The people who buy your company's products and services drive your organization's profits. Without them, your business would fail. This is the reason the largest companies in the world allocate a sizable portion of their budget toward maintaining a professional customer service staff. They realize that long-term success in their space requires them to always keep their finger on the pulse of their clients. To that end, you can use customer satisfaction surveys to continuously gauge whether you and your employees are meeting your customers' needs.



In this article, we'll explain why it is critical to regularly survey those who buy your products and services. We'll describe how the timeless Pareto Principle perfectly encapsulates the relationship your organization likely shares with your client base. You'll also learn the value of asking the right questions on your questionnaire and interpreting respondents' answers properly.

The Pareto Principle

Though the Pareto Principle has been liberally applied to every field imaginable, it has found its home in business. The maxim states that 80% of your sales will be generated by 20% of your clients. That suggests that some relationships are more profitable to your company than others. The key is to identify opportunities to leverage the 20%.

Customer satisfaction surveys allow your company to gather valuable data about the people who buy from your organization. By surveying those people on a regular basis, you can determine whether they are satisfied with your staff and products. You can uncover areas of frustration that are causing a rift between your business and your clients - a rift that may eventually cause them to abandon you for a competitor. By using online surveys to gauge the satisfaction level of your customers, you can nurture the most profitable relationships.

Eschewing Simple Questions

Most customer satisfaction surveys are tainted from the beginning. The questions are often too simplistic to the point of encouraging misleading or useless data. For example, suppose you operate a restaurant and would like to measure the general level of satisfaction among your diners. Consider the question, "Were you satisfied with the service?"

First, each diner may have a different way of defining whether they are "satisfied." Second, the question is imprecise; a diner may be satisfied with the wait time, but dissatisfied with the attitude of the server.

Think about the types of answers that would yield the most value for your company. Then, try to craft precise questions that will encourage those answers from respondents.

Interpreting Responses Properly

Your customer satisfaction survey data can only offer value to your organization if the responses are valid and interpreted correctly. You can improve their validity by making sure each question is relevant to the respondent's experience. Using our restaurant example, asking a diner to rate your take-out service will yield poor data unless he or she has actually used that service. Given that many people might respond to irrelevant questions simply to finish your survey, you risk tainting your data pool with inaccurate answers.

Interpreting responses correctly will depend largely on the type of scale you're using to measure them. For example, suppose you asked diners whether they were satisfied, and provided them with a ten-point scale (1-10) on which to respond. Will the diner be able to determine the difference between a six and a seven? Will you?

Whenever possible, use a five-point scale to gauge whether your clients are satisfied with any particular aspect of your company. That creates a level of uniformity within your questionnaires. It makes it easier for your respondents to answer your questions, and simpler for you to interpret their responses.

Customer satisfaction surveys can provide unique insight into whether you and your employees are meeting your clients' needs. If they are executed well, they can be an invaluable tool for identifying areas that need improvement.