GET FEEDBACK FROM YOUR AUDIENCE

Do you have loyal employees? Low turnover? That's a good thing, right? Well yes, for ongoing operations. Here's an interesting dilemma.....want to improve your business and generate new ideas for your customers? Don't just rely on ideas from those loyal employees. Problem is.....they are no longer objective about your business. You need to get feedback directly from your customers!!

So, how do you go about getting feedback, on a regular basis, from your audience? At a reasonable price. If you are a small to mid-size business, it might be too expensive for you to implement a custom research project, with a professional market research firm. While this is often preferable.....one in-depth customer satisfaction survey with a couple hundred responses can easily cost you $15,000 - $30,000.

Good news.....there are some excellent internet tools that you can use to probe your audience. Services like Survey Monkey, Zoomerang, and others. Your requirement is to be collecting email addresses for your customers and prospects and then structure the questionnaire. You can do this yourself or better yet, have someone help you who has some experience with market research.

I prefer Zoomerang.com They have several pre-formatted surveys that can fit your needs. Sign up to their service, then pick a format (like customer satisfaction, employee morale, etc.) and next edit the questions to make it more appropriate to your specific audience. Send it out and read the results!! Importantly, do this 1 - 2 times per year and look for the trends. You are trying to move the needle and improve......this means that the trend is important to see if you can better serve your customers. Go for it!! I think you will like it.