Yesterday I was listening to a radio show about investing. Not that I’m a big buyer and seller of stocks and I certainly would never claim to be smart enough to teach anyone how to choose a stock to invest in. Trust me, I have my own investment problems and I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to follow what I do in that area.

What I found interesting about the program is that they were saying that smart investors are starting to measure a company’s growth potential (or the increase in value of their stock) by customer satisfaction. In other words, if a company has very satisfied customers, chances are the value of the stock of the company will rise. If the company does not have satisfied customers, the stock value will not increase.

Smart investors are so serious about this that they want customer satisfaction statistics added to companies SEC reports and financial statements. They want this rating to be readily available for them to evaluate when making stock purchase decisions.

This isn’t really rocket science is it. We as small business owners already know that if our customers are not satisfied, we’re not going to be in business very long. But, how do we determine how satisfied our customers are? Of course, we could (and should) ask them but are they telling us what they really feel?

Face to face people tend to give us the easy answer, the one we want to hear so they don’t have to answer any more questions. Sure, there’s always going to be the guy that complains about everything but he’s not a good measure. After all, he complains about everything.

Written questionnaires could be used but how many responses do you really get with written questionnaires. You might be able to get more responses if there were some sort of incentive like the potential for winning something.

A short survey on your website would be good. Again, if there were some sort of incentive, there would be a higher level of participation. People like to win stuff.

The best way to determine customer satisfaction, however, is by developing relationships with your customers. Customers that feel appreciated and cared about are the most satisfied customers and they are the ones that are going to spread the word about you and your business. I know, I’ve said before but it’s true.

This really needs to be taken a step further though. How satisfied are your customers going to be if your employees are not happy? Your employee’s feelings are going to be projected to your customers – happy or unhappy. Maybe developing a good relationship with your staff is what needs to happen first.

How satisfied are your customers and your employees?

Photo credit: bfishadow

As you have heard me say before, it is important that small businesses begin using social media. Large companies are using it to have conversations with individual customers, to thank them and to solve problems for them. The problem for large companies is that they have so many customers that it is not possible for them to address every issue with every customer within the confines of social media. Their customers get the ‘not so personal’ attention of the much dreaded big customer service departments.

This is where the small business owner has a huge advantage. Your customers are able to get personal attention from you, the owner of the business. Customers appreciate that and will speak highly of you and your business when they feel you appreciate them.

This is where listening is important. Social media is a conversation broken down into short statements, but it is a conversation nonetheless. Being a good listener is a big part of conversation.

It is only by listening that we learn how our customers feel about us and our business. It is by listening that we are able to publicly resolve issues that our customers are having. And, it is by listening that we are able to publicly let our customers know that we appreciate them.

So, how to we listen with social media? On Twitter, for example, there is the obvious way of just seeing what they are saying as it is being posted but, let’s face it, that’s sometimes impossible to do. Many posts can go by without you seeing them and if you are not following the commenter, you will not see them at all. A better way would be to search @YourName. By doing this, you will be able to see what anyone says rather than just those that you follow. If you are not following them, this gives you the opportunity to not only follow them but also to respond appropriately to their comment.

So, you are listening, right?! If not, get started. It will make a huge difference in your social media endeavors.