When you send people email surveys, you are giving them homework, and people have enough annoying and frustrating things to do in their lives without you piling on.
Rather, consider a brief phone interview, which has the following advantages:
You can hear the customer’s tone of voice, pacing, cadence, and energy. And you can react to it, comment on it, and follow up on it. Can’t do that on a survey.
You can dig into interesting matters, and ask follow-up questions, going deeper on particularly relevant topics. Can’t do that on a survey.
You can be silent after the customer is done speaking, giving him or her time to think further and add details you may not even know to ask about. About 50% of the time I am silent on these interviews I do for clients, the person I am speaking with volunteers information that I did not ask about.
You pour cement on your relationship with your customer. “I would like your thoughts and feedback so that I can serve you better.” That’s your message. Further, they pour cement on their relationship with you by spending time with you. “You’re one of my top suppliers and partners, and I am happy to give you this feedback.”
You can catch up about personal matters, family, and plans. Can’t do that on a survey.
You get a depth of information and detail that goes far beyond a survey. Your return on this interaction is so much higher than the typical no-response survey would bring.
You will most likely be the only person asking your customer for such a conversation, which makes you stand out from the crowd. Frankly, it makes you singular and permanently memorable. Versus an electronic survey, which makes you spam.
Finally, due to the good feelings you will build during your call, the odds are quite high that your customer will increase their business with you.
A phone interview brings all this goodness.
But an email survey brings your customers annoying homework.
Which would you rather bring to your customers?
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