Poll dancing – Part 2
One firm’s quest for client hearts & minds
Part 2 of 3 (Results)
So there I was; proud owner of my first ever client survey results.
My deepest fears populated the response options; it was time to see if they were true.
Question 1 (Multiple Choice)
Scanning the chart below, I was instantly relieved at two findings:
- Only one client had a problem with my rate.
- Most clients were feeling the GFC pinch.
At first blush, this suggested I wasn’t directly responsible for my 20% fall in earnings.
However, as the primitive nature of my main question became evident in these sterile bars, I thanked my wife for suggesting a second, open-ended question.
This was where the real gold lay.
Question 2 (Open Ended)
SurveyBob had a nifty function that let me download the data to a spreadsheet. My clients’ frank, open-ended responses mainlined me right into their brains.
I classified this generous feedback (modified where necessary to protect the innocent) into three categories:
A. Reassurance
- Your work is great.
- You guys rock!
- Your approach is professional, comprehensive and timely.
- Our business comes in spikes. When we’re back, so are you.
- You’ll certainly hear from us when we have the need again.
- All our clients know who you are, by name.
B. Home Truths / Suggestions
- You have not proposed a model of how you can add value to my business lately.
- A better understanding of who you are would allay concerns of the entity being dealt with.
- Do a special rate for Xmas!
- Try advertising in the technical writing space. People might look under those keywords for your service.
- Alert me to the services you offer, particularly when I am struggling with overload.
- A good idea to generate business for each other would be to introduce us to your client base.
- Please put me on your small business blog.
- You serve crap coffee at Empire House.
C. Things beyond my control
- No new project on the horizon.
- We haven’t had any full-on copywriting jobs of late.
- We need to use internal staff copy writers first.
- Sorry, but our organisation doesn’t see the value of an external provider for such things.
- The potential client was an [EXPLETIVE DELETED].
Mistake!
I’d planned to make the survey attractive by revealing the results to all participants.
I didn’t think this would include their open-ended comments.
WRONG!
Two mortified clients reported this to me. Equally mortified, I killed the survey. My apologies were accepted, but the early halt probably cost me some late responses.
What to do?
Despite this glitch, I had an unprecedented mother lode of intelligence. Never in the history of Empire had so much been drawn from so many by so few!
I had to work out what to do with it all. But before I’d started, two clients signalled their intention to give me more work. Great news!
I’ve since had a good think, consulted my business coach, made some preliminary moves and laid plans.
Read all about these in our thrilling Part 3 conclusion!
Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer, The Feisty Empire
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Hi Paul,
This has been very beneficial to your business and it is certainly better to know the truth (good or bad) than try to guess.
As a result we are instigating a similar process to staff to find out what they think about the business and management. The results will be interesting. Thanks for the great idea!
Hiya, Malcolm. Your idea sounds VERY interesting. I’ll be rapt if you’re at liberty to let us know how you get on. Thank you for your comment.
Thanks for sharing Paul. If you do not ask clients for feedback you are doing business in the dark or guessing as Malcolm said.
Also I noticed a few said they didn’t have the need, were you able to probe this a little further as it may uncover other opportunities that they had not thought of.
This could also be the case with have to use internal staff first. As an example a recruiter I know gets work by saying if internally it does not work out or it becomes bogged down, we thrive on the tough jobs. Just a thought.
Looking forward to reading part 3.
Susan
Many thanks for your good points, Susan! Faced with a finite ‘pie’ of work I have indeed sought to make it bigger since doing this survey.
I wrote a Corporate Blogging article and sent it to all my clients and prospects. The response has exceeded all my former business generation initiatives.
I’m currently sifting through a truckload of great feedback. I expect paying gigs to flow soon. Wish me luck! P.