How is Your Business Really Doing? Ask these 2 Questions

Whenever I speak on the subject of Proactive Service® , invariably someone will ask me how do we really know how we are doing? I mention that there are several measures to consider. Higher sales and revenues, increased customer satisfaction and improved levels of customer retention are just a few to consider. However, if you really want to know how you are doing, here are 2 questions to ask your customers through your surveys and during face-to-face visits:

1. Do our technicians bring you ideas that will help you operate more effectively?
2. Do you feel that you are better off for having known us?

The first question, “Do our technicians bring you ideas that will help you operate more effectively?”, goes to the heart of Proactive Service® – engaging our technicians in proactive business development. The idea is to ensure our technicians recognize that service is more than simply fixing things. Service also includes ensuring that our technicians use their experience and expertise to look for opportunities to help their customers and take the initiative to discuss their ideas with them. The response to this question will give you insight into what is really happening in the field.

The second question, “Do you feel that you are better off for having known us?”, (see my Blog of March 12, 2014) gives us insight into whether our efforts are valued by our customers. A customer that recognizes that they are better off for having you as their service contractor will be a delighted customer. A delighted customer will remain a customer, they will tell others and they will be willing to pay more for the additional value they are receiving.

A variant of the second question is also an excellent question to ask your technicians – “Are our customers better off for having known you?”. That question puts the technician’s role in perspective and helps them analyze their own actions to evaluate how well they are serving the needs of their customers.

Next time we will look at a scoring key for these questions to help you evaluate how well you are doing now, and enable you to track your progress over time.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Feedback is the breakfast of champions.”

Ken Blanchard