"Gimme a #$*ing Cupcake!": How to Survey Your Way to Loyalty

"Gimme a #$*ing Cupcake!": How to Survey Your Way to Loyalty

You want to know what your customers think about you and your business. You're gonna love this It's insanely complex and convoluted. (Note the heavy use of sarcasm). YOU ASK THEM!

Since I write about direct mail, you can bet that I don't advise you present this question to every person who walks in your shop. That would be inefficient and highly unscientific. Let's face it, if you can't measure client responses again the rest of the people who buy from you, you either don't have enough customers or you method of inquiry is flawed. And for the sake of this article, I am going to concentrate on proper inquiry.

You need to send a survey out to your base. You need to find out how you are performing in their eyes. This does not need to be a completely separate mailing (why spend additional money if you don't have to). I often advise clients to create 1 to 3 surveys a year and just include them as part of their regularly scheduled envelope ad mailings. That way, you only pay for the printing of the survey and not another envelope, mailing services and postage.

In case you are wondering about the title, it is in reference to a friend of mine who runs a local grocery store - Anthony. When it comes to marketing a small business he does a quarterly coupon mailing and just recently started including a survey. His survey questions ask customers for feedback on the discount incentives, the level of customer service they receive, items they would like to see more of, and a write in' box that requests the customer fill in their specific requests. The mailing includes a self addressed envelope for the recipient to return. His responses to the survey tend to be higher than his direct mail effort. He got about 50 surveys and more than a few of them made a comment about his in-store bakery. The grocer offers a range of full loaf breads but not much in the way of sweets or coffee cakes. One person wrote, "You never have any samples like Trader Joes! They have a new product sample every day. You never give away sample foods! Gimme a #$*ing Cupcake or something and I might come in more!" This is priceless market research!

Well Anthony took this to heart. His next mailing promoted his bakery and specifically mentioned customers should come in on Friday for a special new edition. You guessed it Anthony had cupcakes for anyone who stopped by the bakery counter. When I asked him the following week how his bakery sales fared, he told me the previous Friday's business was up considerably. He used a mix that is not readily available in the local supermarket and because of the samples, he had completely sold out of it along with the bulk of his bread loaf stock for the weekend!

Prior to reading the survey, Anthony really believed that samples were just money down the drain. But now he had input from existing customers. This gave him actionable intelligence' on how to respond to the competition and expand on his services in a way that his customers desire. Keep this in mind the next time you feel like your customers are being wishy-washy and that loyalty doesn't exist'. Customer loyalty needs to be earned. It only requires that you ask the right questions.

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