How Am I Doing?

Wednesday, 28 September 2005 13:03

There are two ways to find out what your customers think of your business: 1. Look at your accounting ledger. 2. Ask your customers.

Your accounting ledger will show you income and expenditures. If your income is greater than the expenses, then great! Keep up the good work. If not, you will have to find out whether the expenses have increased or income has decreased compared with previous months and previous years. Sit down with your accountant and find out where you can change your focus to bring your business back on the track to success.

Sending out surveys, talking to customers, encouraging feedback tells your customers that you care about them, and more importantly, you care about their opinions. Putting surveys on the back of coupons encourages your customers to provide feedback, and come back to your business to cash in that coupon. Talking to customers is slow and time consuming, but with good interviewing skills, you can follow-up on questions and get more in-depth answers than from surveys. Take the time and let the customers know you value your opinion.

Then act on their suggestions. Identify which suggestions fit with your current goals and objectives and implement them. Keep regular communication with the customers who provided suggestions to ensure that you have understood their meaning.