CUSTOMER SURVEYS MAKE MONEY: Even a high cost survey is many times less than the cost of losing one customer.  Here are some revealing numbers from The Value Profit Chain by Heskett, Sasser and Schlesinger:

• It costs 5 times to attract a new customer than to keep an old one.

• For every customer who complains, there are 26 who remain silent.

• An average “wronged” customer tells 8 to 16 people about you.

• 91% of unhappy customers never purchase services from you again.

• 82 to 95% will keep buying from you if you resolve their complaint.
  

Imagine a customer who spends $100 a week, that’s $5200 a year switching to your competitor.  Over a ten year period, that’s $52,000.  Imagine 10 customers defecting.  Now you’re looking at real money…over half a million dollars that’s going to your competitor and not you.

Your customers will tell you what they need so they’ll be happy to stay with you, but you have to ask them.

EMPLOYEE SURVEYS MAKE MONEY: To gauge the potential ‘value’ of a survey,  calculate its effect on employee turnover…

Many organizations rely on survey data to confront and control turnover, one of the highest costs of running any business. For that purpose alone, a well-designed survey is extremely cost effective. Compare the cost of any annual survey to the cost of losing just two employees using these turnover figures as your guide:

• American Management Association says the cost of hiring and training a new employee can vary from 25% to 200% of salary.

• The Hay Group study estimated the cost of replacing workers range from 50% of salary of  hourly staff to 150% for a professional.

• Society for Human Resource Management cites 30-50% of the annual salary of entry-level, 150% of middle level, and up to 400% for specialized, high level employees.

• The Saratoga Institute (Pricewaterhouse/Coopers) estimates cost of employee turnover is 100% to 200% of the leaver’s pay and benefits.

• A US Family Medical Leave Act study found that turnover costs for a manager average 150% of salary.

• The Resource Development Group puts the cost to replace one customer service representative earning $18,000 annually is nearly $58,000 which is 322% .

It is not difficult to calculate that a 10% reduction in employee turnover is worth more money than a 10% increase in productivity, or a 10% increase in sales. One of the most common applications of a survey is to identify the likely causes of turnover so you can do something about it. Resulting savings go straight to the bottom line.

ASK AND PEOPLE WILL ANSWER: What do your customers and employees already know about your business that you need to find out…and fast?

I don’t know. And if you haven’t asked them, you don’t either. But after 30+ years in the survey business, I predict you what you will learn by asking customers and employees:

• What do you expect from us that you aren’t getting?
• What do you find difficult about working here or doing business with us?
• What changes would you most like to see in the way we conduct business?
• Who can you turn to for getting your problems heard and resolved?
• How likely are you to remain our customer/our employee?
• What is helping and what is hindering you in striving to reach your business/career goals?
• What actions can we  take quickly to improve your bottom line/your work environment?

TRY ASKING: Start a conversation with your customers and employees…the results will surprise you. No one person, however gifted, can ever see the entire organization with the same detail and clarity as its customers and members can. Their  knowledge and experience are your competitive edge, but only if you learn what they know and put it to work for your business. If you ask them questions they recognize as relevant and worth answering, they will answer. Customers and employees alike want to keep management informed. It’s in their best interest to do so. Ask regularly, and you’ll create a dialog that leads to continual innovation and improvement.

Your customers and employees already know where many of their problems are in your organization, although they may not have the authority or management skills to change any. That’s not a problem, because you do.

This is where I come in. I’ve spent more than 30 years helping businesses of all sizes, in just about every industry you can imagine and 10 different countries, initiate collaborative conversations with their staff.

I bring the survey expertise developed in large companies with big budgets over to small and medium size companies…with small budgets. Working together, with some technical assistance from me, you and your employees can:

• Finally quantify your current customer and employee starting points and progress
• Learn what stands in the way of meeting your customer and employee goals
• Determine the best action to take so you can achieve your goals

Then you can implement a cost-effective action plan that will create the results you seek.

Take a minute and imagine what that would do within your organization. If everyone in your company started cooperating to move your business to the next level of success, do you think:

• Customer satisfaction and employee engagement would increase?
• Customer and employee turnover would decrease?
• Revenue and profits would grow?

Yes. Yes. And yes. And after 30+ years in this line of work, I can tell you, it’s intensely gratifying to watch it happen. When the survey process is handled well, people get excited. Line staff starts feeling like management is listening, executives can finally see clearly what needs changing, everyone benefits. Imagine that!

Sound good? Then we should talk. Working with me is different from working with most employee survey firms.

Call 503-241-0595 today. Your initial consultation is free.