Filed under: Running a better business
Feedback from current loyal customers should be treated just as importantly as feedback from new visitors. Make it easy for customers to take your surveys and connect with you on social media, remedy problems in a timely manner, and track improvements with ongoing surveys.
Make it easy
Customers can share their experiences with any given business through multiple mediums and in a quick and convenient manner. Using a mobile survey system allows customers to give real-time feedback in a medium which they are comfortable with. Here you can also encourage customers to connect with you on social media or sign up for your email marketing list.
Encourage customers to connect
Companies should encourage new and regular customers who had positive experiences to join an email list, become a Facebook and Twitter fan, write a review on Yelp, and tell their friends about their experiences. One of the most effective ways your company can encourage these acts is by offering incentives such as discounts, freebies, coupons, and/or sweepstakes entries.
One good example of how businesses can get surveys responses from current customers is by asking for feedback from their Facebook fans and Twitter followers. These groups of consumers have already shown interest in the company, which indicates that they have had several experiences with the company.
Make sure they are happy – in a timely manner
Customers are much more likely to share a negative experience as opposed to a positive one, and it is crucial that business owners rectify negative experiences as quickly and as effectively as possible. Since many survey systems rely on service evaluation cards left behind or surveys completed at home on the web, it can be difficult for businesses to compensate for a negative experience in an effective and timely manner. If you use these methods, make sure you ask your customers the best way to contact them for followup. With the use of mobile surveys, businesses can enjoy faster organization of customer feedback and quicker responses to any issues that arise.
Encourage your regular customers to take your surveys with relative frequency
By consistently encouraging members of these groups to fill out mobile surveys after a popular sale or promotion, your business can have a better understanding of which business practices are effective and which are not by basing the information off of people who are already interested. By encouraging customers to take your surveys regularly, you can track improvements and help maintain your loyal following.
Filed under: Events
When choosing a venue for your conference, trade show, or other event, there are several key factors that you should keep in mind to ensure that the venue meets your needs and that your event runs smoothly. Get to know your target audience and what they want from the event, then evaluate your potential locations from the below essential criteria.
Location
Make sure the venue is conveniently located for your attendees. If many will be flying in, choose a venue close to the airport and hotels. You might also want to choose a location based on whether or not the event will be appealing to those working close by. In that case, you will want the venue to be easily accessible by public transportation and with plenty of parking available.
Appearance
The venue you choose will project the image of your company, aim to find a venue that will be aesthetically appealing to attendees and will leave a favorable impression. It must be clean and in good condition, free of distractions, and with plenty of accessible restrooms. The size is also important; estimate the number of attendees and make sure you have just enough space, as a venue too small will feel cramped and a venue too large will make your event appear underwhelming.
Staff Service
Pay close attention to the venue staff when you visit to evaluate a potential venue. How is the staff’s performance? Are they attentive, diligent, receptive, and experienced? Much of the success of your event depends on the venue staff and their ability to provide quality arrangements and speedy problem solving when needed. An ipad survey app can help you gain more feedback on the service and guest satisfaction.
Food
Keeping your attendees’ appetites satisfied is essential to ensuring a positive experience. Provide quality food and beverages that fit the mood of the event and accommodate potential dietary restrictions. If the venue itself does not provide on-site catering, make sure that they will allow external caterers and that they have appropriate facilities for food preparation, storage, and serving.
Equipment
The best venues are well prepared with the equipment you will need to run your event: tables, chairs, and other furniture; advanced audio visual equipment, complimented by good acoustics; and wireless internet and other technology.
Keep a running checklist as you visit potential venues, and the one that best matches the above criteria will likely be your best bet. Once the conference is underway, you can collect feedback from attendees on your choice of venue and other aspects of the event by asking them to complete a real-time survey. Attendees can access the survey on their iPhones or on iPad kiosks set up in designated areas. Results are recorded instantly, and management is immediately notified of any negative responses or red flags in order for the issues to be promptly addressed. You can also use a variety of analysis tools to conduct an in-depth review of attendees’ responses after the event has ended, using their feedback to improve your future events.
Filed under: News | Tags: funding, investment, press release, venture capital
We have some very exciting news to announce! Survey on the Spot has just closed a round of seed investment funding for $750,000 shared by Kepha Partners, a Waltham venture capital firm; Angel Street Capital of Providence; and Mike Sheehan, a strategic investor. While, of course, this is very exciting for us, you probably want to know what this means for the future of Survey on the Spot.
The funding will enable us to not only expand Survey on the Spot’s market presence in food service, but also to address emerging opportunities for mobile data collection in industries ranging from retail to healthcare and service organizations. We’re very excited to continue to explore and expand the different and meaningful ways that our technology can be used.
In addition, we’re also thrilled to announce that we’ve added Scott Savitz, founder and former CEO of footwear retailer ShoeBuy, as an advisor to our leadership team. With the funding, we hope to grow our team even more, by investing in engineering and sales and marketing and enhancing customer support.
Of course, we’ll keep you updated as Survey on the Spot continues to expand!
For more, check out the full press release.
Filed under: Healthcare | Tags: Healthcare surveys, Hospital survey app, hospital surveys, patient satisfaction, Surveys
Last month, we wrote a blog post about an upcoming rule mandated by the Affordable Care Act that will result in hospitals with the highest patient satisfaction ratings receiving the largest reimbursements from Medicare. In essence, the hospitals with the happiest patients will become the most profitable hospitals. Of course, we recommended that hospitals use Survey on the Spot’s real time surveys to gain insight into what their patients are thinking, so they can be proactive in improving patient service. Now, we’re thrilled to report in a recent press release that Survey on the Spot is receiving record-high responses from surveys in the healthcare sector.
One hospital has reported that 15% of patients surveyed give feedback when hospital administrators use Survey on the Spot, versus the less than 1% of patients who give feedback using the traditional survey methods. And in some cases, since hospitals using Survey on the Spot are receiving more data, they can stop making time-consuming follow-up phone calls.
According to Survey on the Spot President Ken Kimmel, “Although we originally created Survey On The Spot with restaurants in mind, we’re finding that healthcare has been an easy, natural fit… Doctors and nurses are valuing the real-time results and we’re embracing the growth in the sector. We’re excited to see what insights hospitals will be able to gain from using the survey and how it will continue to help doctors deliver the best care possible.”
To read more about how hospitals are using Survey on the Spot to improve patient care, check out the latest press release on Survey on the Spot and the healthcare industry.
Filed under: Survey Feedback | Tags: instant review alerts, mobiel survey results, Mobile review alerts
Customers notice problems with your service or restaurant environment much more intimately than your staff, especially with problems arising from sub-par service or issues with the environment, such as bathroom cleanliness. If a customer is bothered by something which may have gone overlooked by staff and management they may log on to a review website to vent and leave a negative review or fill out a complaint form. Once you catch the review you can respond by taking certain measures to improve the situation in order to prevent future issues, but the damage has already been done: the negative review has been posted, potential future customers may be discouraged from visiting your restaurant, and the customer has already left without giving you a chance to hear their concerns in person.
Rather than waiting to respond until after the incident has occurred, how can you catch the problem before it’s too late and resolve the issue with the customer in person? Using a feedback system, you can provide them the opportunity to give feedback about their dining experience before they leave the restaurant. Results can be delivered to management instantly, allowing you to take immediate action to recover from service problems if necessary. Giving customers the opportunity to provide feedback quickly and easily also demonstrates your commitment to providing quality customer service, therefore building loyalty and trust.
With instant alerts in a mobile survey system, you are able to send a management representative to speak with the displeased customer and make amends for the poor service. You need to be careful about how to approach the customer as it can be intimidating if you make them feel that the survey isn’t anonymous. Best practices are to simply stop by the table and ask how their experience has been, without referencing the survey at all. Frequently, a customer that has had an issue effectively resolved will leave with a positive impression based on the personal efforts you made to improve their experience. The end result is increased customer loyalty, trust in your business, and gives you the power to remediate problems before they escalate.
Using a real-time survey also allows you to gather results and spot positive or negative trends over a period of time. If you notice that one of your locations experiences a sudden uptick in customer complaints on a given day, you can investigate and respond to any regularly-occurring issues accordingly, before they grow into larger problems. You can also view reports over a longer period of time for a higher-level view of your business.
A customizable survey allows you to analyze certain aspects of the customer’s experience depending on your needs. For example, you can use the survey to test the success of new menu items and get specific customer feedback. You can also track the performance of individual employees, using the results to adjust training methods as necessary and to provide employee rewards as incentives for positive performance.
Using a real-time survey with instant alerts will allow you to more quickly and effectively respond to customer service issues, improve restaurant operations, and boost customer satisfaction and loyalty.
