Customer surveys are essential to establish that you’re successfully leading all those who’ve chosen you already—helping ensure recurring visits, a lower cost of marketing (referrals) and more profitable transactions (share of wallet). Great companies know their customers.The key to long-term growth and profitability – it turns out – is knowing your competition’s customers, with the same rigor you know your own.
PREDICTING LONG-TERM GROWTH
In “The One Number You Need To Grow,” the Harvard Business Review observes: “many companies—striving for unprecedented growth by cultivating intensely loyal customers—invest lots of time and money measuring customer satisfaction. But most of the yardsticks are complex, yield ambiguous results, and don’t necessarily correlate to profits or growth. The good news is, you don’t need expensive surveys and complex statistical models. You only have to ask your customers one question:
“How likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?” The study, conducted among 400 companies in more than a dozen industries, correlated long-term profitability with the answer to this single question.
The bar is high.On a scale of 1-10 (poor to great) a score of 9 or 10 — is pass. Anything below represents those who are “passively satisfied,” or “detractors.”
The answer: prioritize the competitive gaps which must be closed in order for customers — and your competitors’ customers — to choose you first. Then, engage your team to eliminate the barriers to being first choice in the market. That’s real value creation!
The reasons you weren’t chosen becomes the road-map to take market share and establish brand leadership.