How are you doing?

In the last month, I've had both great and horrible experiences with companies. In both cases, I took the time to write a review. That's the problem with leaving customer feedback to chance; you generally only get the extremes. People who are extremely happy or extremely angry.

Each year, various companies ask Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) to determine their top priorities. Always high on the list is customer feedback. In a March report from The Pipeline, they identified the critical need for asking and understanding customer needs, wants and desires:

Surveys: Sending out interactive surveys to new and existing customers is a great way to get an idea of what's on their minds. In doing so, you can create a record of priorities at different points in time.

RAB conducts a member survey each year. We would love it if you would take five minutes and complete the survey right now. Please hurry, the deadline to complete the survey is Tuesday, May 23, 2023.

Technology makes it easy to regularly and consistently ask your customers how you are doing. You can also identify key trends you want to benchmark or watch for yearly changes. It's standard practice now when buying something online to receive a survey to rate your experience. Not adopting this practice can allow minor issues to become major problems by the time they are discovered.

A simple web search will deliver top online survey solutions. Some are free, some are paid.

From a salesperson's standpoint, surveys help you provide the level of service your customers want. From a management perspective, surveying your customers can help you identify skill gaps or systems issues that might be keeping customers from doing more business with you.

Knowing is always better than not knowing, especially with complaints or problems. Surveys can also provide you with a wealth of testimonial material to use in your marketing, prospecting and business development.

Please take five minutes if you haven't already and complete the RAB Member Survey.

Jeff Schmidt is the SVP of Professional Development. You can reach him at Jeff.Schmidt@RAB.com. You can all so connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn.