We would all like to be a mind reader when it comes to our customers (old, new and future customers), it would make our jobs easier and our business more successful! But sadly, we're not mind readers so we have to look out for the various signals that our customers give us in order to find out where they are at with things.

There is one simple thing that we can do, to help us tap into what they are thinking and to find out that vital information, and that is through the use of surveys. Asking your customers a set of simple questions can really give you that insight that we all crave.

Here are some simple examples of why you should send out a survey: -

• Customer Loyalty - Understand what your customers are thinking, why did they buy from you? What did they like about your product/service? Even find out what they didn't like! Knowing what keeps them coming back to you will help you strengthen your business as well as looking to improve what they didn't like will help you cement your relationship with them, that is the real magic of surveys.
• Spotting Trends - After understanding the drivers for your customers to buy from you, you can benefit from their collective responses to spot trends in what they might want in the future, helping with development of your products/service but also giving you new ideas about new products/services and offerings that they might want from you in the future.
• Effective Communications - We all get bombarded by emails these days, from companies that we've bought from, looked up on the internet.....even our dentist for reminders of appointments, but sending out a survey and actively asking the customer to engage with us can be a bit different and key in strengthening those bonds between us and them. Asking them to engage and have their say is a clever strategy as they are more likely to ready your communication more closely as they get to have their say.

No matter what you decide to do with your winder marketing plan, surveys have to be included in there to help add more value to your customers and to bring them closer to you and your business, building strong bridges.