Follow the 9 tips below to make checking your customer's experience with your company as effective as possible

We have already discussed the many advantages of checking your customer's experience with your company. We have also written about the methods for checking, and it won't hurt to summarize the most important tips in one post and repeat them once more. To obtain useful feedback, you need to thoughtfully design the questionnaire and send it to the customer at the right time.

Based on customer experiences with the Artur system and foreign findings, we can highlight 9 key factors for correctly checking your customers' satisfaction. As with anything, it may turn out that one of the factors needs to be adapted for your company, but these are certainly the best starting points for managing your customer experience.

1. First, ask for an overall satisfaction rating with your company.

You are interested in the customer's satisfaction before influencing it with sub-questions. If possible, first show them only the overall satisfaction rating, and only after the customer submits the rating, serve them with additional questions. This way, you will get the most realistic assessment of their satisfaction after interacting with your company.

2. Don't overdo the satisfaction scale; stick to the proven most effective one.

The most widely used scale worldwide is 1 to 5. Exceptionally, even a 1 to 3 scale can work, but never offer the customer too many choices, such as 1 to 10. In this case, it will be difficult for the customer to choose an appropriate rating, and it will be difficult for you to interpret what, for example, a rating of 6 means.

3. Limit the number of questions you ask the customer.

You want to get as many customer ratings as possible, not just the ratings of those who have enough time and patience to complete your questionnaire. If your tool allows it and the customer agrees, you can ask them additional questions after they have completed the basic questionnaire.

4. Use vocabulary understandable to the customer and avoid internal jargon.

If the customer does not understand the question, it will be difficult for them to provide a realistic rating. Put yourself in the customer's shoes and start from their experience. Use words that the customer would use to describe their interaction with your company, and you interpret the answers in a way that you will understand within the company.

5. Do not ask intrusive or personal questions.

In most cases, such data does not add value to the company. You will probably not perform the service differently if the customer is a woman between 30 and 35 years old, from Koper, earning 1200 EUR per month, will you? Furthermore, customers are increasingly sensitive about whom they entrust their personal data to, so do not delve into this area.

6. Include an option for free text entry.

Allow the customer the option to express their opinion. It's quite possible they will tell you something you haven't anticipated in the questions. And precisely such spontaneous opinions can be the most valuable for your company.

7. Do not make it difficult for the customer with too many required (mandatory) answers and (too) frequent reminders.

Everyone's time is short during the day. Consider how much time you would take to provide feedback to a company you visited today. Your goal is to get information about satisfaction with your company, and all additional questions that are not crucial should not be mandatory. Do not overdo the reminders either. If the customer did not respond to the invitation to provide feedback, perhaps remind them again. Once. If they do not respond to the reminder either, they probably have no interest in leaving you their answer.

8. You will get the best insight soon after the customer's purchase experience.

This factor may depend even more on the nature of your work. You may need to check satisfaction on the same day, or perhaps only a month after the customer's interaction with your company. In any case, the universal advice is to check satisfaction when the customer's memory of the experience is still fresh and when they can already provide a realistic assessment of satisfaction.

9. Respond *quickly* and *personally* to every negative feedback.

A dissatisfied customer will expect your response to their experience. Prove to them that you care and respond as quickly as possible. Do not attach generic answers that you have written for other experiences; respond directly to their experience and try to gain a new opportunity to impress them.