All that glitters may not be gold. However, a good client survey is worth its weight in this rare metal.

Client Surveys

The value of a good client survey cannot be underestimated. The Dent Consultancy has conducted hundreds of client surveys for many different types of organisation and the business benefits have been considerable.

Benefits of a good client survey

  • An honest appraisal of the real state of the relationship
  • Early notice of potential problems
  • Practical guidance on how the relationship can be improved
  • Better understanding of the specific value you bring to the client
  • The ability to share best practice across all your clients
  • Quantitative and qualitative measures to enable benchmarking across time
  • Competitive benchmarking versus key competition
  • Enhancing the relationship by demonstrating their importance to you as a client
  • Highlighting business development opportunities
  • Generating new business contacts via recommendation
  • Uncovering other key insights

Whilst most companies feel they know their clients pretty well, our clients are consistently surprised at the depth of feedback we are able to generate from their clients. However good the relationship you have with your clients, there are some things it is much easier to tell a third party, particularly in the context of a bigger piece of research when they don’t feel so on the spot.

Existing clients are normally the most important audience, both because they are critical to the future health of your business and because of the potential additional revenue they could bring. That said, in addition to current clients, such surveys can include potential clients, as well as lost clients and clients you have simply failed to convert, as each can provide invaluable business learning.

An interesting insight

Client surveys can also provide insights in areas that might not have been the focus of the research in question. For example, we recently conducted some client research for an IT support company, which was designed to help us with key branding issues and the creation of a clear positioning and strong brand blueprint. It did this very well, however, it also provided a key insight which had significant implications for the business.

The company had been trying to expand the area it was servicing from its base near Oxford and was starting to invest time and money in broadening its client base geographically, without much success. The reason success was limited became apparent when one client said that he would only consider an IT support company that could get someone into his offices in less than an hour to take the pressure off him as there would be someone else to point the finger at and to demonstrate that he had the problem in hand.

This view was borne out by subsequent conversations and this critical understanding was extremely helpful to the business. It didn’t block expanding the client base geographically, rather it brought into play the question of satellite offices which would then enable other circles with an hour long radius to be drawn on the map. An extremely valuable insight.

To discuss how we might approach a client survey for your business, with costs, please contact us on 01525 221016 or email branding@dentconsultancy.com.

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