In case you don’t live in the Midwest, Meijer is locally owned and operated chain of grocery stores. Over the years they’ve expanded their product line to match their “One Stop Shopping” slogan.
I’ve written in the past about how they’ve struggled over the last few years to position themselves to better compete with Walmart’s superstores.
One of their latest secret weapons beats Walmart hands down. In fact, it’s one that most businesses could learn a thing or two from. And the best part of all, it’s simple, yet amazingly powerful.
It’s called “customer feedback”!
Like many businesses, Meijer’s website has almost always had a feedback section. But a couple of months ago someone finally came up with the idea to fine tune it and actively encourage customers to share their opinions.
On the bottom of every sales receipt there’s a (large print) message that goes like this, “Rate Your Shopping Experience and You May Win a $1000 Meijer Gift Card!” Customers get the option to phone in or use the web-based system.
Unique user ID’s and passwords are printed right on the sales receipt. Instead of assigning the user ID and password to identify customers, it appears as though they identify the store, the checkout clerk, time/date of sale, purchases, etc.
The 6 or 7 survey questions are simple, quick, and painless. At the end they provide a free flow text area (on the web based system) so you can add comments, suggestions, or feedback. If you’d like to be entered into the gift card drawing you simply fill in the customer contact information at the tail end of the survey.
Why do I think this is so brilliant? Three simple reasons:
- Because so few businesses care enough to ask
- Because in essence, they’ve turned their entire customer base into an army of mystery shoppers
- Because they take it one step further and give customers an incentive to participate
It all seems so simple, yet it’s beyond me why every single business owner doesn’t use the same strategy. Why wouldn’t you want to know what your customers are thinking?
Who are the other businesses out there that are actively encouraging customer feedback? Post them here. Let’s start a collection.
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