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Five Ways to Increase Customer Survey Response: Web or Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

May 17, 2011 by Confero Inc.

A concise survey invitation increases response rates. Basics such as good grammar and correct spelling are obvious, but companies also need to consider brief wording. Companies should partner with the survey provider to develop a unique invitation that will capture customer’s attention and encourage them to respond.
Communicate how long it will take to complete the survey– and deliver as promised. Differing opinions exist about survey length, and it can be challenging for companies to balance the need for customer feedback in many areas while offering a survey that is not too lengthy. Many times the invitation asks customers to complete a “short” survey, however, when customers dial in or access the link to the survey, they discover that survey completion takes longer than expected. With a long survey, customers may abandon the survey before completion. And worse, they probably will not participate in a future survey based on this one experience.

Our experience shows that surveys with a maximum of 10 questions receive the best response rates. Conduct trials internally and make note of how long the IVR or web survey takes to complete. After completing the internal tests, include how long it will take customers to complete the survey on the invitation.

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25 Reasons for Companies to Gather Intelligence

May 17, 2011 by Confero Inc.

Competitive Reasons

1. Measure your competition’s phone skills. You may know how well your employees handle incoming phone requests for information on your company, but do you know how effective the competition’s employees are during phone experiences? Gathering intelligence with competitive mystery shops allows you to measure how well your employees stack up against the competition.

2. Assess competitors’ in-person customer service. It’s equally important to know how your employees rank against the competition in terms of in person customer service experiences. Are there areas where the competition is “wowing” the customers? If so, is it enough to make customers want to buy from the competitor company rather than your company?

3. Learn about competitive product/service offerings. Many times, it isn’t easy to gather information on competitor offers. With competitive mystery shops, mystery shoppers pose as regular customers and therefore can gather objective information on the latest competitor products and services.

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May 2011: Low Hanging Fruit: These Stats Show Opportunities to Best the Competition

May 17, 2011 by Confero Inc.

Unhappy customers talk more than you think. Customer Service Manager reports that an unsatisfied customer tells 9-15 others about the negative experience. 13% of disgruntled customers tell more than 20 people about their problems.
Seventy percent of Americans will spend more at places that deliver excellent customer service. A majority of respondents (70%) in a recent American Express survey indicated that they are willing to spend 13% more with companies that they feel provide great service. The American Express customer service study also revealed that last year, only 58% of Americans said that they would spend 9% more with companies that provide outstanding customer service. Another eye opening finding: six in ten Americans do not think that companies are placing more emphasis on customer service. The study was completed in February 2011 and the results were released on May 3rd.

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25 Customer Service Corrections Effectively Measured by Mystery Shopping

Apr 07, 2011 by Confero Inc.

Making it Difficult for Customers to Contact You: Many companies have “contact us” email forms on their websites, and for some, this is the only manner in which customers may easily contact them. Companies frequently desire to measure how easy it for customers to locate contact information on their website. As an example, one of our clients discovered that it was difficult for mystery shoppers to simply search for a company location nearest them. Online mystery assessments uncover areas critical to a customer’s ability to find and contact you.

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Mystery Shopping ROI: Suggestive Selling Online Calculator Tool

Apr 07, 2011 by Confero Inc.

Companies use mystery shopping, IVR and web surveys and other measures of customer experience in an effort to increase customer satisfaction, which will hopefully turn into customer loyalty. If your company is considering starting a customer experience measurement program (or if you are already using one) it may be helpful to calculate what the potential return on investment may be.