Planning for the Future

As I wind down the season and year I plan to spend a few days thinking about the future of Maine Outdoors. The first step for me is to gather the information that I will need. I like to see the financial stuff and the thoughts of my customers and of course I have a few thoughts of my own about what works, what does not and which directions to move in over the next season or two. Of course I am already committed to continuing some services by buying a new boat. (Not that I would consider for a minute not striper fishing)

To gather the customer input I used a feature of Constant Contact (the online service I use to send my newsletters) that allows you to set up a survey. I have used Zoomerang in the past and found that pretty simple as well. I must say that setting up the survey with Constant Contact was a snap. I am sure in no small part because I am familiar with the interface and process. I was able to import the contact information, build the survey and send the invitation e-mail in a morning. Not to shabby.

I am always impressed by the early response rate to these electronic surveys, I had five responses in under an hour and a 30% response in one day. I expect that I will get another 10 percent or so in the next week if the last few surveys are any measure. It is too soon to draw any conclusions from the responses but I am certain that I will learn something that will change my thinking about how to move forward. The reports seem to be pretty easy to access and read not to mention I get some great comments from clients. I’ll talk more about the data as it comes in but for the moment I’ll tell you that customer satisfaction is very high for all that Maine Outdoors currently offers and every client that responds seems delighted with their experience.