lost customers

J Patrick Draine draine@comcast.net
Thu, 16 Dec 2004 13:43:45 -0500


---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
Peter,
This brings to mind the experiences and practices of a local fellow 
technician. While he was still starting out in this business he made 
extra income working as a "mystery shopper." In his case he was being 
paid by banks to visit the numerous branch banks, making general 
observations about how the service was, making numerous complicated 
inquires of the customer service reps, etc to see how well they were 
doing their jobs and how pleasant (or not) they were to him. He'd write 
up reports, at least part of which were scoring aspects of the 
interactions (zero to five points, zero poor service, five excellent).
He applied some of this experience to his piano service business by 
sending followup letters to a certain percentage of recent customers, 
which:
1) Most importantly, thanks the customer for their business.
2) Asks the customer to participate in a survey for the purposes of  
achieving high customer satisfaction
3) Has several "0 to 5 point" questions, such as "were you satisfied 
with the service provided," "was the technician on time for the 
appointment," "did the customer explain to you how often a piano should 
be tuned," etc. "Will you use our services again in the future?" "If 
not, please explain (we want to have satisfied customers!)" "Would you 
recommend my services to friends and neighbors?"
I think he found the feedback to be valuable in helping himself improve 
in a few aspects. I believe he stopped the practice after several years 
(when he was too busy, and felt that he had confirmed a high level of 
customer satisfaction).
4) Encloses a stamped self addressed envelope along with the survey 
form.
Patrick Draine

On Dec 16, 2004, at 7:49 AM, Aps322@aol.com wrote:

>  I am looking for some helpful tips on how to go about asking them, 
> without sounding defensive, whiney, etc.
>
>
>  Specific ways to phrase the questions, approaches, etc would be 
> helpful if anyone has a proven method. what has felt most effective: 
> phone? letter? postcard? etc.
>
>  Peter
>  RPT
---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text/enriched
Size: 2288 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/24/d8/54/2c/attachment.bin

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--


This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC