A carefully developed comment card allows your customers to give honest and valuable feedback that can provide information critical to your business. Knowing early what problems are occurring will allow you to react in a timely manner, reducing the damage and keeping your customers from going elsewhere. While you will receive some criticism, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the positive feedback, too.

There are three primary considerations when developing your card.
1. What is the purpose?
Begin by making a list of questions that are short, to the point, and can be answered by rating on a scale with clearly stated values. If you use a scale of 1 to 5, is 1 high or low? Include a blank area where customers can add their own comments. They may mention things you haven’t even considered.

While less than 1% of comment cards are typically returned, a form that is simple to understand and easy to fill out will be returned with higher frequency and will produce more accurate results. Comment cards should take no longer than five minutes to complete.

2. How will the cards be distributed?
The size of the card should be determined by your planned distribution method. Will the cards be stacked on the checkout counter, inserted in a restaurant billfold, placed on the customers’ car seat? The size of the card will also determine the number of questions you can ask. Don’t shrink the type so you can squeeze in more questions. The questions must be large enough to be easy to read.

3. How will the collected information be compiled?
Before distributing the cards, determine who will be responsible for compiling the data. Customers will expect their concerns to be addressed, so ask if they would like to be contacted regarding their comments.

It is easy to fall into the trap of simply reading the results as they come in but this is a poor way to track results. The biggest benefit can come from seeing an analysis of the answers.