Optimize Customer Surveys for Greater Insights to Help Your Business

A customer survey can be just the thing to get your company back on target when it comes to satisfying and retaining those customers you worked so hard to get in the first place. However, there are good surveys and bad surveys. Good surveys result in lots of applicable information you can use. Bad surveys result in data that isn't useful, and in the worst cases, data that misguides your future efforts. Here's how to optimize customer surveys for the best results.

Don't Skimp on Preliminary Research

Detectives who specialize in interrogation (getting information out of people) master the skill of learning as much as possible about the answers before asking any questions at all. While surveys aren't interrogations, the same principle for finding out as much as you can before crafting your questions still applies.

Learn what content is most popular on your website. Find out what services or features are well-received by your customers. Accumulate as much data in-house as possible and craft the survey using the information you already possess. A call center like Personalized Communications can help when it comes time to use existing data to craft solid survey questions.

Keep the Survey Short

Not many people have the time for a 20-minute survey. However, lots of people will be willing to invest in a 10-question survey. Only ask what you absolutely need to know. For example, consider eliminating questions like "how did you hear about us?" If how they heard about you isn't critical to the end goal of your survey, then it needs to go. Shorter surveys also keep your call center costs down.

Leave Room for Open-Ended Responses

Most of the questions on the survey can be answered on a 1-5 scale, or with a simple “yes” or “no.” However, there needs to be some room on the survey for customers to submit open-ended responses. This gives you a host of information that you'd never get your hands on otherwise, and it is also where you get a true sense of how passionate customers are about their feelings toward your company -- positive or negative.

Avoid Asking Leading Questions

When crafting your survey questions, avoid phrasing questions in a way that attempts to sway their answers. For instance, "how do you like our new state-of-the-art software package" indicates that you're proud of it, and makes the customer feels free to speak negatively of it. Conversely, if the customer feels it's a piece of junk, the insinuation that it's "state of the art" might spark an angry response. Instead, phrase questions neutrally: "What are your thoughts on the latest software release?"

Publicize the Survey

Most customers won't take the opportunity to complete the survey the instant they see it. They might intend to take it, but a busy schedule may not allow them to dedicate the time just yet. Give your customers ample opportunities to take the survey and offer it for long enough that all customers get the chance to participate. If you bill monthly, for example, customers probably only think of your company when it's time to pay their bills. Hold the survey over a long period that allows all of the customers to get exposed to the opportunity, and give them more than one reminder in case they didn't have time the first time they saw the message.

Offer Incentives for Taking the Survey

Whether the survey is taken by inbound calls or outbound calls, customers need some incentive to take time out of their busy lives to participate. Offer a free month of service, a bonus feature on your product, a free consultation, or some other perk for participating. A call center can help you assure that participants get the incentives they are due while maintaining their anonymity on the survey.

Summary:

In order to get useful, valuable information, you have to craft a survey that produces precisely the information you need. Learning how to create a survey that extracts the information you need to know from your customers can be a valuable tool in the fight to keep customer retention high.

Bio:

Personalized Communications specializes in both inbound and outbound calls, including customer satisfaction surveys. Their highly trained and skilled employees can help you gather the information you need to better your business. The staff can also help you craft the survey so that it is designed to produce the exact data you need to gather from your valued customers.