Filed under: Survey Feedback | Tags: customer service surveys, iPhone surveys, mobile restaurant surveys, mobile surveys, restaurant surveys
Conditional questions can provide businesses with a more accurate picture of guest experience by eliminating responses that don’t apply, or are less relevant, to a customer’s experience with the different service aspects offered by a business.
Reduce Irrelevant Guest Feedback
Let’s use a hotel as an example: Hotel guests who use a guest satisfaction survey app to evaluate their hotel experience may want to give an overall positive review of the hotel, but may not be eligible to give the same response for every aspect of the survey, as they may not have experienced all aspects of the services. For example, there may be a guest who had a pleasant experience overall with their stay, but who did not order room service. They may feel obliged to provide a positive review on room service anyway, simply to give a complete evaluation. Even if the reviews are positive, this does a disservice to businesses because it hinders the ability of the hotel determine an honest and comprehensive review of the various aspects of their services.
Structure Surveys More Effectively
Conditional questions that are structured around if/then statements allow the customer to feel more comfortable, and keeps them from answering questions that don’t apply to their experience. For example, a question might read: “Did you order room service during your stay at our hotel?” The customer can either answer “yes” or “no”. With a guest satisfaction survey app, customers can be led directly to the follow-up question if they click “yes,” or simply taken to the next question in the survey if they select “no.” This provides the management with more accurate survey feedback because customers are verifying their eligibility to answer the questions. An app can reduce the problem of inaccurate survey results because it won’t allow ineligible respondents to even see questions that don’t apply to their personal experience.
More Detailed Guest Responses
Conditional questions give guests the opportunity to be as specific as possible about their experience by allowing them to describe a good or bad experience in higher detail. Going back to the hotel example, if a guest reports that they did order room service and were unhappy with the experience, the app can lead them to a follow-up question that asks what specifically about the service was unsatisfying. Selections for this might include slow delivery, poor quality food, order mistakes, etc. Conditional questions allow customers the opportunity to be as specific as possible about questions that only apply to them. However, it’s important for businesses to use their personal discretion about how many follow-up questions are necessary, you risk annoying your customers with too many questions.
A guest satisfaction survey app is an effective tool for conditional real-time guest surveys, as many customers will encounter different aspects of your service throughout their experience with you. Describing a particular experience while it happens allows customers to give a completely accurate and detailed account that allows businesses to better understand where their strengths and weaknesses lie.
Filed under: Survey Feedback | Tags: customer service surveys, mobile restaurant surveys, mobile surveys, restaurant survey app, restaurant surveys
Part 1 of this blog post focused on how to track progress of surveys in real time. Below takes the next step into the process by addressing the evaluation and practical application of tracking real time results.
Evaluating Progress and Making Improvements
In any business that focuses primarily on service and interaction with other people, honest and consistent evaluations of service performance is one of the most crucial components to improve guest satisfaction. Develop evaluation systems which allow staff members to try out different methods and stick with the ones that have the most positive feedback.
For example, A customer may complain about slow service, cold food, etc. and ask to speak to the manager. A manager can try out different methods of solving the problem— such as offering a free meal, giving a discount card for the next meal, listening intently to the customer— and determine which one ends with the most positive review to apply it to similar scenarios.
Using Real-Time Surveys to Better Gauge Service Performance
Real-time guest satisfaction surveys not only make the job easier for management, but they offer a convenient and effective outlet for compiling detailed evaluations of the business. With surveys that are easily accessible from a mobile device, customers are more likely to report feedback as it’s happening. Customers win because they always have a place to report concern and satisfaction, and businesses win because they can gather an extensive evaluation of their services. Real-time surveys allow businesses to identify weaknesses to improve customer interaction and overall performance.
Filed under: Survey Feedback | Tags: customer service surveys, mobile restaurant surveys, mobile surveys, restaurant surveys, Survey On The Spot
Using real-time guest satisfaction surveys can provide a business with an honest evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of how well your staff serves your customers. Ongoing evaluations of guest satisfaction and your service performance are essential for recognizing patterns in performance and adjusting negative service patterns as necessary. By constantly revisiting guest feedback and your service actions, a business will be able to determine specific areas of progress and a set of established action plans to address opportunities for improvement.
Recognizing Patterns of Feedback
Let’s use a restaurant as an example: Restaurant management may see a pattern of positive guest feedback on the beginning days of the week with a decline on Friday and Saturday. From this standpoint, the management can step back and determine what the whole team can do differently to change this performance declination on the weekend.
The management can also look at consistencies in specific complaints: were most negative reviews about wait time, quality of food, or maybe server attentiveness? Looking for patterns in guest feedback and relaying them to your staff will allow you to focus on specific problems and improve weaker areas. Building action plans with your teams improves their commitment and engagement to long-term improvement.
Attributing Feedback to Specific Team Members and Giving Recognition
Guest satisfaction surveys can also allow the management to see which members of the team are contributing to a positive guest experience, and which ones need help. Survey feedback patterns can report overall performance of the business, but there will be specific differences across the team that allow you to praise or correct the efforts of a specific employee.
Say a week of surveys totaled 30 negative responses with 20 of them coming from a particular employee’s guests. Instead of focusing on the negative responses and applying them to the whole team, management may want to talk specifically with the employee to determine the problem and facilitate a solution. On the same note, if an employee is receiving particularly positive feedback, find out what they are doing right and relay these strengths to the rest of the team.
Part 2 will cover evaluation and real time tracking of performance.
Filed under: Survey Feedback | Tags: customer feedback, customer service surveys, mobile restaurant surveys, mobile surveys, restaurant surveys, Survey On The Spot
In our last post we discussed ways survey results can convey a false rise in service performance. As important as watching for those signs is, taking preventative actions to ensure accurate survey goals is just as important. Below are 7 tips for getting the most accurate as possible surveys from your guests.4. Avoid leading questions, or questions which aren’t relevant to specific areas of your guest service.
Filed under: Survey Feedback | Tags: customer service surveys, mobile restaurant surveys, mobile surveys, Problems with surveys, restaurant surveys
Receiving good feedback doesn’t always mean your guest service is improving. The types of questions you ask on your guest satisfaction surveys can cause skewed results, and the style in which surveys are given can sometimes cause false feedback. Craft your survey questions carefully and target the areas of your business that are most critical for success. Be strategic about how and when you use surveys. Positive survey results don’t necessarily equal service improvements without historical comparisons and validation questions.
Here are a few factors which contribute to false survey results as well as our thoughts on how to remedy them:
Factors Which Contribute to Perceived Rise in Performance:
- Customers who take your surveys don’t always feel comfortable enough to give honest feedback. Make sure your surveying methods are relaxed and encourage constructive criticism.
- A rewards program that is too generous can make guests feel inclined to give positive feedback just to earn rewards.
- Leading questions cause skewed results. If a question can more easily be answered with a positive response, it likely will.
- Your system for collecting feedback needs to be secure enough to make sure you aren’t only seeing the positive feedback. Make sure you collect every comment card or use an online or mobile survey tool to ensure you get the results.
Filed under: Survey Feedback | Tags: ipod surveys, mobile surveys, restaurants surveys, Survey On The Spot, survey reward program
Encouraging customers to complete your guest satisfaction surveys can be successfully accomplished through a well-designed rewards program. Your rewards program should be generous enough to encourage guests to complete your surveys, spread the word about your program to friends, and increase repeat customers, however shouldn’t be so generous as to put you in a bind if it gets too popular or if a guest tries to redeem a reward on more than one occassion. Designing rewards carefully means calculating the financial impact it will have on your business as compared to the revenues it generates. Generally speaking, a reward that gets a cutomer to choose your restaurant ahead of someone else is a good thing. You should also take measures to make it difficult to duplicate rewards, such as using a virtual rewards system or using unique codes or signatures on the rewards.
Benefits of a Rewards Program
Happy clients, increased survey results, and repeat business are major benefits of a reward program. Not only will you get repeat business from those that have reward points they feel compelled to use, but they may be enthusiastic to pass along the benefits of the program by word-of-mouth to their friends, family and coworkers. In addition to getting more complete survey results, you can also get an instant increase in business followed by more word-of-mouth to family and friends from satisfied customers. A good rewards program can be an investment which leads to increased revenue. Offering discounts or conditional rewards, (i.e. free appetizers with two main courses, stay three nights get a free massage, etc) helps make sure you are earning more with the rewards than you spend on them.
Designing Rewards Carefully
Depending on the rewards you offer, your business may take a bit of a cut in profit on whatever discount or freebie you’re offering. This should be considered an investment if it leads to increasingly happy clients and repeat business, and can also be minimal when compared to the business it generates. Make sure that the rewards are affordable over time so you don’t get your business in a financial jam. Minimize the risk of someone figuring out how to fraudulently duplicate your rewards by having unique numbers, signatures, or codes. Creating virtual rewards can also help reduce this risk. In the event someone figures out how to fraudulently duplicate a reward – make sure you can still offer the reward without too great a financial impact. Keep evolving the rewards so you know which ones are most efficient and effective.
Disclaimers and Disputes
Your should have a clearly-written disclaimer in place in case a dispute arises. The disclaimer needs to outline the specifics of the rewards, such as the general terms and conditions, services or goods that may not be included and when the rewards expire. Putting an expiration date on the rewards prompts people to more quickly take action for a return visit and it also ensures you won’t be stuck giving away a rewards years after you’ve ended those initiatives. Although be ware, the quickest way to lose a customer for life is to fail to honor a coupon that is ‘expired’. If it not an issue of blatant abuse, the best policy is to honor th coupon for someone who is obviously a repeat customer and thanks them for their business.
Filed under: Surveys | Tags: mobile, mobile restaurant surveys, Mystery Shoppers, Restaurant Customer service, restaurant surveys
Mystery shoppers are hired by organizations and businesses to tell the honest truth about an establishment’s service and can give valuable insights into guest satisfaction. Not only can a mystery shopper provide you with useful information about your business and services, these individuals will let you know whether or not your guest satisfaction survey strategy is working.
There’s no doubt that a surveys are a valuable tool, but guest satisfaction surveys haven’t replaced mystery shoppers. Instead, surveys like this work best when coupled with the observations noted by a secret shopper. When both tactics are used to provide a full business report, the result is a business that has been examined by both guests and seasoned critics.
Here are a few ways mystery shoppers can both help you improve guest satisfaction as well as your overall initiatives to learn about guest satisfaction:
1) Constructive Criticism At It’s Finest. The role of mystery shoppers is to provide brutally honest constructive criticism. These individuals will not only look at your place of business with a critical eye, they’ll also take the time to complete your surveys.
2) More Detailed Guest Satisfaction Insight. As direct as a survey can be, mystery shoppers enter a business with a few key details in mind. These shoppers look for certain things that consumers may miss. Further, a mystery shopper will evaluate your business no matter what – this is not always the case with regular customers. A mystery shopper’s main duty is to report on your establishment no matter what. By complementing each other, both surveys and mystery shoppers cover all business bases.
3) Learn About Your Own Survey Initiatives. A mystery shopper can provide feedback on your surveys, letting you know if your question list is too long or irrelevant. Many surveys ask clients to comment on the survey itself (an idea that may not be the best use of customer time), but a mystery shopping can provide a professional opinion.
4) Gain Effective Complaint Resolution. Mystery shoppers can help you gauge how well your staff responds to real-time customer complaints submitted via mobile surveys. If the mystery shopper is instructed to submit a complaint using your mobile survey system and staff need to handle the “unhappy customer”, you can test your own operations and systems for handling these types of situations.
Has your business ever used Mystery Shoppers?
Filed under: Survey Feedback | Tags: customer feedback, customer service surveys, mobile restaurant surveys, Problems with surveys, restaurant surveys, Survey On The Spot
Presenting guests with a well-crafted survey is an important step towards creating a better business, however is only as effective as the action you take based on the survey results. Mobile surveys give you real-time actionable information, so that you can fine tune your business according to customer wants and needs. Grouping and interpreting real-time survey results into higher-level insight helps you with overall service strategy, and implementing changes can be done faster and easier by making employees aware of guest feedback.
Target Specific Areas
Survey answers can be easily grouped. The closer you track customer responses to specific questions, the easier it will be come to target specific opportunities for your business. For example, you may note that guests frequently have comments about a specific menu item or service issues. Beyond fixing the problem in the short-term based on immediate feedback, you can use these collective complements or complaints to make larger-scale service decisions.
Grouping your survey questions to match larger-scale business decisions or service initiatives you are testing helps you gain specific insight into what you are doing well, and what needs to be changed. Address the issues guests bring up, and make sure to make long-term, strategic improvements based upon those areas that need work. Your customers will appreciate the fact that you know how to listen.
Employee Awareness is Crucial
Not only is it important to listen your guests, it’s also important to share these comments with your staff members. While it’s easy to tell employees what they are doing wrong, many employers never think about sharing positive comments or other insights based on guest feedback. Motivated employees can implement the necessary service changes both immediately and in long-term practice.
This is the best way to involve all of your staff to take part of creating a better atmosphere. Whether you want people to keep an eye on how food is presented or whether you want everyone to step up efforts with cleanliness, notifying your staff of guest survey results is essential.
Filed under: Surveys | Tags: customer feedback, customer service surveys, iPhone surveys, restaurant surveys, Survey On The Spot
Surveys that are too long actually disengage your guests. You can find out most of what you need to know with 10 questions or less. When a survey requires more than a few moments of attention, guests will become easily distracted, which can both reduce the number of guests who actually complete your survey, as well as potentially skewing the answers.
Here are a few ways to keep your surveys easy to read and even easier to complete:
1) Set a clear survey goal and build your survey questions around this goal. Goals can range from practical and operational to more higher-level and managerial. For example, determining which specials to feature in your restaurant each week, the overall satisfaction with your service, how guests feel about the restrooms, etc. This will help you frame the questions in your survey to be more lean and practical as it contributes to your managerial goals.
2) The way you organize your survey questions should be based on what type of information you’re looking for. Just because you are creating a survey, don’t feel you can ask all the questions that cross your mind. They should be relevant and action oriented. Ask them in a logical order that will make sense to your customer or guest. The benefit of using mobile surveys is you can easily edit and update your survey as you develop new goals, and instantly release newly edited surveys.
3) Avoid annoying your guests with lengthy surveys. There’s no doubt that the last thing you want to do is make your customers feel like they are working for you – keep surveys short (ten questions or less), and don’t ask guests for too much personal information. While larger market-research surveys can include redundancies to help you gain the most accurate information, mobile surveys are meant to provide you with faster and real-time feedback that is easy to act upon based on the immediate situation.
4) If you’re unsure about a question, chances are that you can cross that part of your survey out. Surveys can be an ideal way to collect guest information if they are composed intelligently and resonate with people. Ask someone you work with or a friend to complete the survey before you release it to guests.
