It is commonly said that companies must challenge themselves and continually introduce change initiatives in order to grow. But what information is used to drive these change initiatives? Certainly market data, industry trends, financial analysis, etc. are important inputs to change, but the most critical impetus for change is often overlooked: feedback from customers.

At Fisher's we have historically avoided customer feedback for fear of what customers might say.  We now have an extensive feedback mechanism to obtain information from our customers about how we are doing.  As we guide our company through dramatic growth, we MUST embrace feedback from customers as drivers for change. 

The great news at Fisher's is that the change initiatives we have already implemented are resulting in very happy customers.  Since implementing a daily phone survey program three months ago, we have conducted surveys on 335 customers regarding Fisher's service.  One question we ask is whether a customer would refer Fishers to other businesses.  94% say they would definitely recommend Fisher's, 4% say they might recommend Fisher's, and 2% say they would not recommend Fisher's.

While this confirms that the changes we have made in our service and supplies departments are making dramatic improvements in customer satisfaction, the most important part of these surveys is the 6% of customers who are not 100% happy with Fisher's.  Feedback from each of these customers is analyzed and passed to the accountable groups.  Corrective measures are then required to not only handle any immediate issues but also to address any systematic problems; ensuring we attack root causes and not just symptoms.

The moral of the story for Fisher's is that if we had never asked our customers what they think of us we would never have known.  And the most important thing we can do going forward is to respond quickly to that feedback.  I personally want to thank everyone who takes time to meaningfully respond to our surveys.  Your two cents mean everything to us.