A few posts ago I talked about the 1 question you need to ask on every work order, but that was for your service techs. Now let's talk about the 1 question you need to ask every customer. It's the only question that really matters.
- "How likely are you to recommend our services to others?"
When most of your business comes from referrals (at least, it should be, if you're providing - and priced for - a high level of service), this kind of feedback is vital.
Keep it simple. Do the 1-10 rating, with 10 being the best. A simple average will tell you how you're doing, and keep track from month to month to watch for any changes.
When you get those 9's and 10's, send them a (handwritten) note saying thanks for their business, and you'd be much obliged if they would tell their friends.
When you get those 1's and 2's, call them and find out what happened. You might have a chance to fix the problem and regain the customer (because they're probably lost at this point).
How do you get it to customers? If you're mailing invoices, put in a pre-sorted, paid postcard. They just need to mark the card and send it back. If you email invoice, add the question to the email text, just have them hit reply. Otherwise, you can make it fancy and work with an online tool like Survey Monkey to collect the data. That way you could ask other questions (even though they're not as important), so long as you keep it short! Don't make this an inconvenience: you won't get the responses, and you'll sour the customer's experience with your business.
Also, if you want to take this concept up a level, check out a service like Net Promoter. This kind of thing is all that they do, and they take it very, very seriously. There are a ton of resources, including how to calculate your official Net Promoter score.
Your field service management is all about operations, but take the opportunity to ask the question - and respond to the feedback - and you'll help your business success.