Customer Followup Survey Suggestions?

RowdyRed94

I'd like to develop a survey for both our past customers and those people we bid jobs for and send it out with an incentive program for new customer referrals. I'd like to find out what our customers liked and didn't like about us, as well as why people chose to go elsewhere.

Anyone do anything like this?

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Clint - carpenter, coordinator, webmaster

realpurty2

We've sent these out with every job and every bid , even includes a self addressed stamped envelope, but no one has ever sent them back. I've stopped sending them and started placing a follow up phone call 3 days after completion.

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Woman in a Man's World.

RowdyRed94

Yeah, we'd offer a free dinner or something. Our customers are often so happy that they volunteer for testimonials and such. Getting them to fill out a form may be something altogether different.

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Clint - carpenter, coordinator, webmaster

RowdyRed94

I forgot we have a 'marketing' forum. Move this if you like.

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Clint - carpenter, coordinator, webmaster

Mike Finley

My advice is to change your timing, change your use of this item, and disconnect it from your referral program and you will get better results. I think you are really mixing up the purpose of the survey and setting yourself up for failure.

I get a pretty consistent 50% return rate of customer satisfaction surveys.

Mike Finley

If you want to survey your unawarded contracts I would do it over the phone. I think you will be holding your breath waiting for someone who didn't choose your company to take the time to send you a reply as to why.

Get a different person to call them, presenting themselves as a customer service representative just calling to find out why they chose a different contractor. People will tend to be more truthful to a 3rd party then if you call them yourself, they won't want to hurt your feelings or risk a confrontation if they recognize the caller as the person that did the estimate. Consumers are used to 3rd parties surveying them and will tell them all kinds of things as long as they believe the person they are talking to is not presuring them to purchase and is disconected from the person who did the estimate. You might want to have your wife call them.

Peladu

So, do you think you're going to get any answer other than..'because of $$$' ?

theworx

I agree, why would you spend the time/money to try and get the opinions of people you didn't work for?? They wasted your time and now you're going to try and waste theirs?? Concentrate on customers you've worked for when the job went great (and you know who they are). If they were happy with the experience overall, I'm sure you can at very least, use them as a reference.

Concentrate on why you're winning the jobs instead of why you're losing them (what did you do different if anything?). Might only mean they hired a guy who charges $10.00/hr and got the $10.00/hr result. Happens all the time and "Boo Hoo" for them if they aren't happy. Best time to find out why you didn't get the job is during the conversation when the customer is telling you they hired someone else. A lot of times they have told me the reason why (although some don't)!!!

Mike Finley

It could be the most valuable information he ever gets his hands on.

ProWallGuy

Word.

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Wallpaper Hanger St. Louis
Digital Murals Installation

theworx

I agree Mike. But is it worth your time and effort "AFTER THE FACT" is my point. I stated the "BEST TIME TO FIND OUT WHY YOU LOST THE JOB IS AT THE POINT YOU ARE BEING TURNED DOWN AND TALKING PERSONALLY WITH THE POTENTIAL CLIENT" (most times they will be willing to tell you why). If it's your price, reputation, scheduling, etc... Just lost a $100,000 office reno yesterday and the client told me we were $2000 high (in our contingency). If they didn't offer that info to me I wouldn't be sending them mail in a few months to ask why they didn't hire us or how their experience was looking at my bid.

Not to mention, why have a third party start phoning your lost jobs "AFTER THE FACT" (like your wife or whoever). Why waste your significant other's time as well? In my opinion, concentrate on the successful jobs (send them the surveys) and get great references from them. Good to know why you lost the job but as it's been said on this forum, you gotta make a living (you can't adjust your price to compete with the $10.00/hr guys).. Figure out from your responses what you do right and keep doing it!!!

Mike Finley

I understand what you are saying and you are probably getting right answers, but it wouldn't be the first time a customer would avoid telling you the truth. I agree with your example it would make absolutely no sense for a sub to ask GCs all the time why they didn't get the work, the answer 10 out of 10 times is most likely going to be "you were too high". In the commercial world you are doing business with another business man, you speak the same language and you run in the same circles, also just about everything revolves around price - the word bid is everywhere, homeowners are totally different animals, we even use words like estimate and quote. Commercial world there is no stigmatism on the buyer to tell you your price is too high, it reflects back on you that you aren't competitive, in the homeowner world it doesn't work that way there is the embarrassment of the homeowner looking like he is "cheap".

Selling to homeowners involves a much different sales process, most GCs aren't worried about you skipping town with their deposit, they aren't worried about you not doing a job correctly, they aren't worried if you are going to kill their kids and rape their wife while you are there or your guys are going to steal things from their dressers, I don't have to list it all, you get the idea that there are a lot of ingredients that homeowners weigh for hiring who they hire other than the price alone.

Never asking means you will never know for sure, maybe a customer will tell you something you never realized you were doing wrong. Maybe you will find out something your competition is doing that you never knew they were doing and be able to neutralize it.

Is it something you have to do everyday forever? No, not at all, but doing it even once might reveal to you something you never expected. If you do some surveying and basically just confirm that you aren't doing anything wrong then at least you know and can look else where. If it comes down to price then that shouldn't be the end of it. Then it would be time to find out the customers perception of your price. Find out where you are losing them. Price doesn't sell your services, value does. Maybe you aren't building value.

So come on now buddy this can't really be that much of a mystery is it? I'm always take a little back when contractors seem to think that contracting is a totally different animal than other businesses. Companies spend literally billions a year on surveying their customers to find out how to get an edge, find out where to tune or tweak their services or products, for some reason contractors get the idea that what they do doesn't conform to other businesses or business models, when in reality it's all exactly the same.

RowdyRed94

Thanks to Mike and the others that offered tips.

I didn't really need anyone telling me what information is of no value to me. I can decide that for myself. Some of you are making assumptions about money, and in the segment of building I'm in, that's often only a small part of the total exchange. Much of it bears on "feel", or the psychological aspects of the transaction. That's what I'm after.

Man, there are more negative opinions and answers around here than at any forum I've been on. People sure like to tell you you're wrong. Before you point the figer at me, know that I haven't seen this at other forums (at least to this degree). I wonder if the mentality of construction types is different than that of the public at large. I'd be willing to bet that the education level is lower here than the general public, so understanding of human factors is limited. That seems to align with my personal experience on the jobsite, too.

Great. I hijacked my own thread.

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Clint - carpenter, coordinator, webmaster

Peladu

OK Mr. Smartypants

Tom R

And yet you're the guy asking the questions!!

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http://www.tr-built.com

realpurty2

duh..um..i might be dumber dan dat dar rock, but i's gone and give yous my form dat has the querstions that we's askes our customers ifns you don't think I's too uneddycated to makes one. its here ifn you wants one

Attached Files

Company Evaluation.DOC (41.0 KB, 122 views)

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Woman in a Man's World.

RowdyRed94

Wisdom stems from realizing how much you don't know.

Thanks, Real. I'll check that out.

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Clint - carpenter, coordinator, webmaster