MARKETING: THE CLIENT SATISFACTION SURVEY.

• Author: Waugh, Troy A.

The client satisfaction survey is one of the most misused and misunderstood marketing tools used by CPA firms. The survey frequently fails to provide partners with useful information and may even give them information that is misleading. The most important reason to perform a client satisfaction survey is to find out what your clients' intentions are. For example, does the client intend to use your services again?

Unless you ask clients about their intentions, your satisfaction survey will not work. For example, Sony Corporation asked teenagers in a focus group which color portable radio/CD player they preferred--black or yellow? The overwhelming response was "yellow." At the end of the three-hour session, the teenagers were told to pick out their choice of a free boom box as a gift for participating in the focus group. The majority walked out with a black radio. The key to client intention is not what people say, it's what they do.

Consider the following when you prepare your next client satisfaction survey so you can pinpoint your clients' real intentions--what they are planning to do.

Ask the right questions

The following questions are designed to reveal client intention:

Will you come back to us for your next need?

Have you referred us or will you be doing so?

Would you use us for other services?

How many times have you been satisfied with a restaurant, but never returned? The purpose of your survey, therefore, is to better understand the intentions of your client, not how good your service has been.

Design a competent survey methodology

Even a 35% response rate from clients may not reflect the population of the client base. What about the 65% who did not respond? Were the responses from your best clients or your worst clients? Were the client responses provided by a decision-maker, influencer or someone else? For example, in a recent research report, hotel owners learned the predominant responders to in-room video surveys were children left unattended in the hotel room--not the parents who chose the hotel and paid for the room.

Design a methodology that provides you with reliable feedback on your most important clients. For example, personal or telephone...