Free Customer Comment Card Template

Businesses rise and fall based on their ability to understand the experience and expectations of their customers.

Assessing your customer needs and expectations is part of managing customer satisfaction.  There are several ways to obtain customer feedback – focus groups, customer satisfaction surveys and text analytics.  But the main goal of a customer comment card process is to capture the customer experience when it is fresh in the customer’s mind.

Many organization’s develop products and services based on what they “think” the customer wants. But the only way to truly know what a customer wants is to ask them. Developing feedback tools should start with an understanding of those things that are important to a customer and building a tool based on those expectations.

For example, many organizations will conduct a customer focus group to determine detailed expectations of customers.  Once they learn what the customer likes, dislikes and hopes to have a tool can be created to measure the businesses ability to meet those needs.

A customer comment card should be brief, to the point and focus on those things that are most important to a positive customer experience.

The goal is to get the customers to fill out the form without asking them to make a huge time commitment to the process.  So the fewer questions you can ask to get the information you’re looking for – the better.

Example Customer Comment Card

This is merely a survey card template that can be formatted on any word-processing software to customize for your organization.

When customizing, insert specifics about your organization, i.e. are you a dry cleaner, restaurant or auto repair shop?

For fun add your logo and a special font that represents your organization. Keep comment card questions brief to encourage participation.

Comment cards should be anonymous to protect the anonymity of the person completing the comment card unless the customer wants someone to contact them.

Provide a stamped return address on the back of the card so they can easily mail the card back.

If you need help formatting or customizing your card, go to Canva to create a fun and free design of your comment card.

Other thoughts:

• Customer comment cards should be easily accessed by the customer.  Some common places comment cards are available are in waiting areas, on dining tables, business lobby or anywhere that a customer would naturally visit.
• Have a comment card box close to where the cards are displayed for easy card returns.
• When comment cards are in public areas, you can expect to get some cards returned that may not represent someone’s true thoughts, but may be a practical joke.  These can be easily identified.
• Make sure you check your comment card boxes on a regular basis, ideally daily, so you have time to perform service recovery if needed.
• Valid issues should be addressed immediately.
• Create a database to track your comments so you can watch for trends over time that could identify a systemic issue.
• Incorporate improvement opportunities into long-term strategy and  business goals.

Finally, this is one of many tools that should be considered when putting together a comprehensive customer service strategy.  Using all available tools can help ensure you are accurately hearing the voice-of-the-customer.

You can access modifiable templates here.

If you would like to learn more about customer satisfaction you might be interested in this book: Measuring Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty, available on Amazon.