Our mid-year client satisfaction survey was a success in so many ways.

One, more than 80 percent of Geonetric’s clients responded. Maybe that’s because clients know we listen and they’re eager to share their thoughts. Or, maybe it’s because we gave away four $100 giftcards to random participants! Either way, we’re thrilled when we get feedback from so many of our clients and can really dive deep into what’s working and what needs improvement.

Two, the biggest area we need to focus on is an area we’re aware of and have already applied considerable pressure: our backlog. We’re excited to see these scores improve as new team members get up to speed.

And three, it’s so much fun to be in a position to share some of the amazing comments we get. Client advisors are called out by name over and over again for consistently delivering top-notch service. Established clients appreciate the new functionality that our engineering team delivers. New clients rave about the launch process.

So let’s dive in and take a closer look.

Overall Client Satisfaction Score
As you may recall, our baseline goal is 5.0, based on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 6 (highest). I’m happy to report we continue to exceed that target.

But there was a dip, and if you know Geonetric, you know all hands are on deck to figure out how to address any concerns.

Amazing Participation
Having less frequent surveys was a big takeaway from our January survey. We committed to changing the survey schedule from quarterly to twice a year. Our goal with this action item was to minimize survey fatigue for our clients and keep their participation levels high.

How did that work out? A whopping 83% of our clients participated in this survey. This is our second-highest participation level ever, down only slightly from the record-breaking 86% participation rate in January.

We interpret that to mean the new survey schedule is working well so far. Of course, it helps that we continue to have regular, ongoing progress calls with clients and conduct project-specific surveys to make sure clients are satisfied with our deliverables and their results. That means we’re hearing along the way what we’re doing well vs. what needs improvement, and we’re able to make incremental improvements as we go. We’ll continue to monitor this, but this survey schedule seems to be achieving the desired results.

New Hires and the Backlog
After the January survey (and well before, really!) we also committed to continue our growth trajectory and bring on additional employees in critical, client-facing roles. Our goal with this action was to minimize any concern about bandwidth and reduce turnaround times for certain services.

The outcome? Geonetric has hired 20 new employees so far this year, 16 of whom are in client-support roles. Eight of those new employees came on board in the first quarter, the other eight in the second quarter.

So we’ve made great progress, although admittedly, not quite as quickly as we – or our clients – would like. To be completely transparent, we’re kind of picky in our hires so it can sometimes take us awhile to find a candidate whose skills are strong enough to do “Wow!” work for our clients AND whose personality makes for a good cultural fit.

Comments in this most recent survey make it clear that the slight dip in the overall satisfaction is related directly to that speed of hire. We empathize with those feelings and are confident the awesome people we’ve brought on board will be clearing out the backlog and getting projects to “Done!” within reasonable timeframes.

If you check out our website, you’ll see we’re continuing to make additional hires in those key roles so we can move from reasonable to “Wow!” And of course, if you know of anyone who’d be a great fit at Geonetric in any of our open positions, be sure to send them our way!

Flattering Feedback
Even though we are always focused on improvement, it is refreshing to stop for a moment and tell each other “good job!” And there was a lot to celebrate in this survey, too.

• “Never do I hear ‘we can’t do that’.”
• “I feel like other companies wouldn’t care as much as Geonetric.”
• “You have rocked our socks!”

Our team is passionate about client service, and we won’t stop until every comment is as glowing as these. And we won’t stop then, either.

The Bottom Line
Our clients have chosen a Web partner who cares deeply about their opinion and satisfaction. We know we’re not perfect, but at Geonetric, we are absolutely committed to this high level of introspection, transparency, accountability and ongoing improvement.

Wish you had a Web partner like that? If so, join us. And stay tuned — we’ll continue to report our survey results and what we’re doing to continually “Wow!” our clients.