Keep surveys short, simple, nuanced.
When it comes to Client Feedback Best Practices, it’s something many firms tend to overthink. Client Savvy frequently hears a common excuse when we first meet with professional services firms, “Our clients don’t have time for surveys.” We also know from experience that your clients are not interested in “talking” to a computer or robot.
Your clients want to talk with you!
As such, a feedback survey needs to be exceedingly short – taking no more than two or three minutes to complete. Why make them long and difficult when feedback isn’t to replace conversations, it’s to prioritize them!
Simplicity becomes a key part of that. Keep it easy so your clients don’t waste time figuring the system out.
And yet, we want to capture enough nuance that you know what’s going on, and how to respond.
Key Drivers
Based on 17 years of research, we’ve identified a few key drivers of loyalty (and experience) that matter most to clients:
- Helpfulness – How well does our team anticipate the help you need?
- Responsiveness – How effectively do we respond to your requests?
- Quality – How well does our process provide work of appropriate quality?
- Accuracy – Evaluate the accuracy of our guidance and suggestions.
- Schedule – How well do we manage your project schedules?
- Scope and Fees – How well do our fees match our agreed scope?
- Other Comments – Please provide any additional feedback in the text box below.
Other topics occur frequently in situations that call for it. For example, if your firm provides construction services in a nuclear power plant, “safety” is a critical driver! The key is to identify what matters most to your clients and ask the fewest questions possible to identify when and where a conversation needs to happen.
We have developed more than 5,000 survey templates for our clients addressing the phase/event/subject, service provided, primary recipient, and type of business. Simplicity and nuance matter.
The consistency of the questions and scoring mechanism enables responders to learn what’s being asked at key points in the project and to provide feedback to relevant questions quickly while skipping questions that may not be relevant to them.
Remember, the score and the feedback are not as important as the insight they provide to facilitate a discussion that will enhance your relationship with the client. The scores don’t matter – the conversation does!
If you would like to begin getting data-driven feedback from your clients, we’re ready to help.
