Why Small Business Owners Don't Ask for Feedback from Customers

Posted: Jul 15, 2010 |
One of the most important things you can do as a small business owner is to find out what your customers really want from your company. Without customers, of course, you have no business. Your bottom line every month depends on whether they decide to give you their money, So, how well are you taking care of them - from THEIR perspective?

To find out, you need to ASK them. But I've found that many small business owners don't make this a priority, for three main reasons.

1. They just haven't thought about it. They don't realize how important it is to ASK - and what they'll learn.

2. They're afraid of what they'll find out if they DO ask. That's understandable. The only kind of feedback many of them have ever gotten is when customers complain, so they may be afraid that's all they'll hear. But if they don't get at the truth, they risk losing customers, which is very costly to a business.

Research from SCORE shows that for every customer who bothers to complain, there are 26 others who say nothing. The good news is that if you make an effort to remedy a customer's complaints, between 82% and 95% will stay with you. Think about that for a minute. What money is your business losing by NOT finding out what the problems are and fixing them?

And in doing a customer feedback survey, you'll find out what you're doing well that they want you to continue doing. You may have blind spots about your strengths as well as areas for improvement.

3. Some small business owners think doing customer feedback surveys is too hard and complicated. Maybe you don't know what kinds of questions to ask or how to set one up. But it can be easy, fast and automated with survey software that's available today. Some programs even have done-for-you templates for surveys - like customer feedback, employee opinion and even individual performance - that make it easy for you to ask customers for their input.

The sooner you start asking your customers for their input, the quicker you can make changes to your business that attract and keep customers for the long-term.

Questions and Answers

Ask
200 Characters left
Rate this Article
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 0 vote(s)
    Feedback
    Print
    Re-Publish
    Source:  http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/why-small-business-owners-dont-ask-for-feedback-from-customers-2838779.html

    Article Tags:

    small business owners

    ,

    customer feedback surveys

    ,

    ask customers

    Small business expert Amanda Falconer says that there are three key questions that every business owner needs to answer at the end of FY11 to help develop their financial management skills.

    By: Amanda Falconerl Business> Small Businessl Jul 19, 2011
    Katrina Sawa

    Market Research could be the single most important thing a new business does prior to formulating their business plan, location or marketing strategy. Market Research will help you make informed decisions about your business.

    By: Katrina Sawal Businessl Jun 18, 2008

    BRAINTREE AND NEWTON, MASS... Can a smaller business make the mistakes that behemoths Chrysler and GM did? According to Larry Rice, CPA who is Director of Strategic Consulting at Rodman & Rodman Certified Public Accountants and Business Strategists, small businesses can certainly make those mistakes, just on a smaller scale.

    By: Steve Dubinl Finance> Accountingl Mar 25, 2010
    Joan Nowak

    Are you ready to start putting the power of systems to work in your business -- to build consistency, efficiency, productivity and profits? Here's the 10-step approach you can use to create systems that are effective for your small business.

    By: Joan Nowakl Business> Small Businessl Feb 05, 2010 lViews: 183
    Terry Green

    Twitter can be beneficial to small, medium, and large businesses to market their products and services.

    By: Terry Greenl Marketing> Social Marketingl Nov 20, 2009 lViews: 113

    In USA, one of the leading brands that offer diverse and high quality products promoting proper hygiene is Difresh USA. If you are looking for the best opportunity to grow and have the opportunity for a new business Difresh USA can help you for they are looking for Exclusive Local Distributors

    By: danieltorrisl Businessl May 31, 2012

    Getting clean and refresh doesn't sacrifice the place where you are for it should be a habit. Having a healthy body will allow you to do things right and good. And no matter where you are you should practice a healthy and proper hygiene even in little things you do.

    By: danieltorrisl Businessl May 31, 2012

    Maintaining a healthy and proper hygiene badly needs products that are truly effective and could truly answer our need for this. No matter where we are and at anytime we want to get clean we basically need these products right away and only Difresh USA can supply these in a very easy way

    By: danieltorrisl Businessl May 31, 2012

    The key reason why some firms thrive while some implode during an financial recession is still a puzzle to many people business-owning business owners. Some wrongly assume that all businesses should suffer via recessionary cycles. But the truth is that some companies are usually essentially recession-proof, and it is not necessarily because they are much larger, better known, or a lot more generously capitalized.

    By: danhoh75rel Businessl May 31, 2012

    Companies like Arch Coal (ACI) and Massey Energy (MEE) watched his or her stock climbed.

    By: pennystockegghead49l Businessl May 30, 2012
    Author Box
    Articles Categories
    All Categories
    Quantcast