As the customer, you have a stake in getting your two cents worth on the record as well. It is, after all, that the products and services you use that will be affected. If you are not telling trucking industry suppliers what you want, you can bet someone else is giving them an earful in your place.

• What is customer satisfaction?
• If something has value, business finds a way to measure it. That includes customer satisfaction. Savvy businesses gather data on factors such as:
• Are company representatives knowledgeable and courteous?
• Is the product or service as-ordered; does the customer see it as accurate?
• Does the product or service perform as the customer expected? Does it meet customer needs today — and will it meet tomorrow's?
• Does the customer believe he or she gets good value for the cost?
• Are problems resolved quickly and efficiently?

The price of dissatisfaction

When customers talk, smart companies listen. They can't afford not to. Business research has shown attracting a new customer costs five times more than keeping an existing one.

Bad word-of-mouth travels further than good. Studies show the average disgruntled customer tells approximately 10 people. Compare that to the happy customer, who tells only three to five people.

Think of your own experience. How many people did you tell about the long wait or shoddy service you had to put up with? Yet how many heard about the time your problem was handled in a fast, friendly and efficient manner?

Businesses also know that most people do not report their complaints to the company. In fact, only 4% do. As a result, the company knows nothing about the problems of the remaining 96% and so can do nothing to fix them.

How companies get customer feedback

Smart companies use several methods to keep tabs on customer sentiment. They can glean information from product support calls, product returns, direct complaints — and the number of lost customers. The difficulty with these measures is they react only after a problem has occurred; they do not monitor, prevent or predict.

A more proactive approach is to survey customers regularly. This can detect early warnings of small problems before they grow into big ones.

When owner/operator George Shea received a survey from the manufacturer of his 1997 Peterbilt 379 power unit, he didn't mail it in. Instead, he took it with him to the Peterbilt booth at Mid-America Trucking show.

“I was able to sit down with one of the company vice presidents,” Shea said. “We went through it question by question. I liked my Pete, but there were a few issues. A company doesn't know that something is wrong if we don't tell them.”

Truck stops and trucking trade shows are popular sites for industry customer satisfaction surveys. Industry journals such as Big Rig Owner often conduct reader surveys.

This issue contains a post-paid business reply form to receive information on surveys from owner/operators.

Drivers can get notices of future surveys by joining the Markinetics Owner/Operator Panel. To join, use a touch-tone phone to call 1-866-VOICE22 enter the code OORP (6677), or log on to www.takeasurvey.com and go to Join Panel.