We see satisfaction surveys virtually everywhere – restaurants, grocery stores, boutiques and many other business establishments. It’s a common enough practice in the B2C arena, but is it worth doing in the B2B sector as well?
While B2B clients are fellow businesses, they are still technically your “customers” whose feedback also merits attention. There are differences in the manner in which this information would be gathered, though – you can’t just hand them a small piece of paper with checkboxes and Liker scales.
Feedback channels
The simplest and most clear-cut way to collect feedback is by phone. Businesses typically maintain a constant communication line between them and their clients, and there’s no harm in asking a few questions here and there about their level of satisfaction. However, doing it during a phone may lack structure and may be a little difficult to measure.
Most businesses use internet-based surveys attached to emails to collect feedback. There are online services that offer this, and one can also customize their forms according to the types of information they would like to gather. The advantage of doing this is efficiency; firms that have tens and hundreds of clients may find this method useful in getting feedback from multiple people at the same time.
There is also a passive way of knowing how your B2B clients evaluate your products or service. It can be through a feedback or comments section on your official corporate website, which, for most people, gives sufficient liberty for clients to express their sentiments without the pressure of creating business tension.
Listen to what they say and act on them
Obviously, there’s no point in going through all the trouble of collecting feedback if you don’t have any intention of heeding the concerns of your clients. Determine which of the comments are the most overwhelming and assess whether this is something you could fix and whether this is something you should fix.
Not all of these comments would be worth doing. They may ask for things that would require you to give up certain aspects of the business, and if that’s the case, you need to re-assess which side holds more weight: making profit or making clients happy?
Update your clients with the recent changes
Your clients would very much be grateful if you would keep them posted on what you’ve decided to change based on their feedback. Make sure you let them know that it was because of them that this improvement has happened.
