Feedback – Is Your Goal High Scores, or Better Service?

Getting rave reviews from your clients feels great!  We all enjoy positive feedback, particularly from those you work with closely.  However, when designing a feedback process to stay in tune with your clients, too many organizations make the mistake of seeking high scores, rather than actionable information.

If 90% of your feedback comes with top ratings, you may have some great marketing statistics.   But, you really haven’t collected data that lets you improve.  If almost all your scores are at the top of the scale, you have no way to differentiate which clients are most loyal, and place the highest value on your services.  You have no means to capture when something worked especially well, compared to your typical (and still effective) process.

With our Client Feedback Tool, we invested years of research into our patent-pending answering system, based on a self-centering “Met Expectations” sliding scale.  While our system provides the same percentage of “low” scores (~4%), only 16% of results fall in the top score category.  It’s this downward shift that gives you 400% more information with which to make decisions and improvements.  In the cases where you receive “Exceptional” feedback, you can now identify clients that valued your services much more than normal.  You can begin to see trends about what sets these situations apart.  Once you identify the contributors to these high scores, you can work them into your “typical” processes, enhancing value for all clients.

Suddenly, your high scores give you an opportunity to improve, just as much as your low scores do.

90% thumbs up feels good, but dramatically reduces the useful information you have.  

To learn more about our answer scale and how it works, contact us to schedule a demonstration.

Client Feedback Tool Testimonial – Cara Phillips

We interviewed Cara Phillips of Phillips Architecture about her use of the Client Feedback Tool.  Cara is Principal and COO, and has been using the Feedback Tool for four years.

New Features!

DesignFacilitator is pleased to announce a new release with several new features and enhancements, available to all subscribers immediately.

1. Enterprise Integration Kit – Use a third party software to initiate a survey.
2. Reply to a respondent and log as follow-up – Now, when reviewing a survey response, you can reply directly to the respondent, and store the reply as part of your “follow-up” to the feedback.
3. Collect feedback via phone, other methods – Once you specify the required inputs to send a survey, you may select the “Send and Reply” button.  You will immediately be shown the survey, and can log the responses on behalf of the respondent.  You can, at this point, call and collect the feedback; or if you have already gotten the feedback via a printed survey, you may log the responses.  The feedback collected will be noted as being self-entered.
4. Tagging – When sending a survey, create/assign one or more “tags” to the survey.  This will allow you to categorize every survey with a parameter you can then report on.  This allows for virtually unlimited reporting flexibility.
5. Import Teams, Companies – You may now import lists of teams and/or companies when setting up your firm.
6. 40 other minor enhancements and fixes

How to Eliminate 83% of Your Client Problems

How do you measure the results collecting feedback has on your business?  Anecdotally, we have heard from many of our Feedback Tool clients that certain situations were brought to light -avoiding problems before they became big.  Client’s seem happier.   Profits have improved.   Those are all great success stories, and we love hearing them.

But we wanted to dig deeper, and let the actual clients surveyed tell the story, from their perspective.

We analyzed all the feedback collected in the last two years. 24% of all replies included a score below “Met Expectations.” We then selected just the cases where someone who gave a low score at least once later responded to another survey from the same person.

We found 1,121 vendor-client relationships that had feedback collected a second time after a low score was given.

In these relationships, the occurrence of scores below “Met Expectations” went DOWN by over 83%. In essence, those who collected feedback and got a low score were able to adjust and demonstrably improve their service to those clients.

Would you like to eliminate 83% of your client problems?

In addition to an overall lower rate of low scores, the overall average scores went up noticeably as well.  If we draw a line for all feedback collected before the low score occurred, and compare it to all feedback collected after, we see the ratings move from just barely meeting expectations to consistently exceeding expectations.

When you can exceed your client’s expectations, you will keep them around – building loyalty and maximizing the value of your relationship.

If you aren’t already asking, don’t assume your clients are telling you everything.  When you ask for feedback, you will discover opportunities to improve.  Even better, once you discover a problem, the data shows you can fix it.

If you want to find out how we can help you find these opportunities quickly, contact us at:

answers@designfacilitator.com   or   866-4-DES-FAC

Client Feedback Tool New Features

DesignFacilitator is pleased to announce a new release of our industry leading Client Feedback Tool, including the following new features:

• Surveys may now include question categories other than the standard eight categories
• Managers may create customized email invitations for each survey template
• Surveys Templates are now easier to identify and select
• Options to help increase reporting data consistency
• Expanded capability when uploading external project and contact data
• Added additional security features
• Plus over 85 other enhancements, updates, and fixes

Client Feedback Tool – New Release and New Features!

The Client Feedback Tool will be updated later this week to enhance features, performance, and security.  All users will see the improvements automatically.   New features included in this release:

1. Performance enhancements on reports, up to 200% increase in speed
2. Create distribution groups when sending surveys
3. New on-page “Alerts” let you know when new/unread results have come in, and when low scores need attention
4. Track when results have been viewed
5. CC a co-worker that a survey has been sent, and/or when results are collected
6. Create a username, allowing for faster login
7. Alert new survey recipients automatically via Outlook, to minimize surveys going to junk folder
8. Upload project information from an external source
9. New report – “Last Survey Sent” – View the most recent survey sent to a recipient, client, project, or by sender
10. Over 50 other tweaks, improvements, and fixes

For training on these new features, contact support@designfacilitator.com.

Feedback Quadrant – The Missing Axis of Information

If you manage a professional services firm, or any projects for a firm, you have most likely seen numerous reports, charts, and other data measuring the financial performance of your project, team, client, or firm.  You have surely seen metrics of profitability, revenue, aged accounts, and more, usually mapped across an axis of time (monthly revenue, for example).

However, none of these reports show the critical element of the client’s perception of a project’s success.  What may be highly successful for you (in terms of profits, etc) may have been a disaster for the client.  Without metrics showing the clients’ measure of project success, you have little ability to identify the truly successful projects, those that are “half way”, and those that are complete failures (or, at the very least, quite challenged).

The missing axis of data is feedback.  Feedback provides metrics, from your clients’ perspective, about the success of a project.

If we map feedback performance on a vertical axis, and financial performance on a horizontal axis, four quadrants of information are created.

In the upper-right quadrant, the data points indicate a win-win scenario.  The outcomes of these projects indicate success for both you (high profit) and the client (high feedback).  You can profitably produce a project that meets and exceeds the expectations of the person paying for that project.  Clients in this quadrant should be nurtured and efforts invested to keep this healthy exchange going forward.

In the upper-left quadrant, the data points still indicate success for the client (high feedback), but the process used to deliver the service hasn’t adequately obtained financial success for you or the firm.  Inefficiency, under-billing, or other business problems may exist.  Most likely, these clients whose expectations were exceeded are very interested in keeping you as a vendor, and will likely be open to future projects being priced and/or scoped more beneficially for you.  Test this carefully, but with confidence.

The lower-right quadrant provides a bigger challenge.  Here, you have succeeded (high profits), but your client indicates a less successful outcome for them (low feedback).  These clients and projects are critical to keep (they’re very profitable!) but need attention invested into the client relationship.  You may use additional feedback collection (either via the Client Feedback Tool or personal interactions) to uncover underlying problems and negotiate winning solutions.  Increase service consistency and quality, and you can more easily maintain these enjoyable profits.

Finally, the lower-left quadrant leaves a group of mis-fits.  Here, neither you (low profits) nor the client (poor feedback) won.  You have a lot of options, from firing the client, to strategically working on these clients to first increase their feedback scores.  Only after first building client loyalty and improving service can you then recoup that investment by increasing fees and profitability.  The “keepers” in this quadrant should be diligently moved “up” before moving them to the “right.”

The Client Feedback Tool offers a unique feature enabling you to map your client feedback against your financial metrics.  Navigate to “Review Feedback > Advanced Reporting Tools” then click on the “View” tab.  Finally, click the “Quadrants” icon on the View ribbon.  You will be able to download a smart, macro-enabled Excel worksheet containing your selected feedback data (select this in the Filters and Options tabs).  Provided in the workbook is a place you copy/paste or manually key-in your financial data (profitability, revenue, etc).  From here, the workbook will generate tables for each quadrant as well as a graphic display of the results to see where your projects, clients, etc are clustered.

Won’t I Annoy My Clients…

…if I ask for too much feedback?

This question is, almost without exception, the first one asked when we talk to firms about client feedback.  The short answer is NO!  Not if you ask for feedback when they want to give you feedback.

We are so conditioned to the idea of “feedback” as being a long survey sent to hundreds or thousands of people.  These surveys are generic, and don’t offer anything to the person responding.   They also usually come after the product or service has been offered, when it’s too late to do anything about it.  They are separated from the project, and don’t seem relevant at the time they are sent.

But you already ask for feedback all the time!  When you deliver something to a client, don’t you ask “is this what you were looking for?”  When you wrap up a meeting, don’t you ask if everything was covered? That’s asking for feedback!  It’s not very structured, and it doesn’t always get asked, but no client will ever be bothered if you check with them to make sure you covered your (and their) bases.

Our Client Feedback Tool blends the best from both approaches.  While we use email and the internet to deliver surveys, they are not typically designed to be sent broadly (though, they can be).  Instead, we’ve built hundreds of templates and supporting processes to send surveys, systematically, in a much more focused manner.

When should you ask for feedback (i.e., send a survey)?  Send one every time your client may want to give you feedback.  No client waits around to answer a mass survey.  If you send that out monthly, it’s too much.   On the other hand, if you give your client a key deliverable every week, don’t you want to make sure, each time, that you’ve given him what he needed/expected?  You could call or email asking “did you get what you need?”   Or, you could send a short feedback request that digs a little deeper and gives you more data, while not really taking any more time.

Odds are, you’ll only annoy your clients if you ask them for feedback two months AFTER a project is over as part of a quarterly survey.  It’s too late to fix, so why ask now?

Instead, show clients you care.   Ask for feedback when it makes sense.  Deliver something?  Ask for feedback.  That easy.  Since asking via The Client Feedback Tool is a simple email, clients can always ignore/delete it.  Even that gives you feedback!  NOT responding, in essence, let’s you know that things are most likely going well enough they don’t feel a need to correct anything.  However, for every few times they ignore your request because things are going okay, there will be one time when they have feedback, and will be glad you asked.  And they’ll respond.   Until you ask, you don’t know.  So, you have to ask.  And ask again.

If you’re still concerned, ask your clients!  Find out from them when they’d like to be asked for feedback.  Odds are, it’s more often than you think.

Client Feedback Tool Version 3.5 Released!

DesignFacilitator is excited to announce the release of version 3.5 of our Client Feedback Tool, the only feedback solution designed specifically for architects, engineers, and professional service providers.

If you already subscribe to the Client Feedback Tool, you don’t need to do anything to obtain the great new features.  Simply log in, and see what’s new.

Version 3.5 includes:

• Completely updated process for sending a survey.  The steps are the same, but performance is increased 25-570%
• Added ability to include individual survey responses (answers reports) in batch and scheduled reports.
• Enhanced reporting filters to make viewing/customizing reports more flexible
• Sending survey  reminders made easier and faster
• Over 100 additional enhancements and improvements to make the feedback experience smoother and more intuitive than before

If you have any questions or desire any update training, please contact support@designfacilitator.com to sign up for our New Features webinar scheduled for Thursday, February 18th, at 2:00pm EST.

A Letter to Your Firm

Introducing the Client Feedback Tool to your firm is an important part of beginning your feedback collection process.  Your firm members will be looking for leadership to endorse the feedback collection process, and they also will want to know what it is, how it works, and what will be expected of them.  Below is one method you might try, delivered via email:

Dear Firm Member,

As you know, we value our client relationships very highly.  The root of our firm’s prosperity comes from clients who trust us to do their work.  It is important to continuously improve our ability to meet their specific needs.

Every client is different, so we need to identify what processes work best for each of them.  While our firm standards create a good baseline for successful project delivery, we may need to adjust on a case by case basis for each client, and often for each unique project.

Shortly, you will receive an email invitation from The Client Feedback Tool, to join our firm as a participant in this online feedback management system.  We will also soon be scheduling training to teach you how to use this simple system to collect feedback quickly, easily, and consistently from your clients and others.  The Client Feedback Tool is easy to use, and takes only two minutes to solicit feedback using the built-in templates.

We are excited at this opportunity for each of us to grow personally;  and as a firm, corporately improve our client relationships to create real, lasting value.

Thank you in advance for your participation.

You may also be interested in introducing your clients to The Client Feedback Tool.  Please see this post for suggestions.