often be hard to track since receptionist interactions are relatively short when compared with the rest of the experience. For this reason, mobile surveys are highly beneficial for giving guests the opportunity to report experiences in real time and prevent the loss of valuable details.
The quicker the customer is able to complete a survey, the more accurate the survey will be. The accessibility of mobile surveys benefits the customer by offering greater convenience, while accurate results make it easier for your business to create the most positive experience possible by identifying all possible strengths and weaknesses of your reception experience.
Filed under: Technology
According to the National Restaurant Association’s 2012 Restaurant Industry Forecast released earlier this month, half of consumers would use a restaurant’s smartphone app to preview menus and make reservations; nearly 40% would use a tablet computer provided at the table to view the menu and place their order; and half would take advantage of at-table electronic payment options. The results were similar for fast food restaurants: 40% of consumers would use smartphone apps to preview menus online and order delivery or takeout, and they would be just as likely to use in-store self-service kiosks to place their orders.
Consumers’ technology interests do not stop there; one-third reported that they would follow a restaurant’s updates on Twitter or Facebook, and 3 in 10 would be interested in receiving a daily email with specials. As consumers in general are finding the need to cut back spending, businesses need to find new ways to reach out to potential customers. Restaurants in particular would be wise to turn to the web to seek out the large number of technologically savvy consumers.
The Restaurant Industry Forecast also noted a trend in consumers’ most valued restaurant attributes. When choosing a tableservice restaurant, customers most highly value food quality, customer service quality, and value. As for quickservice restaurants, customers place priority on food quality, value, and speed of service. In short, customers want tasty food, a good deal for their money, and top notch customer service.
In response to their increasingly technologically savvy customers, restaurants can integrate technology into their operations in order to go the extra mile to ensure quality customer service. The Survey on the Spot real-time customer feedback survey can be administered to patrons before they leave on at-table iPads or through a smartphone app. The survey allows restaurants to gain valuable feedback on all aspects of the customer’s dining experience, with real-time alerts prompting managers to quickly resolve any potential service issues.
When restaurants decide to enhance their service with new technology, it’s easy to include the Survey on the Spot system in the upgrade. Its platform flexibility means that the survey can be integrated at any point in the dining experience, whether it’s after customers pay at an iPad provided at their table or once they order delivery on their smartphone. At the end of the survey, customers can be prompted to enter their e-mail address in order to be included on regular e-mail communications.
Restaurants should take note of this strong consumer interest and consider incorporating new technology into their operations. This will allow for more streamlined, quality service, leading to more satisfied customers.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Ensuring food is delivered to the table at the right temperature is a key service element in making sure your guests are satisfied. As temperature can often make or break a meal, restaurants have an obligation to deliver food in a timely manner and constantly gauge the temperature to prevent compromising the customer’s enjoyment of the dish. Using a mobile survey system, you can quickly find out how happy the customers are about your food temperature and make sure you are delivering it up to standard.
There are number of methods, equipment, and technologies restaurants can employ to ensure food is kept hot from kitchen to table. However, occasionally an off-temperature plate or glass will slip through, and it’s important to ensure the customer has an easy way to let you know that the food isn’t up to standard, so the problem can be remediated. Without an effective feedback system, customers who experience this may write negative reviews and complain to their friends.
Luckily, ensuring correct food temperature is a service element that can be easily guaranteed while a customer is still in the restaurant. Identifying the causes of food reaching a table off temperature are often pretty easy, and quickly fixed to prevent more cases from happening. If this is a recurring problem, it’s important to identify the weak spots in your service and apply fixes, whether procedural or technological, to prevent this from happening again.
Some restaurants employ the use of technology to ensure perfect food temps:
Just outside of Boston, MA, Barismo is a popular cafe/coffee roaster located in Arlington that prides itself on using special equipment to ensure perfect temperature regulation in their beverages. According to multiple Yelp reviews, the cafe uses a temperature-regulating pour-over device that filters hot beverages like coffee and tea while allowing it to maintain an ideal, hot temperature. Boston Wine Exchange, located in the Financial District, is also well known for its superb wine temperatures, which are maintained through high-tech wine storage chambers that distribute wine at an ideal temperature with just the touch of a button. For restaurants looking for better ways to maintain food temperature, it appears that high-tech is the way to go.
Often, less technologically sophisticated methods will work just as well, like training staff not to plate salad on dishes right out of the dishwasher, or use glassware that is still hot from washing for that cold glass of beer or chardonnay.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Understanding the customer experience is just one of the many benefits that comes from mobile data collection. Professionals all over the retail and hospitality industries are also benefiting from the use of mobile surveys as a means of staying connected with various locations and adapting business operations to ever-changing economic and social trends. With mobile data collection technology, company headquarters can stay informed of what goes on in multiple business locations or franchises. This ensures consistency for the customer and enables supervisors to quickly and effectively implement change within the company.
In comparison with the use of mobile surveys to collect and analyze field data, many companies found that traditional methods were significantly more time-consuming and expensive. Obsolete systems of data collection (i.e. the pen and paper method) make it more difficult to communicate across several franchise locations and often create a barrier to gathering and analyzing data in a timely and accurate manner. By implementing a technology-based system into your business, staff members from all different levels can stay better informed of news within the industry and can address problems as they occur.
Mobile data collection not only offers the opportunity to gather and compare large pools of field data quickly and effectively, but can also enable businesses to collect data that couldn’t be collected without technological means. In addition to quantitative data, mobile surveys give customers and staff members the opportunity to more accurately share data through photo, video, and audio recordings. This allows managers and staff members to more clearly understand how the business is operating outside of their own points of view.
Digital surveys not only ensure quicker survey completion and communication, but also ensure more accurate reflections of the customer’s experience through a system that works on logic and pattern-seeking. For example, many surveys can be customized with questions that are only relevant to that customer by basing following questions off of the answers provided in previous questions.
This same feature would be economically and practically impossible to achieve through traditional means of surveying. Overall, field data collection through mobile surveying focuses on convenience for customers, staff members, and supervisors of the business.
Food and beverage suppliers should also not be overlooked because of the important role that field surveys play in measuring their own levels of success. For example, a beer supplier may want to determine how well their particular product is being merchandised at a liquor store, convenience store, and restaurant. Mobile surveys give this supplier the opportunity to quickly identify any gaps in merchandising performance and make adjustments accordingly. This type of instant feedback can help tailor the distributor’s merchandising efforts, while also providing a foundation for where the most significant opportunities exist.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Although no customer really enjoys waiting to be seated at a restaurant, the length of the wait list and the customer’s willingness to wait for a table at your restaurant can indicate that your restaurant is of such high value to the customer that he or she is willing to wait for it, or reserve a spot, rather than choose a quicker and more convenient alternative. However, this does not mean you should keep customers waiting, and there are a number of ways to reduce wait times, including staff coaching, call-ahead lists, and implementing reservations systems. At the same time, it can also indicate that there are operational inefficiencies which can be fixed to improve the flow of customers in your restaurant.
How Much is Too Much?
No matter how busy you are or how unexpected the rush is, there needs be some sort of limit in how long of a wait time you give to your customers, as well as how far in advance you require reservations. This timeframe is sometimes balanced with the popularity of the restaurant as well as other amenities you have – for example, you can probably get away with a slightly longer wait time if you have a large bar customers can wait in. This also depends on your clientele, if you run a restaurant catering to families and children, a wait in the bar may not be a reasonable alternative. You can determine how much is “too much” by surveying customers about the wait time.
Ways to Reduce Wait Times
Staff Coaching
A long wait time can often be prevented with faster service and more staff members. The quicker that dining customers receive have their orders taken, receive their meals, and are delivered their checks, often the quicker they will leave and create room for more customers. Wait times may also be reduced by encouraging all staff members to help out in every department of the restaurant. For example, hosts and hostesses can help clear off tables to prepare them quicker, and so on.
Call-Ahead Lists
Less formal than a reservation system, a call-ahead just ensures that the customers name will be put on the list and does not necessarily guarantee a table as soon as they arrive. This is a quick yet effective fix to cure long wait times.
Reservation Systems
No customer should be kept waiting too long, and implementing a reservations system can take care of this issue. With a reservation, customers can expect to have their tables prepared for them at the exact time of the reservation. Implementing reservations are not a quick fix, however, as it can entirely change the revenue flow of your business. Depending on the nature of your restaurant, reservations need to be balanced carefully with keeping enough open tables to accept walk-ins.
Dealing With Impatient Customers
Long wait times and hungry customers can be an incendiary combination that often leads to customer complaints. One of the best ways you can deal with impatient customers is by calmly explaining to them why the wait time is what it is. Customers have a tendency to immediately assume that an extended wait time is a result of slow service, improper planning, inattentiveness of the hosts, and other factors that are within the control of the staff. Implementing a feedback system also gives you information about how the customers feel about the wait time, and can help remedy the problem at the same time – by demonstrating that you care about their feedback, you may be able to keep them calm. Regardless, when impatient customers come to you with complaints, make sure to emphasize that you are doing all you can to get them seated.
