6 Ways to Gauge Your Company’s Performance

6 Ways to Gauge Your Company’s Performance

 

Paul Riddle
Contributing Writer
Success Group International

The average organization loses 15–35{938cd9e8dae860e800efc538277d4f7684e6f6981618ba70d1c34357a53c2e1f} of its customers each year, primarily due to poor service.  Do you know if your company is in danger of losing a third of your customers this year?  There’s only one way to find out before it’s too late.  Ask them.

There are raving happy fans and there are those that are raving mad.  Naturally, you want to shoot for the raving happy fans, but if you fall short of that, you want the raving mad customer.  At least you can help the mad customers and potentially save them.  It’s your quietly dissatisfied customers that are most dangerous!  They’re not quiet mad enough to tell you, but mad enough to tell everyone else.  Now, do you see how you might lose 15-35{938cd9e8dae860e800efc538277d4f7684e6f6981618ba70d1c34357a53c2e1f} of your customers?

Think about your last visit to a restaurant.  When you left, the manager may have asked you how your meal was, and you probably replied, “Great,” as a reflex.  But in reality, everything was poor and you’re not coming back—but the restaurant thinks you are.  They’ve lost you, and they may have lose your friends, family members, and co-workers.

If you can offer clients the type of service that connects with them, they’ll be raving fans.  Are your customers fans today?  Or are they silently killing your business?  You need to know… But how?

Here are 6 Ways to Gauge Your Company’s Performance:

  1. Comment cards – Every business on the planet uses comment cards, but they are a simple way to get feedback from your clients.  However, do you do anything to entice your clients to fill them out, and do you call them afterwards to thank them for filling out the cards?  Even happy clients might need a reason to let you know it.
  1. Website comments – Obviously, more and more of our world takes place on the web nowadays, so integrate your comment cards or feedback form into your website.  Direct your clients to the website after you complete a job, and that way you’ll capture their email address too.  Be sure to thank them for leaving feedback, and with their email address, you could even send them a coupon or online gift certificate.
  1. Focus groups – If you want to know your clients’ opinions, just ask!  You could invite a small group of clients that you haven’t heard from to a focus group.   It would give you a great chance to break the silence and see if they were happy with your service, and most people enjoy giving their opinion when they know it will make a difference, so this is a chance to see what you can improve in your company.
  1. Happy calls – Be sure to follow up with each homeowner after service.  It’s a simple step to get their feedback after the job by calling them to make sure that everything was satisfactory.
  1. Personal stop-bys – Is it possible to occasionally stop by a home and get feedback from customers on the spot?  Think about the impression that would leave on a homeowner if the owner of the business came by while your electrician was there to ensure that everything was going well.  Consider doing it once or twice a week.  Plus, it will keep your electricians on their toes.
  1. Do a little investigating – With everything happening online today, it’s not too hard to find out all the information you want to know about a company.  What’s out there about your company?  Type your company name into any of the popular search engines and see what they’re saying about you.  If someone is dissatisfied, attempt to respond to their comment and ask that they call you, so that you can hopefully address their issue.  Better late than never.

Those are just a few ways to see if your clients are raving happy or mad.  Just be sure to break that silence before it’s too late.

 

 

About the Author: Paul Riddle, Vice President, Success Group International

Paul Riddle has over 25 years of hands‐on experience as GM, COO, CEO, and owner of service companies specifically in the mechanical and restoration segments. Throughout his career, he has personally trained the owners and employees of hundreds of businesses, including several turnaround situations.  His hands‐on training for owners and their employees has been in the areas of business planning, sales & marketing, and company culture. Paul enjoys applying his knowledge and experience working directly with business owners and their employees to increase profits, improve the company’s present value, and unlock the intrinsic value of the business when sold. Paul joined SGI in 2009 as the VP of Operations.