Why You Need to Embrace Surveys, Online Reviews and Social Media

Dr. Jeanne Hurlbert, President — Hurlbert Consulting Group

• customer service • marketing practices • expert interview • management strategies • business model • millennials

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Why You Need to Embrace Surveys, Online Reviews and Social Media

In this video, Randy MacLean, President of WayPoint Analytics, and Dr. Jeanne Hurlbert, President of Hurlbert Consulting Group, discuss the importance of knowing how your customers feel about you and how the mechanisms for finding out have changed.

It used to be that reps would phone or visit customers and have a one-on-one interaction. Nowadays, it's difficult to get a face-to-face. Customers are worried that they are just going to be sold to and that they're wasting their time.

In her work, Jeanne uses surveys to gather customer satisfaction data. By allowing multiple ways to take them and using incentives, businesses can even gather data they would never be able to in person. Often, customers will tell you things in an online survey that they won't tell you in person.

In addition, many distribution companies have not yet caught on to the importance of online reviews. Whether B2B or B2C, online reviews are driving more decision making, making it more important than ever to understand how your customers feel about you, before you find out through a negative review.

Online reviews are an integral part of business for the millennial generation, who will make up more than 50% or the customer base by 2020. Already millennials are moving into middle and senior management positions, and they are more likely than older customers to research online to decide if they want to do business with you. And, whether you realize it or not, customers are also talking to each other online through review sites and social media.

This is why it is more important than ever for you to understand how customers are feeling. Having a more professional customer service capability will allow you to manage customer feedback positively and respond to what's going on. This ability is becoming a core competency of every business.

Adopting new methods for understanding how your customers feel about you is something every business owner should be doing in order to lead into the next decade.

For more information about Dr. Jeanne Hurlbert, visit: www.hurlbertconsulting.com