Bridging The Distance

That was the question Don James, CEO of three-year-old Bear Data Systems, San Francisco, was asking himself at the beginning of this year.

His company had grown from a two-person operation in the fall of 2004 to a $38 million solution provider by the end of 2006, and is on track to hit more than $65 million this year. But as business grew, even though he sends out both e-mail and paper thank-you notes to customers each month, James felt the distance between him and his customers growing.

"I think we had enough critical mass and were doing enough volume that I didn't feel like I was touching every order," he says. "I thought we had some nice success, and I wanted to ensure that we continue to do it. If we're fortunate enough to keep the client base we have, we'll be successful. One of the ways I saw to do that was sending customer satisfaction surveys to the client."

James began sending surveys to customers asking them to rate the solution provider's performance. Customers are asked to rate the company on a scale of 1 to 5, and for every comment card that comes back with a 3 or lower, James makes a call to the customer.

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"People appreciate that everything can't go perfectly all the time if you acknowledge it and try and make it better, they'll come back and do business with you," he says.

The numbers back up James' experience. According to CMP Channel Group's quarterly business spending survey, 66.5 percent of small companies and 60.8 percent of midsize companies say responsiveness influences whether they think they've had a good experience with a solution provider, ahead of technical savvy, timeliness, understanding of business goals and whether they met expected goals.

Happy customers are more likely to refer new customers as well. Of small-business customers that have had good experiences, 54.1 percent responded that they were extremely likely to act as references and 30.3 percent responded that they were fairly likely to do so. Midsize businesses had similar responses with 50.5 saying they were extremely likely and 34 percent said they were fairly likely to act as references for solution providers they liked.

Surveys are a typical method deployed by VARs looking to see what customers think of them, but solution providers have had mixed results when sending them out.

For James, customers were more likely to fill out simple comment cards than to respond to e-mailed survey requests.

"We've tried a little bit with e-mail, but I almost think people get spammed to death these days," he says. "I think we're still trying a little bit of both, but we're having more responses when we send a letter with some boxes they can check off on a card with a self-addressed envelope back to us. ... Obviously it takes us more time and it's more expensive and less efficient, but ultimately I think people get too many e-mails."

Next: The Personal Touch The Personal Touch
At Advanced Vision Technology Group in Hauppauge, N.Y., follow-up is done in person. The company has client services representatives "TLC" the customer through every step of the sales and engineering process, from the initial call through setting up customers' expectations to asking about customer satisfaction after a project, says President Sam Ruggeri.

"We have a formal set of questions that our reps ask, but we vary depending on the client. If it's the same client getting similar work done, obviously we're not going to inundate them," he says.

The personal approach to gathering feedback has also helped Software To Go, a solution provider based in St. Peters, Mo., that has been in business for more than 25 years.

Joe Balsarotti, president, says that one key has been staying in touch with the top 20 percent of the company's customers by talking to them on average once every two weeks.

He and his staff also take customers out on the town. About five to 10 get taken to St. Louis Cardinals games and another 10 to 15 go to lunch with Balsarotti or one of his technicians if they have a good relationship. In these situations where information flows more freely, Balsarotti said he often gets his best feedback.

"It's more laid-back, doing that type of thing. Even at a lunch, it's more laid-back. Nobody's at their business. When I do that I try not to talk business. I'm not there to sell them something. I'm there No. 1, as a thank you for past business and No. 2, to tell them what I'm doing in the future," he says. In addition to face-to-face conversations, Software To Go also sends out comment cards to customers.

In the beginning, about 2 percent were returned. After instituting an incentive—a $10 gift certificate for Software To Go —about 7 percent of customers now send back the cards with comments. "You experiment with it over the years and you get to the point where 10 bucks will actually make someone think it's worth their time," he says.

Balsarotti sends five questions: Overall how would you rate us? Do you believe you received good value for your money? Were we dedicated to your needs? How would you rate your rep assisting you? Do we carry the products you need, and if not, what do you want us to carry? There is also a space for comments.

The comment section, however, can throw in surprises. "We have two techs—both named Dan. This one says, 'I like Dan. He's good at his work, and he's quite funny at times,' " he read from a returned comment card. "You never know what kind of feedback you'll get. I didn't know we were entertaining our clients, but obviously to them that's an important thing. That they like his personality ... here's an added benefit," he says.

Room For Improvement
John Riddle, president of Information Networking Company, Irvine, Calif., also takes the conversational approach.

"We like to go on-site, like the family doctor did years ago, and fix problems," Riddle said. "At the end of a project I will take the decision maker either out to lunch, or close the door so it's just the two of us, and the first thing out of my mouth is, 'Mr. Customer, thank you for the business. I'm glad everybody is very happy and the system is working well. Now I need to ask you the million-dollar question. What could we have done better?' That is a key question I ask so that we as a company can learn and become better service providers," he says.

Customers have answered back that they've been unhappy with a variety of things, from late technicians who blamed traffic to projects that cost higher than original estimates. He then relays this information back to his team. The trick is to have technicians think like the customer and wear the customer's cap all the way through the process, he says.

"Think like your customer and expect all of these changes up front. Some of them may be financial in nature, and give your [customer] enough time to make good adjustments. It's hard for a non-business person to understand this. It's hard, but if you keep on training them then eventually you'll get it," Riddle says.

Mailing comment cards or surveys, he said, doesn't work for him. "You can put little cards in the mail, but it doesn't get in the right person's hands ... it gets to the secretary, and that's false security and doesn't work. You have to look at the guy that signs the checks, who owns the budget of that project. He needs to look into your eyes and tell you what you did right, what you did wrong, and what you could have done better," he says.

Jay Kishor, president of California Integrated Solutions, Phillips Ranch, Calif., said sending out surveys hasn't gotten him the kind of feedback he would like either. It's too good.

"We regularly send out surveys to our customers asking if they are satisfied with our services, their particular salesperson, and what they'd like to see us improve on. It's a good thing that I'm getting positive responses from it, but then I worry if I'm getting honest responses," he said.