VerticalResponse Email Marketing Blog for Small Business

Panzano - Great Customer Follow-Up

We were recently in Denver for our Get Vertical Email Marketing Workshop. Huge success, thanks to all who came. We went to dinner with our customer panelists at one of our customer's restaurant, Panzano. I highly recommend it by the way. I liked it so much I filled out one of those "How are we doing?" cards in the pocket of the bill holder. I wasn't sure if I'd get anything out of it because all too often you just don't.

To my surprise I got a really nice letter from the Executive Chef thanking me for my visit.

Lesson learned:

1. Ask your customers how you're doing - Be prepared for the good, the bad and the ugly. These guys did it with a nice piece of paper in the bill holder, you can also use VerticalResponse Surveys to do it as well.

2. Follow up - I got the letter just a week after I visited the restaurant. You can bet next time I'm in Denver I'll go again. You can also bet I'll tell people about it just like I'm doing now.

3. Incent your employees - Give your employees a spiff for getting information from your customers. Now Panzano has my information for them to email me.

It was a great experience all around visiting a customer and dining with them!

Do you do anything like this? Let's hear it!

5 Places To Include a Survey Link - Ask Your Customers How You're Treating Them!

Listening to your customers can always give you a reality-check. It's super-easy to listen to good news, but what happens when a customer gives you bad news? Acting on bad news might just be the best thing you can do to make your business better. And if you think you won't get any "suggestions for improvement" you're dead wrong, no matter how great business is going. Everyone has their own opinions. So be brave, and learn what these opinions are, by simply asking.

You may want to know:

• Why certain products aren't flying off the shelves (or even falling ever-so-slightly)
• How customers were treated by your personnel on the phones, in email or in person
• What customers might think about a new product line and how much they'd pay for it
• How customers feel about your online checkout process
• What products or services your customers would like to see from you next
• What customers thought about any changes or improvements to your site you've made after the fact OR
• What changes they'd like to see to your site before you do them!

All of this is easy and possible! How? Start with the new and easy-to-use VerticalResponse Survey product. You get 100 free responses and they're waiting for you right now in your account. Then what?

Email Them - You knew I was going to say that! This is especially great for online businesses but if you've got an offline business and you've collected email addresses from your customers it's equally as beneficial. If someone has just visited you for your product or services you might want to email them soon after to find out how their experience was. When I say "soon after" I mean it, you want to get the information while it's HOT!

Oh, if it's something you really want your recipients to focus on you should do it in a solo email and not include it in a newsletter with other links. It may distract your recipient from what you really want them to do.

Confirmation Emails - Include the link to a survey in all confirmation emails that you auto-generate after a customers buys your product online. It's a great opportunity for you to learn.

Transactional Emails - If you send "account update" emails or emails about an upcoming appointment, travel, restaurant reservation or hotel stay, you may want to include a survey link about your overall services.

Pop-Up Windows - When someone leaves a particular product page without purchasing or a landing page without signing up for something, pop up a window with the link to the survey asking for their opinions.

Your Site - You can include a link to "Tell Us How We're Doing" right on your home page or on every page of your site if you like. Make sure you look at this information regularly and act on it. Go ahead, make changes on-the-fly. Isn't the web beautiful?

After your customers have taken their valuable time to help you, why not send them a heart-felt thank you gift for filling out the survey like an e-gift certificate or a discount on their next purchase. It will go a long way in showing your customers that you genuinely care about what they think. Then put it to work!

How are you using surveys?

New Product: VerticalResponse Surveys!

We are super excited to announce that we just launched our new VerticalResponse Surveys! As easy as we've made it for you to create and send email marketing campaigns, we think we've done it again with Surveys.

We just think surveys are the perfect complement to go with your current email marketing program. It's like a good cheese with a great wine, or some great chocolate dunked in peanut butter. We must be hungry.

To get your started we're offering all of our users 100 free responses to your survey and we've got some really great tutorials.

Create Professional Surveys in Minutes!

Either choose from our 30 professionally designed surveys or start from scratch! We give you the tools you need to do either, right away.

Maximize Responses

You can use our survey product in a variety of ways. Post a link on your site and blog to your survey, link to it from your confirmation emails or even post it on your confirmation pages. Here's an idea...Email your survey to your recipients!

Analyze Results

Filter your responses down to the question or get an overall opinion, it's up to you. You get the ultimate reports in PDF or export to .csv for further analysis.

Take Action

Get an alert based on how someone answered a question. Then follow up with them to thank them for their opinions.

This is truly an amazing product. Check it out today in your VerticalResponse account. You'll have 100 free responses to get you started. Pricing info is found here.

We'd love to hear your comments about it, so chime in.

How Not to Do a Survey

I was on a Delta flight the other day (don't get me started on how bad it was, beginning to end) and decided to take the nifty touch screen survey on the screen on the back of the seat since it was the only part of the entertainment system that WAS working.

I thought it was going to be about customer satisfaction because at this point suffice it to say I was not satisfied. This has nothing to do with the slouched over guy with gross bare feet two rows up, nor the guy eating one of the enormous sandwiches you have to buy which from what I could tell had a small slab of roast beef with no less than an inch of mayo. And no it wasn't the fact that the seat in front of me was reclined so far into my lap that I couldn't open my laptop...nope that wasn't it at all.

So I get to the survey and each question is rated on a scale, 5 points down to 1 from Excellent, Very Good, Good, Poor to Very Poor. Each question had it's own screen. Fine so far.

Here's where it gets bad:

1. Each question had PRE-SELECTED "Excellent"! Worse than that it was so subtle that you were onto the next new question after you hit "continue" that you just keep pressing continue (or Excellent) until you're done with the survey! I ask you, what's the point?
2. Then they asked about the condition, functionality, and cleanliness of my tray table, my seat cover, the floor around me, my window, my seat pocket, the carpet, my seat cover (and it's decorative trim) and the functionality of my seat. (Nowhere could I tell them about the fact I couldn't open my laptop)
3. There were no open ended questions - They even have a keyboard on another part of the survey.

What about the entertainment system, many times the only thing that gets one through a flight (and the fact that it wasn't working), or the quality of the mayonnaise sandwiches with a side of roast beef slice? What about the food service you pay for where they ran out of most food by aisle 34 and there were 44 aisles on the plane? What about the disposition of the flight attendants, which I actually would have rated them high on with hell breaking loose?

If they wanted to know how to redecorate the plane, they should have started off the survey with "Flight Redecoration Survey". If you're going to do a customer satisfaction survey, especially in the middle of an experience, make sure you ask the tough questions. Knowing the answers will only make your business better.