Rachel Staggs
Many Advisers have recently asked me about the topic of client surveys, “How do we?” “Should we?” and so forth. As a passionate believer in client surveys, I was more than keen to put some proven tips on paper (so to speak!).
Mistakes I find many Advisers using are not planning beforehand and then, afterwards not actually doing anything with the findings – massive opportunity!
Below are eight tips to help you when you conduct your client surveys:
1. Plan
Decide on what you want to get out of the survey. Don’t waste this golden opportunity. If there is something your business is considering introducing, for example, social media or a new service, this is the perfect opportunity to engage with your clients and get their feedback.
2. Who
At some stage every client should be asked their views about your business but perhaps not at every survey. This could be a good time to segment your database and target your client surveys. Remember people are buying you, a service not a product so views can be quite different.
3. What
Don’t go overboard with the number of questions you ask. The aim to get useful information from these surveys not interesting. Perhaps aim for 5 questions but 5 brilliant questions that will give you feedback about your business that you can act on rather than praise yourself for.
4. Simple
Write your questions in simple plain English – nothing too tricky – remembering that time is precious!
5. How
Your next decision is how to conduct these surveys. Typical chooses are 1) Adviser does it – no-one likes confrontation so responses might not be ‘true’ 2) Email survey – can be impersonal so ensure you have the correct client details and the email is addressed to the person 3) outsourced to a third party – best option for ‘true’ views
6. Next
Thank everyone who participated in the surveys. No gifts required just a nice sincere thank you. Feel free to share the common responses (without naming names) to those that took part.
7. Action
If you’ve asked useful questions you’ll receive useful comments that you can use to either grow your business or to make changes to. Make sure this gets done. If clients have participated in a survey and see no change – where’s the value?
8. Finally
Use any data you get back from the surveys in your marketing; your website, social media and so forth – extremely powerful.
Talking to your clients through client surveys, when done properly, can be one of the most effective actions you can take in your business. Surveys for survey sake are a waste of everyone’s time but surveys to engage and find out useful information are GOLD!
By Rachel Staggs SRS Consulting
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SRS Consulting are hosting a free webinar to learn more about how you can use client surveys in your Advise business effectively. Click here to register.
