By Larry Galler

According to an article published in The Harvard Business Review there is a high degree of correlation between sales growth and customer satisfaction scores.  Well, yeah!  That’s logical.  Satisfied customers return to vendors who perform at a high level.  Additionally they refer others so, obviously, higher levels of satisfaction should normally translate into increased sales volume.  But how do you find out your companies satisfaction score?

The typical way is to survey the customers.  Problem - usually very few survey forms are filled out and returned because most are time-consuming, complex affairs.  The few people who return those surveys are at either end of the satisfaction spectrum, those who are very satisfied or those who are very dissatisfied.

So let’s look at goals.  What we really want to measure is whether a favorable or unfavorable trend is occurring – to see whether customers are more or less satisfied then they were in the past.  If the trend is down, we have to dig deeper and find out why dissatisfaction is increasing.  If the trend is up it is time to rejoice, pat the people responsible on the back and continue working to keep increasing the level of customer satisfaction.

The easiest and fastest method of discovering the trend in the level of satisfaction is to ask just one question: “Were you satisfied enough with our product / service to recommend us to others?”  That’s all.  Just have the customer check off “yes” or “no” and mail or email it back.  Over time, as data accumulates, trends in customer satisfaction will become evident. 

A division of General Electric found a direct relationship between the results of this one question and sales growth.  They found this satisfaction score so important that 20% of managers bonuses is tied to the results.  Is the satisfaction score the pinnacle of scientific surveying?  No, but it is a simple, fast, easy-to-comprehend metric that has shown to be a significant indicator of customer loyalty and future sales growth.  It’s simple.  Ask just one question.  Use the results to see whether your customers are satisfied enough to return and refer others. 

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Larry Galler has been an owner of three small businesses selling to local, regional, and national markets. Since 1993 he has been coaching and consulting high performance executives, professionals, salespeople, and owners of small businesses to develop sales programs and marketing material. He speaks frequently to business groups and has written a weekly newspaper column since 2001. To increase the velocity of your business success, contact Larry for a free coaching session larry@larrygaller. Sign up for his newsletter at www.larrygaller.com