Praise vs. Feedback
We all get praise from our clients. They use words like obsessed, amazing, and epic. There is however a huge difference between praise and feedback. I don’t know about you but I love praise, and cringe at the thought of feedback. Feedback might actually reveal my shortcomings. It could also give me insight into service defects.
We don’t often get feedback until it’s too late. A client with a problem may brush it off and not share it but every time they tell a friend about you it sounds like this:
“Her pictures were amazing, but she missed all the deadlines she gave us.”
“His pictures were awesome and we had so much fun, but it took him weeks to respond to our emails.”
There is a way to make sure a client never says, “BUT.” Collecting feedback ensures that you can act on these service deffects right away.
A defect that every client experiences is much different than a mistake. Mistakes happen, but defects happen routinely. I use ShootQ to collect feedback. It has a questionnaire function built in that I can set to auto-send to clients based on certain dates. I send the following quessionaires:
- Pre-Consultation
- Pre-Engagement Session
- Post Engagement Session
- Pre-Wedding
- Post Wedding
- Post Wedding Album Delivery
I give my clients a lot of chances to tell me what I am doing right and what I need to work on. I also ask for praise at the end of every questionnaire. This makes it really easy to grab a testimonial to use on the web.
Post Wedding Questionnaire Sample
Final Survey
If you are not collecting feedback now is the time to start. You can use ShootQ like I do, or you can use Google Forms.
Homework
Jot down a list of questions you would like your clients to answer. Feel free to use a few my samples above as well.
- Find an app to send your questionnaires.
- Hold your breath, then press send. No matter what comes back the only thing it can do is help your business.
About Eric O'Connor