Buried Treasure
Digging can help you find nuggets of insight about your customers and their perceptions of your business.

By Ken DeSieghardt

Several years ago, Geraldo Rivera hosted a live broadcast of the excavation of the underground vaults of Al Capone. As the work crews dug away and Rivera gave us a history lesson on the famous gangster, our imaginations ran wild as to what would be unearthed. Money? Jewels? The bones of Capone’s archenemies? Not exactly. It turns out the vaults contained only a couple of empty liquor bottles, resulting in a red-faced host and millions of disappointed viewers.

Garbage In, Garbage Out
Small businesses often approach the prospect of “digging” for buried data about their customers in the same way—with fear that they won’t find much of value, and that they’ll be wasting their limited time and resources in making the effort.

Sometimes, they rely on a tepid “annual survey of customers” to glean insights that shed little meaningful light on changes from year to year, because the questions stay the same while the marketplace changes.

Or, they count on self-selected research tools like “comment cards” to gather opinions, ignoring the fact that such tools usually reflect only the polar opposites on the opinion spectrum, and leave out the large population in the middle who think things are generally fine.

Or, worse yet, businesses simply stop trying altogether and cut their research budget because “we already know what our customers think.”

Although such approaches may be fiscally prudent, they ignore the fact that customer opinions are shaped through day-in and day-out interactions. Waiting to find out what your customers think until the calendar says it’s time to take “the survey” (or simply skipping the process altogether), makes it mighty tough to jump on opportunities hiding just below the surface; or, worse yet, to fix problems you don’t know about before they put the customer relationship at risk.

The Time Is Now
When should you ask your customers for feedback? Every day. All the time. After every interaction.

Although such research tenacity may not always be practical or possible, it’s still a good idea to work toward a discipline that has you looking for opportunities to secure insight from your customers, rather than putting it off. After all, it’s been said that every interaction with a customer either enhances the relationship or damages it. Wouldn’t you rather know which it is—and why?

The next question, of course, is how to gather meaningful data that you can use in your business. Start by thinking of market research more as a here-and-now tool, rather than a global, state-of-the-company evaluation. Here are some ideas to get started:
•    With an order. If you ship products to customers, include a postcard (or a link to a Web-based questionnaire) with a handful of pertinent questions about the contents. Was the order correct? Was the person who took it friendly and helpful? If it was an online order, was the process easy? What would you like to see us offer more of? Less of?
•    During a project. Service clients may be used to getting a post-project, “How’d we do?” survey. But, if the project’s big enough, surprise them with a survey after reaching a major milestone. Ask about satisfaction with timing, budget, communication and output to date—anything that will allow you to correct course, if necessary.
•    After a call to customer service. When was the last time you called a company’s customer service department because everything was fine? Exactly. That’s why you should follow up each contact with your own customer service department with a brief survey. A few questions on a postcard—or better yet, delivered via telephone to at least a small sample―can reinforce a good experience, provide you insight on changes you might need to make on your protocols, or offer an additional opportunity for a still-unsatisfied customer to vent.
•    Out of the blue. Have a member of senior management call a random group of customers every so often. Provide a set of topics to be covered, but let the caller freelance the approach somewhat. You’ll get better information if it feels more like a conversation than a survey.

Like Geraldo Rivera’s trek underground, these expeditions come with no guarantees. You may find out how much you really did know about your customers, or you may discover data that can grow (or save) a customer relationship. One thing’s for certain, though—the act of asking will demonstrate how much you care. And that makes it worth picking up your shovel every once in a while.

Ken DeSieghardt is president of DeSieghardt Strategic Communications, LLC, a full-service marketing communications company located in Stilwell. He can be reached at (913) 897-6287, or .