374 Strategies for Effective Customer and Employee Surveys

Each week, we bring you insights from industry experts to help you scale up your water treatment knowledge and operations. This week, we're thrilled to share strategies for effective customer and employee surveys based on a recent interview with  Brian Katarski, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at AquaPhoenix Scientific. Brian's extensive experience in sales and marketing makes him a valuable source of knowledge on how to gather and use feedback to drive improvement.

How Important is Feedback?
“Feedback plays a very important role in all relationships: employees, coworkers, even your spouse.” - Brian Katarski

Feedback is a cornerstone of growth. It empowers teams to improve by increasing their knowledge and confidence. Brian emphasizes the necessity of not just collecting feedback but using it as a foundation for continuous improvement.

What is Feedback?
“The most important part of feedback is that we have to use it as a basis for improvement. You cannot collect feedback just to ignore it, or justify it away, or pretend like it doesn't exist.” - Brian Katarski

According to Brian, feedback should be actionable. Whether it’s from customers or employees, feedback needs to be addressed constructively. Ignoring or dismissing feedback is counterproductive. Instead, look each other in the eye and commit to acting on the feedback received.

How Do You Build a Healthy Culture of Feedback in Your Company?
“The biggest piece to it is if you want to encourage this long-term over time is you have to respond to the feedback. You can't just ignore it, right? You can't ghost it, or you can't just think it didn't happen. or say. you know. justify it away. You have to respond to it in a way that lets somebody know ‘I heard you. I understand. Here's what we're gonna do with that information now’, right. And that way they and they now know that we care. That we want to hear what they have to say whether it's an employee or a customer. They know that we're going to listen to what they have to say, and they'll be more willing to share that information with us.” - Brian Katarski

Creating a healthy feedback culture starts with demonstrating that feedback is valued and acted upon. Brian highlights the importance of responding to feedback promptly and constructively. When employees or customers see that their input leads to real action, they are more likely to continue providing valuable insights.

“You've got to try some different tactics and different things to try to reach certain people. Sometimes it's a quick paper survey. You know, maybe as you're walking out. Maybe you send an email or a link with your service reports whenever you send those off on Fridays or whenever you do it. Just different ways to do it, maybe put it on an invoice you're sending off, maybe have your marketing team sending those out, but you'll kind of figure out the best ways to gather that information depending on how people do it.” - Brian Katarski

Diverse methods of collecting feedback ensure that you reach a broad audience and gather a variety of perspectives. Whether it's through paper surveys, emails, links in service reports, or even feedback sections on invoices, finding the right approach for your audience is key to building a robust feedback culture.

How Do You Start and Encourage a Feedback Process?
“Build out a plan around what you want to gather feedback on. Start with the end in mind.” - Brian Katarski

Brian advises beginning with a clear plan. Identify what specific feedback you need and how you will use it to drive improvement. By focusing on the end goal, you can design a process that ensures the feedback is both meaningful and actionable.

“It depends on what you want to gather and from who. It's gotta be simple and quick.” - Brian Katarski

To encourage feedback, keep surveys short and straightforward, aiming for 1-5 questions. Use a variety of methods depending on your audience—quick paper surveys, emails, or links in service reports. Formal methods and scheduled discussions can be employed when necessary. Track and trend feedback over time to pinpoint areas of improvement.

“At AquaPhoenix, we celebrate feedback because it gives us a chance to learn and improve.” - Brian Katarski

A culture that values feedback fosters continuous learning and improvement. By celebrating feedback, you reinforce its importance and encourage ongoing participation from both employees and customers.

What Are Some Common Feedback Mistakes to Avoid?
“Humility is key. Accept feedback and resist the urge to get defensive.” - Brian Katarski

Brian stresses the importance of humility in accepting feedback. Early in his career, he struggled with defensiveness, but now he focuses on understanding the underlying issues and using feedback to drive improvement.

"Every time I feel that weird reaction, that sort of tension, I ask myself: What's driving that? Where's that coming from? And 9 times out of 10, it's my ego. It's me trying to protect myself because I don't want to admit that we were wrong, I don't want to admit that something happened, I don't want to accept that feedback. I think that's the biggest thing I can tell you." - Brian Katarski

By recognizing the role of ego and defensiveness, Brian has learned to embrace feedback as a tool for growth. This shift in mindset allows him to find valuable insights in feedback, even when it's difficult to hear, and to continuously improve processes and relationships.

We hope these insights from Brian Katarski help you implement effective feedback strategies in your organization. Stay tuned for next week's episode of Scaling UP! H2O, where we continue to bring you valuable industry insights.

Timestamps
01:00 - Trace Blackmore asks you to look for the things that give you butterflies in your tummy because you are doing something new and challenging
04:05 - Upcoming Events for Water Treatment Professionals
09:45 - Interview with Brian Katarski, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at AquaPhoenix Scientific
51:00 - Drop by Drop with James McDonald 

Connect with Brian Katarski
Phone: 717.465.7859
Email: bkatarski@aquaphoenixsci.com
Website: www.aquaphoenixsci.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bkatarski/
linkedin.com/company/aquaphoenix-scientific/
Read or Download Brian Katarski’s Press Release HERE

Links Mentioned
Episode 325
Episode 298
Free Legionella Resources Page
Industrial Water Week Resources Page
Marriage App, Paired
Hooper's Crab House, Ocean City, Maryland
Hubspot CRM
The Rising Tide Mastermind
Scaling UP! H2O Academy video courses
Submit a Show Idea
AWT (Association of Water Technologies)

Drop By Drop with James
In today’s episode, we’re thinking about BOD and COD. First, what do these acronyms stand for: BOD and COD? How are they measured? Is one of them always equal to or higher than the other? Why would BOD or COD be used in water treatment? What can impact the BOD or COD of a water? What water treatment can change it?

2024 Events for Water Professionals
Check out our Scaling UP! H2O Events Calendar where we’ve listed every event Water Treaters should be aware of by clicking HERE.