In the hyper-competitive healthcare market in the United States, some hospitals are now relying on customer satisfaction surveys to help improve patient loyalty.

These service-savvy hospitals are going right to the source and asking patients about their visits. They use surveys to gauge every single part of a patient’s stay—from how they were greeted on arrival, to the care from the doctors, to their discharge.

In Indiana, www.therepublic.com recently explored some of the survey tactics being used by local hospitals.

“Hospitals such as Johnson Memorial Hospital and Franciscan St. Francis Health-Indianapolis attempt to survey all patients, even though the questions are required only for Medicare patients,” wrote Kate Knable of the Daily Journal. 

“Their goal is to assess overall patient satisfaction in areas such as doctor communication and how quiet the hospital is when patients are trying to sleep. And from the surveys, hospital officials decide how they can improve their services.” 

Repeat patients are obviously crucial to the success of any hospital. By following up and listening to feedback, a hospital can ensure they’re top of mind in their area.

If you have any questions about what customer satisfaction surveys can do for your company, please don’t hesitate to contact us any time.

Words are often used in different ways by different people; your goal is to write questions that each person will interpret in the same way. A good question should be short and straightforward. A questionnaire should not be too long, use plain English and the question shouldn't be difficult to answer. Only through careful writing, editing, review, and rewriting can you make a good questionnaire. The following provides you with guidelines for conducting your surveys: 

1.  Write a short questionnaire Above all, your questionnaire should be as short as possible. When drafting your questionnaire, make a mental distinction between what is essential to know, what would be useful to know and what would be unnecessary. Retain the former, keep the useful to a minimum and discard the rest. If the question is not important enough to include in your report, it probably should be eliminated. 
2. Use simple words Survey recipients may have a variety of backgrounds so use simple language. For example,  "What is the frequency of your automotive travel to your parents' residents in the last 30 days?" is better understood as, "About how many times in the last 30 days have you driven to your parent's home?" 
3. Relax your grammar Relax your grammatical standards if the questions sound too formal. For example, the word "who" is appropriate in many instances when "whom" is technical correct.
4. Assure a common understanding Write questions that everyone will understand in the same way. Don't assume that everyone has the same understanding of the facts or a common basis of knowledge. Identify even commonly used  abbreviations to be certain that everyone understands. 
5. Start with interesting questions Start the survey with questions that are likely to sound interesting and attract the respondents' attention. Save the questions that might be difficult or threatening for later. Voicing questions in the third person can be less threatening than questions voiced in the second question. For example, ask: "How do your colleagues feel about management?" rather than "How do you feel about management?" 
6. Don't write leading questions Leading questions demand a specific response. For example: the question "Which day of the month is best for the newly established company-wide monthly meeting?" leads respondents to pick a date without first determining if they even want another meeting. 
7. Avoid double negatives Respondents can easily be confused deciphering the meaning of a question that uses two negative words.  
8. Balance rating scales When the question requires respondents to use a rating scale, mediate the scale so that there is room for both extremes.  
9. Don't make the list of choices too long If the list of answer categories is long and unfamiliar, it is difficult for respondents to evaluate all of them. Keep the list of choices short.   
10. Avoid difficult concepts Some questions involve concepts that are difficult for many people to understand.
11. Avoid difficult recall questions People's memories are increasingly unreliable as you ask them to recall events farther and farther back in time. You will get far more accurate information from people if you ask, "About how many times in the last month  have you gone out and seen a movie in a movie theater or drive-in?" rather than, "About how many times last year did you go out and see a movie in a movie theater or drive-in?"   
12. Use Closed-ended questions rather than Open-ended ones Most questionnaires rely on questions with a fixed number of response categories from which respondents select their answers. These are useful because the respondents know clearly the purpose of the question and are limited to a set of choices where one answer is right for them.  An open-ended question is a written response. For example: "If you do not want a company picnic, please explain why". If there are an excessive number of written response questions, it reduces the quality and attention the respondents give to the answers.  However, InfoPoll allows you to use a wide variety of other types of questions. 
13. Put your questions in a logic order The issues raised in one question can influence how people think about subsequent questions. It is good to ask a general question and then ask more specific questions. For example, you should avoid asking a series of questions about a free banking service and then question about the most important factors in selecting a bank.  
14. Pre-test your survey It is better to identify a problem during the pretest than after you have published the survey. Before sending a survey to a target audience, send it out as a test to a small number of people. After they have completed the survey, brainstorm with them to see if they had problems answering any questions. It would help if they explained what the question meant to them and whether it was valid to the questionnaire or not. 
15. Naming your survey Some people discard an electronic message based entirely on its subject or sender. You should consider other titles that will pique the interest of the recipients. Here are examples of survey names that might be successful in getting attention: > Memo From the Chief Executive Officer  > Evaluation of Services of the Benefits Office  > Your Opinion About Financial Services  > Free T-shirt  > Win a Trip to Paris  > Please Respond By Friday > Free Subscription > Win a notebook computer
16. Cover memo or introduction Once a recipient opens your survey, you may still need to motivate him or her to complete it. The cover memo or introduction offers an excellent place to provide the motivation. A good cover memo or introduction should be short and includes:  > Purpose of the survey   > Why it is important to hear from the correspondent  > What may be done with the results and what possible impacts may occur with the results.  > Address identification  > Person to contact for questions about the survey.  > Due date for response

We all know customer satisfaction is essential to the survival of our businesses. How do we find out whether our customers are satisfied? The best way to find out whether your customers are satisfied is to ask them. When you conduct a customer satisfaction survey, what you ask the customers is important. How, when , and how often you ask these questions are also important. However, the most important thing about conducting a customer satisfaction survey is what you do with their answers. How You Ask Whether Customers Are Satisfied There are many ways to ask your customers whether or not they are satisfied with your company, your products, and the service they received. You can ask them:

• Face-to-face As they are about to walk out of your store or office, ask them.
• Call them on the phone If you have their phone number, and their permission, you can call them after their visit and ask how satisfied they are.
• Mail them a questionnaire This technique has been used for a long time. The results are predictable.
• Email them a customer satisfaction survey Be careful to not violate Spam laws
• Email them an invitation to take a customer satisfaction survey

When To Conduct A Customer Satisfaction Survey The best time to conduct a customer satisfaction survey is when the experience is fresh in their minds. If you wait to conduct a survey, the customer's response may be less accurate. He may have forgotten some of the details. She may answer about a later event. Her may color his answers because of confusion with other visits. She may confuse you with some other company. What To Ask In A Customer Satisfaction Survey There is a school of thought that you only need to ask a single question in a customer satisfaction survey. That question is, "will you buy from me again?" While it is tempting to reduce your customer satisfaction survey to this supposed "essence", you miss a lot of valuable information and you can be easily misled. It is too easy for a customer to answer yes to the "will you buy from me again?", whether they mean it or not. You want to ask other questions in a customer satisfaction survey to get closer to the expected behavior and to collect information about what to change and what to keep doing. By all means ask the basic customer satisfaction questions:

• How satisfied are you with the purchase you made (of a product or service)
• How satisfied are you with the service you received?
• How satisfied are you with our company overall?
• And ask the customer loyalty questions"
• How likely are you to buy from us again?
• How likely are you to recommend our product/service to others
• How likely are you to recommend our company to others.
• Also ask what the customer liked and didn't like about the product, your service, and your company.

How Often Should You Conduct A Customer Satisfaction Survey The best answer is "often enough to get the most information, but not so often as to upset the customer". In real terms, the frequency with which you conduct a customer satisfaction survey depends on the frequency with which you interact with your customers. My state renews drivers licenses for five-year periods. It would be silly for them to ask me each year what I thought of my last renewal experience. Conversely, if I survey the commuters on my rapid transit system once a year, I will miss important changes in their attitudes that may be driven by seasonal events. What To Do With Answers From A Customer Satisfaction Survey Regardless of how I ask my customers for their feedback, what I ask them in the customer satisfaction survey, and when I survey them, the most important part of the customer satisfaction survey is what I do with their answers. Yes, I need to compile the answers from different customers. I need to look for trends. I should look for differences by region and/or product. However, I most need to act on the information I get from my customers though the survey. I need to fix the things the customers have complained about. I need to investigate their suggestions. I need to improve my company and product in those areas the mean the most to the most of my customers. I need to not change those things that they like. Most importantly I need to give them feedback that their answers were appreciated and are being acted upon. That feedback can be individual responses to the customers if appropriate, or it can simply be fixing the things that they tell you need to be fixed.

Measuring customer service is an important way to make sure you get repeat business. Unless customers are happy with your services or goods, chances are they will go somewhere else the next time they need something. If you make a point to measure customer service on a regular, ongoing basis, you can always change or cancel something that is not working and find better ways to help those who call your company with a complaint. Step 1:  Conduct a quick online search to see if there are customer service complaints against your company. Customers who can't get a satisfactory answer through your company will likely go online to complain in forums or websites such as the Better Business Bureau. One or two complaints can indicate a fluke in the system. If you find many complaints by different individuals, it may be a sign that there is a serious problem with the system. Step 2:  Create a survey for your customers to complete. Ask them to rate past experiences with the company and include questions about particular areas, such as over-the-phone and online service, speed of response, attitude of the employees and satisfaction with the solutions offered. This will help you decide what to do in the future when a customer complains. Step 3:  Use call monitoring to measure the type of customer service your company is already providing. Call monitoring refers to a third person (usually somebody in management or personnel) listening in during a conversation between a customer service representative and a customer calling with a complaint. Consultants are sometimes used to monitor these calls and then provide training. Step 4:  Check back with customers who had complaints in the past. Get feedback on how much they believe the company has improved and what else can be done to make it even better. Offer an incentive for people to respond, such as a small discount on future purchases or a token gift. Step 5:  Set out an anonymous box in which customers can place messages. Let the customers know they are welcome to offer both suggestions and post anonymous complaints into the box. This will help you measure the level of trouble people have with the company and see if there are complaints that are repeated by several people. Consider using survey software services of an outside firm to help you monitor customer service. This will guarantee anonymity and ensure fairness to everybody involved.

We all know customer satisfaction is essential to the survival of our businesses. How do we find out whether our customers are satisfied? The best way to find out whether your customers are satisfied is to ask them. When you conduct a customer satisfaction survey, what you ask the customers is important. How, when , and how often you ask these questions are also important. However, the most important thing about conducting a customer satisfaction survey is what you do with their answers. How You Ask Whether Customers Are Satisfied There are many ways to ask your customers whether or not they are satisfied with your company, your products, and the service they received. You can ask them:

• Face-to-face As they are about to walk out of your store or office, ask them.
• Call them on the phone If you have their phone number, and their permission, you can call them after their visit and ask how satisfied they are.
• Mail them a questionnaire This technique has been used for a long time. The results are predictable.
• Email them a customer satisfaction survey Be careful to not violate Spam laws
• Email them an invitation to take a customer satisfaction survey

When To Conduct A Customer Satisfaction Survey The best time to conduct a customer satisfaction survey is when the experience is fresh in their minds. If you wait to conduct a survey, the customer's response may be less accurate. He may have forgotten some of the details. She may answer about a later event. Her may color his answers because of confusion with other visits. She may confuse you with some other company. What To Ask In A Customer Satisfaction Survey There is a school of thought that you only need to ask a single question in a customer satisfaction survey. That question is, "will you buy from me again?" While it is tempting to reduce your customer satisfaction survey to this supposed "essence", you miss a lot of valuable information and you can be easily misled. It is too easy for a customer to answer yes to the "will you buy from me again?", whether they mean it or not. You want to ask other questions in a customer satisfaction survey to get closer to the expected behavior and to collect information about what to change and what to keep doing. By all means ask the basic customer satisfaction questions:

• How satisfied are you with the purchase you made (of a product or service)
• How satisfied are you with the service you received?
• How satisfied are you with our company overall?

And ask the customer loyalty questions"

• How likely are you to buy from us again?
• How likely are you to recommend our product/service to others
• How likely are you to recommend our company to others.

Also ask what the customer liked and didn't like about the product, your service, and your company. How Often Should You Conduct A Customer Satisfaction Survey The best answer is "often enough to get the most information, but not so often as to upset the customer". In real terms, the frequency with which you conduct a customer satisfaction survey depends on the frequency with which you interact with your customers. My state renews drivers licenses for five-year periods. It would be silly for them to ask me each year what I thought of my last renewal experience. Conversely, if I survey the commuters on my rapid transit system once a year, I will miss important changes in their attitudes that may be driven by seasonal events. What To Do With Answers From A Customer Satisfaction Survey Regardless of how I ask my customers for their feedback, what I ask them in the customer satisfaction survey, and when I survey them, the most important part of the customer satisfaction survey is what I do with their answers. Yes, I need to compile the answers from different customers. I need to look for trends. I should look for differences by region and/or product. However, I most need to act on the information I get from my customers though the survey. I need to fix the things the customers have complained about. I need to investigate their suggestions. I need to improve my company and product in those areas the mean the most to the most of my customers. I need to not change those things that they like. Most importantly I need to give them feedback that their answers were appreciated and are being acted upon. That feedback can be individual responses to the customers if appropriate, or it can simply be fixing the things that they tell you need to be fixed.