Putting a Bow on It
Posted by Sean Mahoney on Tue, Jan 10, 2012
So, my wife’s birthday is coming up in the next couple of weeks, and as I was wrapping my gift to her last night (and it’s a really nice gift, trust me – this is one of those milestone birthdays, and I cannot mess this up!), it struck me that “putting a bow on it” is a great way to sum up one of the real keys to staying engaged with customers (bear with me here...).
This time of year finds many of us individually and collectively reviewing the work of the past 365 days, and planning for the next 365 to come. It is also a great time to review with your customers the activities, research findings, and plans for the New Year.
I recently had the pleasure of co-hosting a “7 Steps to Highly Successful Surveys” Webinar with Sherri Greenhaus of CRMXchange. The final step is “close the loop,” and for many this step comes in several forms. When it comes to online survey research, it is obvious to most that it is required to go beyond a simple “Thank you for your feedback” message. But how, and via what means, were among the many great questions posed.
Should we use incentives, and advertise them up front (see Koma’s “Law of Incentives”)? How about using the survey as a recruitment tool for ongoing research panel membership? Do I “close the loop” immediately, or wait until final analysis is ready to distribute an executive summary?
Truth be told, you never really “close the loop” once and for all. The loop gets opened and closed dozens of times as you invite participation, exit a respondent from a survey, present an incentive, recruit into a panel, send out a summary report, re-engage though follow-up studies, and so on. What is critical is to recognize both that every interaction you have with your audience (and they with you) is part of a continuum of engagement AND that each interaction needs a corresponding transition to the next.
What I love best about the “close the loop” step is that even the smallest gesture can have tremendous impact. As a member of the NPR listener panel, I was pleased to receive a note from the team at NPR last week, linking to a neat little multimedia thank-you. Like each previous communication, this reflected what NPR knows about my listening habits and modes of consumption (I’m a commuting listener during the work week, and a satellite listener at home on the weekend). It is also a great example of how an intrinsic incentive can be used to effectively maintain a high degree of ongoing engagement (I keep participating because I want to both contribute and see what others contributed).
Along the way, NPR made sure that this critical “7th Step” was included in all their interactions. From post-survey “thank-yous” to periodic update reports to summary findings – to this end-of-the-year email to panelists – NPR stayed engaged and closed one loop by opening up another.
So, as you “wrap up” planning for your 2012 research schedule, consider putting a bow on your research year, as well. As you launch the next round of customer and employee engagement projects, make sure closing (and re-opening) the loop is part of the plan. You’ll see increased engagement, and likely increased satisfaction to boot.