The benefits of carrying out a customer survey to help your Will writing business (and how to do it)

Every successful business owner knows that one of the cornerstones of success is a thorough understanding of your clients and potential clients.

This is where a customer survey comes in.  It not only allows you to get valuable feedback on the service you are providing, but you can also use the survey to find out some helpful information to guide the marketing of your business – i.e., to attract more clients.

There are so many benefits to doing a customer survey.  Here are some of the main reasons to do a customer survey. At the end, I’ll give you some ideas of things you might like to include and a free tool you can use:

1 – People love the opportunity to let you know how you did. It demonstrates that you care. This is excellent customer service.

2 –  The feedback you get on the service you provide is invaluable and helps you to determine areas for improvement within your business.

3 – A customer survey helps you to understand your customers. It gives you deeper insight into what they want and why. If you understand your customers – a) you can serve them better, and b) it gives you the knowledge you need to attract more – because you can use this knowledge in your marketing messages.

4 – A customer survey is a great way to get back in touch with a customer. It’s a pleasant, nurturing communication that engenders loyalty, repeat business, and/or a referral.  For example, it could encourage your customers to update their Will or purchase something else (Top Tip – at the end of the survey, ask pertinent questions around whether you need to update their Will or if they need any other services you offer).

5 – If a client has had a bad experience with you – find out first-hand – rather than the client talk about it, thus reducing the spread of brand-damaging information.

6 – See negative feedback as opportunities. While most of us are afraid of bad news – in this instance, while yes, bad news is bad news, look at it this way… if you’ve been doing something ‘wrong’ – by putting it right, you have a quick way to improve your business.  And at least you know about it now. (Make sure you do fix it).

7 – Trends. If you complete customer surveys regularly, you will start to see trends develop, and this can help you plan your business and inform your strategic thinking.

8 – Regular customer surveys that position your client at the centre of your business and align your marketing, processes, service, and packages with their needs will help you to create a business with lower customer acquisition costs, higher customer retention rates, and higher spend per customer.

Tips to carrying out a successful customer survey

1 – Use ratings and scales, such as asking people to measure you on a scale of 1 -10. This kind of quantitative data makes the survey easy to interpret and is excellent for comparing results period-on-period.

2 – Use a mixture of open (so the client can type freely) and closed (where you give them specific options) questions. The open questions give you qualitative data, which, while harder to interpret, might give rise to some ideas and information you weren’t expecting, so it can be hugely valuable.  Be sure to include some closed questions, too, though.  A good balance is best. I usually weight mine more heavily towards closed questions but with an option for my clients to select ‘other’ and write their own ‘open’ answer, even in the closed questions.

3 – Remember that as Will Writers and Estate Planners, we are solving a problem for people – but what is it that triggers them to contact us and get their Will written? Ask your customers.  Find the trigger for them, then utilise this in your marketing.

4 – Similarly, find out why they specifically chose to use you. How did they find you, and what stood out in your offer that made them decide to go with you? Do more of that.

5 – As well as your standard customer care questions, ask some questions to help out with your marketing, such as what social media channels they are on, why they think a Will is valuable.

6 – You can ask up to 10 questions free of charge using the software surveymonkey.co.uk. It is relatively straightforward and intuitive to use.

 

Used alongside The Estate Planner’s Toolkit, a customer survey is a valuable part of your business process.

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