I received an email this week from our vet re: our furkid’s one-year check-up and a request to take a survey. My brain quickly transitioned into CX-mode when I noticed the online survey embodied CX and Net Promoter® best practices:

Relates to something I care about? Absolutely. Our pup, Quincy.
Easy to access? Yep. Very brief email. I can see the survey button. *click*
Appropriate length and easy to submit? Yes. 7 questions, 1 open-ended. Easy enough.
Do they know me? Yes. Not being asked my name, phone number, email, pet’s name, pet’s medications, pet’s history, other pets in household, type of food, etc. Looks like they've matched it on the back-end.
Is it easy to understand? Yep. Short questions. Focused on our last visit.

Before I start, there are 5 CX topics to keep in mind:

Customer journey
Critical experience touchpoints (TPs)
Linking TPs to operations, which are linked to employees and their connection to customers
Performance metrics and ROI
Research employees understand and can act on

Please note four of the CX items listed are arguably the most important elements of customer-centricity and are represented in thinkTrendless approach:

The beauty of the Gold Coast Animal Hospital (GCAH) research survey is it simplicity and focus. Let’s start with an idea of what the GCAH customer journey looks:

*Disclaimer: not validated by GCAH and represents a simplified journey.*

The GCAH cover letter leads with a strong focus on the customer: dog and dog owner.

This letter could have easily been:

Dear Mr. Baker,

Gold Coast Animal Hospital is committed to providing exceptional veterinarian care for small and exotic animals. Our business is built on the foundation of our animal-centered approach to care delivered by a team of serving hearts. In support of efforts, we always want to learn more about what our furpatients and their family experience….

We've all experienced cover letters like this. They're often an entire page and customers typically tune out after the first sentence. Today's cover letters need to be brief and focus customers on the request – Take Our Brief Survey.

The GCAH survey is concise and respectful of the customer’s time. Additionally, the questions can be linked back to which employees impact the customer experience.

The link between customer touchpoints and operations arms employees with insight they can act on to improve the customer experience. Furthermore, the survey results help guide investment decisions to improve any of the touchpoints, which was covered in my July 21st post that discussed how the thinkTrendless can also be used to assess technology trends.

In closing, GCAH once again focuses on the customer along with a small request.

The only CX item I haven't covered is #4:

Customer journey
Critical experience touchpoints (TPs)
Linking TPs to operations, which are linked to employees and their connection to customers
Performance metrics and ROI
Research employees understand and can act on

Linking customer experience touchpoints to metrics and ROI can be a scary proposition for employees. I’ve experienced it firsthand tying metrics to roles, but that concern can be eased by helping employees understand the power it provides them. To ensure I adequately cover performance metrics and ROI, I'm going to wait to cover this topic in a future post.

To close, I shared the GCAH survey to show how businesses can streamline insight collection. By streamlining the survey, GCAH made its request easier, more personal, and it will likely create promoters willing to go a step further with a Yelp review.

thinkTrendless, Jeff