No Cherry-Picking Allowed: Our Customer Survey Feedback Laid Bare

Since first writing about the results of our customer survey campaign back in late 2016, our data set has grown from 50 to 165 responses. After this more-than-tripling in number, we can no longer make the claim that we have received only positive ratings...but what would be the point of getting feedback if we failed to find areas in need of improvement? Happily, we can report that on a 5-point scale from Poor, to Fair, to Good, to Great, to Truly Exceptional, less than 5% of our ratings on our overall level of service were below Good, and only two responses were Poor. At ACTenviro, our core value of Customer Commitment drives many of our decisions. In each case of unsatisfactory feedback, we take immediate action. Account managers begin by reaching out to the survey respondent and gleaning more specifics than can be captured even in an open-ended survey response text box. Then, our operations department, including both the branch manager and Vice President, is brought to the table. The situation is triaged. Questions such as these are posed: was this is one-off incident, or is it evidence of an ongoing issue? what is the best way we can not only fix this problem but exceed our customers’ expectations by heading any potential future problems off the pass, as it were? Ultimately, we bring the fixes we come up with back to our clients and solicit any additional input they may have in light of our new ideas. The result, in the end, is a partnership approach that has led to even stronger customer retention than we had before we started surveying in earnest. We are proud to know that over 75% of our customers rate both their most recent service and the overall level of service we provide as great or truly exceptional. Not surprisingly, 78% are very likely to recommend us, and another 14% are somewhat likely to do so. In the interest of transparency, we have provided pie charts of our last 130 responses (since we switched survey platforms in September of 2016). For good measure, there is a fun word cloud of our open-ended text response box. If you are in need of environmental services, or know anyone who is, we invite you to experience the level of customer commitment that these results illustrate. Who knows – maybe you will one day find yourself on the receiving end of one of these surveys. If you do, please fill it out. Help us help you, as the saying goes!