• by Jeff Meade , Op-Ed Contributor, April 18, 2022

You probably feel like you have a good handle on how your clients feel about your business. Would you be willing to bet money on your intuition? If you’re not eliciting client feedback via satisfaction surveys, you already are. 

Bolstering your lead generation and client management with client satisfaction surveys removes the unknowns that can cause risks and rifts in your relationship with customers. 

In terms of the benefits of customer feedback surveys, you want to see how clients perceive your business, and you want to reduce churn. Considering that reducing churn by 6% can lead to a more than 220% revenue increase, it’s a worthy endeavor. 

How might you retain more customers by sending out actionable client satisfaction surveys at routine intervals? As you begin to collect findings, you can use the information to uncover unmet needs and remove friction points from the client experience. When clients see that you’re taking their recommendations seriously, they’ll begin to share more. This can only deepen your trust bond and help you position your agency as one that’s improving continuously. 

The advantages of client satisfaction surveys don’t end there. One of the key upsides of gathering feedback is that you’ll end up sitting on a wealth of data. Over time, the data will help you get better at spotting trends and anticipating needs. Accordingly, you’ll more effectively manage the financial success of your portfolio thanks to the client insights you glean. 

Are there any downsides to client satisfaction surveys? They do take time and effort to construct, maintain, tweak, and analyze. Yet those supposed “cons” pale in comparison to working in the dark or solely on instinct. Remember: Most unhappy clients aren’t going to tell you they’re unsatisfied. They’ll just leave — and you’ll never know why. 

By joining the nearly four-fifths of businesses that are at least planning to engage customers through service activities like surveys, you can gain an endless supply of accurate customer feedback to drive improvement — and maybe drive out all those nagging suspicions that you’re missing opportunities left and right. 

How to Implement a Customer Satisfaction Survey

If you’ve never engaged in a client satisfaction survey program at your agency, here are a few pointers to get started. 

Commit to the process. 

Asking clients for insights is one thing. Doing something with those insights is another. If clients keep filling out surveys and you fail to respond to their requests, you won’t fare well. 

Be honest with yourself. Are you willing to do something different based on the information you receive? The answer must be “yes.” What you do post-survey will signal whether you care about your clients. 

Partner with a third party to collect reactions.  

Clients tend to be more open and honest on surveys when they’re not speaking with your business directly. After all, the emotional attachment is removed. It’s almost impossible to get a candid answer when you’re the one asking all the questions. 

Find a third-party business to help you develop and distribute your next client satisfaction survey. A third party injects objectivity and consistency into the mix. 

Solicit client feedback throughout the customer management lifecycle.  

Conducting surveys doesn’t have only top-of-funnel or mid-funnel value. It’s valuable at every stage of your give-and-take with customers. 

Even clients you’ve worked with for a long time should receive surveys or be led through a guided conversation. Frequently, they’ll have in-depth knowledge to share that you can use to understand how to improve client satisfaction. Plus, if they’re on the fence about switching agencies, they may tell you their concerns so you can stop them before they go. 

Stop wondering what clients really think about your business and start getting the scoop directly from them. With client satisfaction surveys, you can make wiser choices that wow your clients project after project.