How To Get Honest Customer Feedback

Filed Under Pet Business Tips |



Getting customer feedback about your service is the best way to ensure that you and your pet care staff or contractors are meeting customer expectations. It is also valuable to show you which areas of your service can be improved or clue you in on specialty services that customers are willing to pay for.

To make sure you get regular feedback from your customers and don’t let this slip through the cracks when business gets busy, you need a system to put this part of your business on autopilot. In the last couple of weeks I have been working on an email follow up form that I can send to customers after we have completed their pet sitting visits. In past years I have also used a paper survey system that was left at the end of visits and made periodic one-off mailings to remind customers of our service and collect feedback. Although these systems were effective I found that for me it was difficult to be consistent with a paper system.

Here are some example questions that I have included in my new email survey:

1. Were your pets healthy and happy upon your return?

2. How would you rate our service:

Excellent Good Fair Poor

3. Were you completely satisfied with the service given by our pet sitters and office staff?

4. Would you use Claws Paw & Jaws to care for your pets again?

5. Was there anything extra that we could we have done to improve your experience with us?

6. How did you hear about Claws Paws & Jaws?

7. Do you have friends and family in the Mid-Cities area that you think would appreciate information about our services or pet products?

You’ll notice that I also prompt referrals in the last question and do some market research to measure where my customers are coming from in question 6. I have an introductory paragraph to the email that thanks the client for their business, tells them about our monthly newsletter, and lets them know about our referral reward program (we give clients that refer new business a gift card to a local pet store).

During the feedback process you also want to start collecting testimonials from customers. Customer Testimonials can be displayed on your website, flyers, and other forms of marketing materials. To gather good testimonials you need to ask questions that specify the type of response you are looking for.

When I ask for testimonials I want clients to tell me how we changed their pet care experience. Ideally they will tell me in their testimonial what they did to care for their pets before they tried us and how much better our service is compared the one they used previously. To get this answer here is the question I use:

8. Our goal is to provide pet owners with more freedom to travel without worrying that their pet’s quality of life is sacrificed. Can you tell us how Claws Paws and Jaws changed your travel and pet care experience?

9. Do we have your permission to publish your comments and your name on our website?

You’ll notice that I also get their permission to publish their comments on my website where I have a customer testimonial page. Getting this answer as part of your survey is easier than going back to them to get permission at a later date.

Think about the best system for collecting your customers opinions and then put it into action. You will learn more about your customers needs and also gather valuable testimonials.



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