Find out what your clients are saying
about you

by Scott Williams   We all say customer satisfaction is important to us. But how many go "above and beyond" (a phrase used by two recent homebuyers in the accompanying article to describe their REALTORS®’ actions) to find out how to better serve our customers and clients?

You could always ask them, but chances are they won’t tell you how they really feel–especially when they have a complaint. Kevin Cacioppo, writing for the September 2000 issue of QualityDigest.com, reported that only 4% of dissatisfied customers complain. Complain to you, that is. They will tell other people, though–on average, nine others.

Satisfied customers will tell five people about their good treatment, Cacioppo reports, and a "very satisfied" customer is six times more likely to re-use and/or recommend you than someone who is just satisfied.

How much is customer satisfaction worth? A 5% increase in loyalty can increase profits by 25% to 85%, Cacioppo reports, in part because it costs five to eight times as much to get new customers as it does to hold on to old ones.

So how do you find out what your customers and clients think? A customer-satisfaction survey is one way to get feedback. You should ask customers without requiring them to identify themselves. (Many surveys give people a choice to identify themselves or remain anonymous.) A customer-satisfaction survey can be as simple as a postcard you design yourself or as complex (and expensive) as hiring a firm to design, conduct, and analyze a survey for you.

Doing it yourself has its advantages, but you may not have time, and it probably won’t be scientific.

Search the Internet under customer satisfaction surveys and you’ll come across several companies who design, conduct, and analyze surveys, many via the Internet.

The Business Research Lab, www.busreslab.com, has even geared a survey specifically to REALTORS®. It’s described as a two-page, two-color paper questionnaire designed to be folded and mailed back with postage pre-paid. The questionnaire tracks satisfaction of people who have sold homes through a REALTOR® via ratings of 17 REALTOR® attributes.

Photo © Corbis Images.

Buyers & sellers, visit www.texasrealestate.com.
REALTORS®, visit www.tar.org.