Questions need to reflect what is important to customers, not just in terms of their satisfaction with current products and services, but aspects of image that might predict loyalty or advocacy. Appropriate segmentations need to be built into the design, to allow more meaningful analysis and action planning by product, service and client types.

Administration needs to be smooth, and analysis must be made against an understanding of statistical significance. Communication of the results must focus on the key issues, to ensure an aligned focus on the real priorities. And, information from other methods for listening to customers must also be integrated with the survey approach e.g. transactional monitoring and complaints handling. Finally, there needs to be a well thought out approach to planning and delivering improvement activity - the feedback only becomes valuable once it has been responded to!

Excellence in Practice offers practical solutions drawn from extensive experience to support organisations wishing to develop customer surveys, or review and improve existing approaches.