Customer Satisfaction Processes: Surveys and Reputation Management

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Each franchise system has a reputation, whether or not it helps shape that reputation.

By Keith Gerson, CFE

Glass, China, and Reputation, are easily cracked, and never well mended.” – Benjamin Franklin According to a recent national survey by market research firm Dimensional Research, 90 percent of consumers who recalled reading online reviews claimed that positive reviews influenced their decision to buy. On the flipside, 86 percent said that negative reviews had also influenced buying decisions. Clearly, reputation management must become one of today’s most critical parts of a franchise system’s overall business management strategy. The online revolution has gained momentum to the point where word of mouth is no longer an intimate conversation between individuals, but something that operates on a one-to-many basis. As Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon has pointed out “If you make a customer unhappy they won’t tell five friends, they’ll tell 5,000 friends.” The speed with which the information that consumers access when making their purchasing decisions spreads (whether good, bad, accurate or inaccurate) is mind-boggling. Keeping tabs on what’s being said about your franchise system and franchisees across hundreds of social media sites and blogs, and responding when appropriate is crucial, though almost impossible to accomplish manually. If I were to impress anything upon the readers of this article, it would be that execution is always the weakest link in the marketing process.  Management guru Peter Drucker wrote that “the purpose of business is the making and keeping of customers.” There should be little doubt that your system’s No. 1 driver of increased revenues today is tied to your franchisees’ ability to market and create positive user experiences effectively. What follows are recommendations on tactics that can be employed to alleviate the burden that otherwise falls upon the shoulders of your franchisees. These tactics will increase the likelihood of execution.

Reputation Management and Customer Loyalty Best Practices

Today, marketing technology tools offer the most effective ways to manage your brand’s reputation both nationally and at the local franchise level. If you’re not using a marketing technology tool, online reputation management can easily demand lots of time. Between monitoring social media mentions, ad campaigns, blog comments and mentions across the web at large, you can easily find yourself thoroughly tied up trying to keep tabs on your brand online. Fortunately, there are tools that can simplify online reputation management and leveraging the loyalty of your customers. Some are free, others are not, but all will drastically reduce the time you spend managing your brand online. Here are several best practices to consider:

1. Social Media Monitoring. Tools are available that offer instant notification when your brand is mentioned. That means you can respond promptly and appropriately, even when you’re not glued to your Facebook newsfeed all day. With built-in analytics capabilities, you can take online reputation management to the next level by tracking and analyzing trends, such as which marketing efforts elicit the most positive responses.

2. Respond to Your Followers. Too many businesses build Twitter and Facebook accounts and use them only to promote products or services. If someone tweets a complaint about a company or leaves a less-than-ideal comment on a company’s Facebook page, the post needs to be addressed immediately. This demonstrates to other followers that you are engaged with your audience and care about meeting and exceeding their expectations.

3. Automate Referrals and Testimonials. Consumers want to know they can trust your franchisees to provide a positive experience before deciding to make a purchase, sign up for a service or visit your stores. A best practice is to utilize the services of customer loyalty survey tool providers, such as those that utilize the Net Promoter System which can be programmed to automate the flow of favorable reviews from your raving fans where they post to your Facebook pages, and post as testimonials to your franchise recruitment and consumer websites.

4. Monitor Directory Listings. Your online listings need to be monitored constantly because the computers powering Google and millions of other sites scour the web continuously to update old information — even if the new information happens to be wrong. If someone enters an incorrect phone number for your business on a popular site, the information will be picked up and spread across the web, rapidly creating a cascade of errors. With directory listings technologies, the tool will check to make sure your franchisees’ information remains accurate. Additionally, you won’t remain competitive in your market if your franchisees can’t be found. Not being able to be easily found when someone is seeking your services on Google, Facebook, Open Table, Yelp, Angie’s List and others translates into a lack of social proof and credibility, and not being there is equally as detrimental as being there and receiving bad commentary.  

5. Recognize That Your Loyalty Surveys and Customer Reviews are Management Tools. It’s always difficult to take an unflinching look in the mirror under harsh lights at oneself, but there is no better way to take rapid, corrective action. This helps to fix the problem on behalf of that customer, but more importantly, enables you to make necessary, systemic improvements to replace ill-conceived operations systems now in place.

6. Segment Your Email Addresses. Remember that your customers aren’t all the same. Some resent receiving emails and offers that fail to recognize their history and preferences, yet 55 percent of marketing executives are not segmenting their email lists. List segmentation will improve your reputation with your contacts and email engagement will increase.  Segmentation is simply breaking out your email list into multiple lists so that you can target groups of customers based on any criteria you define. Segmentation enables you to send more “personalized” emails than a simple blast to your entire list. According to a study by Experian Marketing Services on optimizing email, 39 percent of marketers who segmented their email lists experienced higher open rates, 28 percent lower unsubscribe rates and 24 percent greater revenue. It’s all about demonstrating that you know your customers and the reward is that “relevant” emails drive 18 times more revenue than “shotgun” emails.

7. Have an Empowered Reputation Leader. The best programs I’ve encountered have clearly defined reputation goals and one person who is specifically in charge of and accountable to the program. Your reputation leader should be the one to get copied on all complaints, Net Promoter Score analytics and open ended responses, and other key information plus that person should keep the organization focused on the most important leading indicators in the business. All of these recommended approaches will work to the extent that you keep things simple for your franchisees. Since execution is the weakest link in the marketing process, we’re moving toward a future in which franchisees will work on creating a superior customer experience while franchisors or outsourced service organizations will take responsibility for executing the reputation and loyalty tools. Each franchise system has a reputation, whether or not it helps shape that reputation. Organizations that do not manage their reputations will have them managed by competitors, critics or others.

Keith Gerson, CFE, is president of global operations for FranConnect and a member of IFA’s Marketing and Communications Committee.  Find him at fransocial.franchise.org.  

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