5 Steps to Become a Customer Success Hero — #2

Welcome to the second instalment in our 5 steps to become a customer success hero. Last week we took a look at the location of NPS surveys — this week it’s time for timing.

All in the Timing

Now that you’ve got the placement of your NPS surveys sorted, you need to consider when they ought to be delivered. Finding the ideal timeline for customer feedback can be complicated — there are a lot of things to consider.

Much will depend on your business and customer base. However, when following good principles there’s no reason every campaign can’t be timed perfectly.

How Soon is too Soon?

It seems fairly obvious that asking for feedback before customers have had a chance to use your product is a bad idea. However, quite rightly you still want feedback from your new customers — they have a fresh take on your product, and if they are experiencing issues they should be solved as soon as possible.

So when is the right time to survey them?

We set the default time lapse for new customers at two weeks, though this can (and in many cases should) be changed with the click of a button. A fortnight might seem right for a SaaS product whose customers get started immediately. However businesses such as online retail might consider waiting significantly longer before asking for feedback — allowing an experience of the full service cycle.

A number of our customers even requested a time delay of several seconds before our widget is displayed in their app. Because we’re all about listening to our customers, we’re happy to announce this feature is now available with SatisMeter.

Mention, one of our customers, were able to cut churn in half by using NPS at the end of their trial periods.

Satismeter displayed surveys to their customers one day after their free trial had ended. Follow-up from Mention included discounted upgrades or trial extensions, depending on the score given and key-words within customer comments.

The result was impressive.

The number of cumulated upgrades by NPS respondents was up two times in the first month, three times in the second, and 3.5 times in the third.

Better still, the entire process was automated and simple.

Targeting

Of course for most businesses a system which only targets customers a certain number of days after sign-up is going to be far too simplistic. That’s why ideally you should establish a number of rules for when surveys should appear (and when to send reminder e-mails should you opt to do so!).

For example, a subscription based service might choose to target certain clients. Say you have just added new features to an enterprise level package, or simply want a more focused look at how your heavy users feel about your product. You can easily choose to trigger a survey exclusively for these customers, and separate the results from your other feedback.

By creating a dynamic system for timing your surveys, you can really maximise their benefit. Feedback will come from a series of targeted points in the customer lifetime cycle, and can be separated and compared respectively.

Even better, collecting feedback can serve to open a channel of communication to your customers when you most need it. Someone hasn’t accessed your service in 3 weeks? A regular customer discarded a large shopping cart? Closing the loop can be the perfect way to engage, solve any issues, and keep your customer.

How Often?

Certainly regular check-ins with your customers are a good idea. They allow you to assess your loyalty over time, giving it context relative to how you follow-up, or a changing product.

It also goes without saying that customer’s experiences vary, a promoter may not always be happy, and feedback is your friend in staying informed and on top of customer satisfaction.

Keep in mind, nobody wants their customers to feel bombarded by surveys. This can be handled by targeting NPS surveys in a manner similar to a drip campaign.

Depending on the type of customer in question, various actions such as a first purchase or periods of inactivity could trigger a survey to be dispatched. Targeting a campaign this way also avoids the problem of your team becoming swamped with feedback results of many impersonal batch e-mails.

By conducting surveys on a steady and consistent basis, a plan for follow-up can be easily implemented. No customers will find themselves ignored as response teams are overwhelmed with feedback.

By sending regular but targeted surveys throughout your customer’s’ life cycles, consistent and accurate NPS data can be obtained. Over time it is easier to reach out to customers, and assess at how changes to your business have affected customer loyalty.

Originally published at blog.satismeter.com.