Customer Service Survey Software

For many businesses, both large and small, customer service survey software is a must when it comes to seeking feedback on the products and/or services being offered. Any first-year business school student knows that it is much less costly to keep current customers coming back than it is to advertise for new customers. It's not really an exaggeration to say that repeat customers are a company's most valuable asset. The first year business school student also knows that an unhappy customer is likelier to spread the news of his or her poor experience than the satisfied individual. A business that wants to stay in business takes these two fundamental realities very seriously. Not even the household-name, regional and national retail chains are immune from the cumulative effect of having consumers turn to their competitors that are providing a more positive shopping atmosphere. Given a choice, people prefer to shop in clean stores with friendly employees rather than dingy stores with surly employees. By utilizing customer satisfaction survey software programs, businesses can obtain reliable feedback from the people who come inside their doors.

It's not only the business with a physical address or multiple locations that needs to be concerned about providing a positive experience for consumers. Online enterprises are equally bound, perhaps even more so, to the fundamental realities mentioned above. The management of internet stores also can benefit from using customer service survey software to determine how effectively they are providing a quality experience for online visitors and browsers. These online entrepreneurs know that a visitor is only a mouse click away from either making a purchase or exiting the site. If the visitor makes a purchase, he may be back again and may provide positive word-of-mouth advertising to family members and friends. But if the visitor exits without making a purchase, he may never return and the opportunity for a sale may be forever lost. Appropriate customer satisfaction survey software can help the online entrepreneurs to obtain information that can be used to ensure that the visitors to their online sites have a positive experience. Even if nothing is purchased on a first visit, a visitor who exited with a good feeling about the site may bookmark it for a later return and purchase.

Advanced customer satisfaction survey software may give the client the ability to access the data even as it is being gathered. The industry refers to this as "live data." With such up-to-date information, the client can quickly adapt policies and procedures to address any ongoing difficulties that are being uncovered through this information-gathering process. Another advanced feature allows a company to designate specific employees to receive alerts regarding particular responses or to receive requests that are included with a response. Perhaps a consumer has an unresolved problem regarding a particular product or service and this issue can be immediately routed to the employee who has the authority to address and resolve the issue. An unhappy customer may become an enthusiastic, breathing, walking advertiser for a company that goes the second mile to resolve a situation. Jesus taught this principle in the Sermon on the Mount: "And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you" (Matthew 5:40-42). This principle, known in some circles as the "second mile smile," applies to businesses as much as it does to individuals.

Many companies who offer customer service survey software programs offer a variety of templates that can be modified to fit the needs of a specific client. They also will create custom surveys for those clients who need to find out very specific information from past and prospective customers. With many of these programs, the client is able to incorporate the business logo or trademark into the survey format which gives even a template-based form a customized look. A few of the more basic features offered by customer satisfaction survey software companies include distribution, tabulation, and reporting of results. Tabulation is the compiling of the responses. Since the survey questions almost always provide a means for quantifying the information, the tabulation is a mathematical calculation. The results are then placed in a report for further analysis.

The distribution can be done over the internet and through email. Of course, the email option usually means that the company has acquired a customer mailing list of individuals who have agreed that it is permissible for the company to contact them. The business may have obtained these email addresses in exchange for sending advance notice of sales or coupons for special promotions to the individuals. Some customer service survey software programs may include a more sophisticated distribution involves telephone call centers. For example, some receipts from physical retail locations, such as restaurants, come with the invitation to call a toll-free number and answer a few automated questions. At the end of the phone call, the person making the call is given a code of some type. When the consumer returns to the restaurant with the receipt and code, she is given a discount on her order. Other stores include websites that the consumer can visit to complete a survey. The consumer is then entered into a drawing for a cash give-away. These techniques enable to companies to get feedback on specific issues. Whether used by national chains or online stores, a customer satisfaction survey software program is a must for gauging consumer satisfaction and responding to consumer concerns. The responsive businesses will find themselves staying in business.

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