CIOPulse Knowledge Base

1.4 Customer communication

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To maximise the response rate, and quality of feedback, from your relationship survey, you will want to consider your customer communications plan. Typically, this will involve a short sequence of emails, e.g. heads-up, launch, reminder(s), thank you, findings, and your improvement plans.

In addition to these emails, you may want to use other channels that are available to you, e.g. asking managers to encourage their staff to complete the survey, advertising it on your intranet, or publishing it as a news item in your regular newsletter.

Below is an example of an email-based customer comms plan.

Title
 Timing
 Content
Heads Up
 3 days before survey launch
  • Set the scene, e.g. we want to deliver the very best service we can.
  • To help us do that we’ll soon be launching a short survey so we can learn where we need to improve.
  • Unlike the survey you may have seen when we close one of your support tickets, this survey asks for you feedback on the whole of IT (rather than just our performance on an individual support ticket).
  • Your feedback will be used to shape our improvement plans. For example, initiatives x, y and z were all the result of the survey we ran last year.
  • Please look out for it on date x – it has only three questions and will take just a few minutes of your time to complete.
Launch
 Launch
  • We’re excited to launch the three-question survey we wrote to you about (e.g. last week), here’s the link.
  • We'd love you to take a few minutes to complete it - a high response rate will help to make sure we don’t base our improvement plans on the feedback from a vocal minority.
  • Please take the time to express yourself clearly and honestly. Don’t worry, you won’t hurt our feelings!
  • Please note the survey is not anonymous. We’ve decided to do it this way so we can contact you if we need to clarify anything, or if we think we can quickly address an issue you’ve raised.
  • The survey will remain open until date x.
  • Thanks for helping us help you.
Reminder 1
 Half-way through survey period
  • Thank you to everyone that has completed our survey so far.
  • For those of you that haven’t got around to it yet, here’s the link.
  • It’s very short. It only has 3 questions. It will only take you a few minutes to complete.
  • We'd love you to take a few minutes to complete it - a high response rate will help to make sure we don’t base our improvement plans on the feedback from a vocal minority.
  • The survey will remain open until date x.
Reminder 2
 1 day before survey close
  • Thank you to everyone that has completed our survey so far.
  • For those of you that haven’t got around to it yet, this is your last chance to be heard. Here's the link.
  • So far, we’ve had a response rate of x and it'd be awesome if we could get it above y.
  • The survey will close at time/date x.
Thank you
 Immediately after survey closes
  • The survey is now closed and we are no longer accepting responses.
  • Thanks to everyone for completing it.
  • We are now going to analyse all your feedback so we can understand where we’re doing well and where we need to improve.
  • Around about x,  we’ll let you know what we’ve learned.
  • We’re very committed to delivering the best service we can and so we’re totally committed to acting on your feedback.
What we've learned
 Within 4 weeks of survey close
  • Last (e.g. month) we ran a survey asking for feedback on what we do well and where you need us to do better.
  • We got x responses and we've just finished our analysis.
  • This is what we learned (list the things you're good at, and list the areas where you need to improve).
  • We're going to take what we've learned and use it as input to our improvement plans for the next 12 months.
  • We'll share more on those plans in (e.g. x months).
What we're planning to do
 Within 3 months of survey close
  • We promised we'd share our improvement plans with you.
  • The feedback from the survey we ran in (month) has been used to shape those plans.
  • Here's what we've got planned...
  • Thanks again for completing the survey. We're going to run them annually and continue to improve the services we provide to you.
What we've done
 Initiative-by-initiative basis
  • When a new initiative is announced, or promoted upon completion, link it to the survey findings, e.g. "In the last annual IT survey, you told us you wanted Genius Bar support. We listened. We're proud to announce the opening of our very own Tech Bar on Level 3".
  • In the heads-up email of your next survey, list some initiatives that were implemented as a result of the previous survey.
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Project & Relationship Surveys

1. Project & Relationship Surveys - Implementation Steps 4
2. Project & Relationship Surveys - Accessing Information 3