Customer Visit Reports - What should a Customer Visit Report look like?

tony wardle

Registered Visitor
It appears that our sales team visit customers, but exatly what is done at those interviews is amystery. Does anyone have an example of what a visit report should look like?

Many Thanks
 

Coury Ferguson

Moderator here to help
Trusted Information Resource
Re: Customer Visit Reports

tony wardle said:
It appears that our sales team visit customers, but exatly what is done at those interviews is amystery. Does anyone have an example of what a visit report should look like?

Many Thanks

What do they currently use to document the trip (if they do it at all)? I have seen many different forms used. Usually they identify who was talked to, and any concerns/issues that the Customer has.

Coury Ferguson
 
R

ralphsulser

Re: Customer Visit Reports

Usually anytime a customer is visisted a report is generated. I have experience in quality management and sales management. Sales reps used to document their visits on a "Call Report", and I wrote a full report after my visits. Examples includes such info as:
Who contacted
Date-m/d/y( some people forget to do this basic need)
Reason for visit-routine, problem, new business, customer requested, etc.
Specific product or service subject-
What discussed-
What customer wanted/needed-info, disposition, quote, plans
Conclusions-if any
Recommendations-
Actions required-
Follow up timing-
Anything else that needs reported
 
B

barbt

Re: Customer Visit Reports

tony wardle said:
It appears that our sales team visit customers, but exatly what is done at those interviews is amystery. Does anyone have an example of what a visit report should look like?

Many Thanks
Tony,
we have found that free form visit reports submitted with the expense reports are very very effective. In order to recoup any money paid out, anyone visiting the customer must submit something in writing about the visit.- and I used say it didn't matter if it came in on a napkin... Over the past 2 years, I have found that the visit reports are becoming more and more substantial of their own accord, without my having had to force any kind of format on anyone. . These visit reports are shared, - and have become more informative over time. The technical people focus on the design details and issues, whereas those in a sales role tend to dwell on more strategic and political subjects. It helps that the President of the organization also sumits and circulates information about his visits with our customers. Being free form, the specific information important to the participants in the meetings is communicated. Anyone with an expense report is under the gun to share information. - it works.
good luck,
Barb
 

Coury Ferguson

Moderator here to help
Trusted Information Resource
Re: Customer Visit Reports

little__cee said:
Our form is pretty generic, but here it is. The "w/e" is for "week ending" which is how we file just about everything around here.


Good form even being generic. It seems to address issues that could/or have been discussed with the Customer.

Coury Ferguson
 

tony wardle

Registered Visitor
Thanks for the comments - Coury - yep your right "if at all" sums our sales rabbits up. The David Copperfield trick I need to pull off now is to get these guys to do the reports.
 
B

Baldrick

It isn't always easy to do, but I found in the past that if you can reduce portions of your assessment down to "tick the box" responses, you will get a greatly improved response rate. However you do it, make the form as easy to complete as possible and that should help - including keeping it simple and brief wherever possible. Don't do as some do, and record pages of information that will sit in a file gathering dust.

Also, why not stick a metric on your sales guys? Try "%age of visit reports filed within 3 days of visit" or something like that. Then send it to their boss. Just as a courtesy, you understand...;)

One more recommendation - to help you decide what to include on your form, why not accompany the sales guy on his next visit? You'll get a better feel for the process and the sort of things that are discussed.
 

Coury Ferguson

Moderator here to help
Trusted Information Resource
tony wardle said:
Thanks for the comments - Coury - yep your right "if at all" sums our sales rabbits up. The David Copperfield trick I need to pull off now is to get these guys to do the reports.

That is the other issue. Just kind of present in this context:

Gentlemen and Ladies, we have a good document (the report) that we can use to better present our customer's opinions on how we (the company) can improve our Customer Satisfaction, and how we (the company) are meeting their expectations. I would recommend that we start using this as a tool to better satisfy our customer's needs.

Remember, without the Customer we have no business (you don't have to use this statement, but I have always).

I hope this helps in bringing your Sales folks on the same page.


Coury Ferguson
 
L

little__cee

One thing I forgot to mention about our report - the salesperson only fills out a certain portion of the blanks. Salesperson turns it into our receptionist, who pulls up the customer in our computer system and the receptionist fills out the remaining portion of the form. The form corresponds with the way one of our internal computer system screens appears to assist in this process.

Just in case any of you looked at the form and thought "wow"!

The Sales Manager then is able to look at all of the detail on one form. At one time, I even created a spreadsheet listing all of our customers and the weeks of the year, marking the visits to give the manager an overall picture of who was (and who wasn't) being visited. Results were...interesting.
 
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