This Week's Tip!

"Today's competitive marketplace requires every organization to listen to the voice of its customers." Judith Miller, Facilitator and Consultant Remodelers Advantage

Taking Your Clients' Temperature

Here’s an unusual—and effective—take on customer satisfaction surveys. Instead of surveying your clients at the completion of their project, survey them at regular intervals during the project to gauge their satisfaction and see if there are any problem areas you need to correct.

Craig Deimler, vice president and partial owner of Deimler & Sons Construction, Inc., in Harrisburg, Pa., calls his company’s regular customer surveys “temperature checks.” They consist of a series of questions that clients answer every 2 weeks. Deimler & Sons used to do the surveys on paper but recently converted the process to an online format (click here to see the survey questions). “Our production manager e-mails the survey link to our clients every 2 weeks rather than relying on them to go to our web site and do it,” says Deimler. “We want to make it easy on them.” 

The company began doing the temperature checks 2 years ago. The strategy provides a true representation of clients’ thoughts and feelings about their projects—and Deimler & Sons—as work on their homes progresses.

“It has benefited us greatly because some people will not talk directly to you about an issue, but have no problem putting it on a form,” says Deimler. “It has allowed us to make sure that what the project leader is telling us as far as the client’s satisfaction rating versus what the client says are one and the same and address any issues early in the process.”

If you’d like to get a better handle on your clients’ satisfaction, take Deimler’s advice and go for it by asking them for feedback—and be prepared to address concerns reflected in their answers. “Never be afraid to ask,” says the remodeler. ”If you don’t ask, you’ll never know.  If you don’t want to know or don’t plan on taking any action on the information, it’s better that you don’t do it in the first place.” 

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