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: 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.
