Power of Online Surveys

Copyright © 2009 Constant Contact Inc.

The Power of Online Survey

Copyright © 2009 Constant Contact, Inc. 2

How to Best Use Surveys and Polls to Keep Existing Customers and Attract New Business

 Our Agenda

1.  Using Surveys & Polls for growth

•  It’s about your customers

•  The value of online feedback

•  Improvements to expect

2.  Using Polls & Surveys

3.  Creating an Effective Survey

•  Defining Objectives

•  Creating Questions

•  Overall Design

4. Distributing your Survey

•  When to Survey

5. The Right Content

•  Survey Examples

6. Taking Action on the Results

7. Your Next Steps


Using Surveys & Polls for Growth


It’s About Your Customers

Your current customers are

your best path to growth.

Your customers are the reason you’re

in business


Your current customers, best path to growth

Your current customers are your best opportunity for profitability & growth

  They cost less than gaining a new customer

  They spend more money

  They promote your business with positive word-of-mouth

It's 6-7 times more expensive to gain a new customer than it is to retain an

existing customer. - Bain and Company

A 2% increase in customer retention has the

same effect on profits as cutting costs by 10%. -"Leading on the Edge of Chaos", Emmett C. Murphy and Mark

A. Murphy

Repeat customers spend 67% more. - Bain and Company

After 10 purchases, a customer has already referred up to 7 people.

- Bain and Company

–  52% of consumers would feel encouraged to spend more with a company if it were to improve its overall customer experience.

–  50% of consumers will always/often pay more for a better customer experience.

–  53% of consumers will recommend a company to someone else because it provides outstanding service.

Customer Experience Impact Report, by RightNow Technologies and Harris Interactive


Your customers are talking!

Do you know what your customers are saying about you?

  Face-to face feedback and gut feelings aren’t enough to have a real view of what your customers are thinking

•  What about non-vocal customers?

 The average business loses 50% of its customers over

the course of 5 years.  - Carlson Marketing

Each detractor (customers unlikely to recommend you) accounts for the loss of 1.3

new customers through negative word of mouth.

- Net Promoter Economics: The Impact of Word of Mouth, study by Satmetrix

Before: A happy customer tells 5 people, an unhappy customer tells 100.

Now: “59% of people use social media to ‘vent’ about a customer care experience.”

- The Society for New Communications Research study


Keep an Open Dialogue with Customers

The Tools: Online Surveys & Polls Easily keep an open dialogue with your customers and quickly get balanced, actionable feedback.

Your best path to growth and profitability is:

  Keeping in tune with your delighted customers to ensure

they continue to be delighted

 Moving satisfied customers to delighted, loyal customers

 Managing unhappy customers quickly

  Regularly find out what customers like and don’t like about your offerings

 Make changes based on their feedback

 Have delighted customers that will spend/donate

more and bring in referrals


Value of Getting Feedback Online

Why Collect Feedback Online?

  Easy, fast method to collect feedback from many customers at once

-  Online surveys can be made available to customers instantly by email invite, e-newsletter, website, blog,

social media site, etc.

-  Get a representative view of your audience that you don’t get face-to-face

–  Automatically capture and tally responses. Use reports to make decisions in real time

  Get more honest and rich feedback

–  Customers aren’t limited by face-time so they can think of more to say

–  Customers feel more comfortable sharing sensitive issues they think you might not want to hear

–  Spend time/money on what you know will have the most impact

  Least expensive type of research and more environmentally friendly than paper surveys

–  Avoid the cost of printing and postage

–  Can promote being green


Improvements to Expect from Customer Feedback

 Offerings   Know how you should improve existing products, services, programs, and events   Know what new products, services, programs, events are worthwhile

 Website   Increase traffic, improve navigation/conversion, increase purchases/donations

 E-newsletters   Know the topics that stimulate your audience, and the ideal frequency to send to

customers, clients, members, donors, and volunteers

 Promotional Efforts   Attract new customers, clients, members, donors, volunteers with the right

testimonials, reviews, and ratings

 Contact List   Update your contact database with new or missing contact information   Segment your audience in order to target their interests


Using Polls & Surveys


Polls: To Improve Website and Emails

■  Immediately engage visitors/readers

■  Identify their interests

■  Show audience you are in tune with the industry and their challenges

■  Create awareness of products/services ■  e.g. Which of our new products do you like best?

■  e.g. Which membership benefit is the most valuable to you?

■  Immediate results encourages regular repeat visits to website ■  Visitors come back to see latest results and vote on

next new topics

Have interactive, fresh and engaging content with polls


Using Polls: To Let People Rate your Content

1.  How useful did you find this content? Vote Here.

2.  Link to a poll after your content: •  After e-newsletter articles

•  End of blog entries

•  After website sections

3.  Use instant results! •  Gives your audience a voice and instant

gratification of what others said

•  You know what content your audience values

•  Use the lessons to improve the content in your newsletters, blogs and website

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Polls: To Improve Newsletters and Strengthen your Brand

 SourceAuthority.com  Web-based retailer for manufacturing businesses

 Challenge: "We wanted to make the newsletter more   interactive and to show our customers that we   care about the issues that are important to   them.”

 Solution: Include polls in their newsletters and on website

Results: ■  Engaging/interactive newsletter

■  Interesting newsletter content – the results from previous week's polls are highlighted in each issue of the newsletter.

■  Increase customer confidence - "Polls help us to build our customers and potential customers' confidence in us by showing that we are in tune with the industry. The topics we cover tell them that we understand their business challenges and are developing solutions to help them achieve their goals."


Using Surveys: To have a Web-Based Suggestion Box

Have a Suggestion Box link anywhere people can connect with you online:

  Employee intranet   Website for customers,

prospects, or vendors   Blog   Social media sites   Email newsletter

  Give your customers an easy way to give you feedback at any time

  Great ideas from customers will allow you to do more with less


Using Surveys: To Improve Customer Satisfaction

 Dockside Restaurant Group  Successful restaurant group known for showing big games and serving large portions of high quality food at affordable prices.

 Challenge: Getting Honest Feedback from   Loyal Customers

 Solution: Quarterly Satisfaction Surveys

■ Lets customers rank a variety of aspects – quality of food, caliber of staff, variety on the menus, etc.

 Results: New Menu Items, Improved Customer   Experience, Increase in Customer Traffic

  “Many customers comment that the use of surveys makes them feel important

 and that their opinion is valued.”


Using Surveys: To Improve Customer Satisfaction

 Jennifer Barley  Personal life coach working to help people achieve their goals.

 Challenge: Tailoring services to meet the needs   of customers

 Solution: Uses online surveys to determine   customer needs

■  Make sure customers are satisfied ■  If not, learn how to adjust services

before it’s too late

“If you want to find the pulse of your customers, and be able to meet their needs, the survey is the quickest, most efficient

way to get that done.”

 Results: Services designed by customers’ needs

“I am a smarter businessperson because I use Online Surveys. I am much more efficient and my customers really feel heard, listened to, and they get what they ask for.”


Using Surveys: To Improve Events/Programs

Community Business Partnership NPO that helps women, minorities and veterans

start - and grow - their own businesses

 How feedback impacts the organization:

  Continually improve offerings, which increases satisfaction and attendance of events

  Know which workshops and trainers were most beneficial in helping clients grow their businesses

  Gain suggestions for future workshops, names of potential keynote speakers, future conference ideas

“When we sough to expand the offerings, clients told us through surveys that they wanted several services that we hadn’t even thought of offering.”

  Helps gain future funding by being able to report program ROI with data collected


Using Surveys: To Improve Website and Products

 Ford’s Gourmet Foods  Retailer of gourmet foods whose products can be found in 40 countries worldwide

 Challenge: Standing out in a crowded market so   they can find new customers and   remind their existing clients of their   tasty goods.

 Solution: Include flyer in shipments with link to   online survey asking their biggest fans   for ideas of how to best differentiate their   products.

 Results:   74% Response Rate   Discoveries include:

■  Need to improve web navigation and online shopping cart

■  Need a social media presence

■  Customers wanted new products: e.g., chips

■  Feedback helping build customer loyalty:

•  “Our customers are grateful for being given the opportunity and the forum to

provide feedback. Then, they get to see that feedback being acted upon… They like feeling as if they are a part of building the brand.”


Using Surveys: To Get Ratings & Reviews

 Let your customers review your products/services/events

66% of online shoppers use other purchasers’ recommendations when buying online.

77% of the online population find reviews more useful than just company email.

20% of online buyers post an average of 9 product reviews a year.

-JupiterResearch/Ipsos Insight Consumer Survey Sept 2007

Highlight reviews and quotes on website and in

promotions to influence purchase decisions:

“Top Customer–Rated Products”

“People who use this service give it 4 out of 5 stars”


Using Surveys: To do Target Marketing

Target Marketing Gets Results

58% of consumers say they unsubscribe or simply stop reading emails because

“emails weren’t relevant to me.” – MarketingSherpa, September 2008

50% of email users unsubscribe when offers don’t match their interests.

– Return Path 2008

56% of consumers consider marketing messages from known senders to be spam if the message is “just not interesting to me.”

– Q Interactive, 2007 Spam Complainers Survey

How can you know who in your audience is interested in what?

Easily segment your audience with one survey: Step 1: Send a survey asking about their interests Step 2: Use the results to create targeted, “special-interest” lists of people with similar interests


Creating an Effective Survey


Defining the Objective

Response rates drop rapidly as length increases.

Real world example: Constant Contact’s post webinar surveys   9 question survey = 15% response rate   6 question survey = 32% response rate

 How long should my survey be?   Don’t impose too greatly on your customers’ valuable time   Keep it to 10 minutes or less: (about 10 questions)

  5 minutes or less for best results!

Tip: To know how long your survey will take to complete, take it yourself.

Keep it Short for Higher Participation


Defining the Objective

List (Segmentation) Ideas:   Why do they come to you?

–  Don’t send a survey to them if they don’t buy the product you are analyzing

  How do they purchase? –  Don’t send an online shopping satisfaction survey to them if they only buy in the store

  How long have they been a customer? –  Newer: lighter survey; Established: more in-depth survey

  Randomly divide audience into segments –  If survey is appropriate for your whole audience –  Split the audience into 4 groups and send the survey to one group each quarter

Identify the Right Participants

 Tip to Avoid Burnout & Get a Good Response rate:   Segment your list and send your surveys only to the people who will be interested and can provide accurate answers.

  58% of people unsubscribe because emails are not relevant to them*

  44% of people unsubscribe because they receive too many emails from the sender*

* Marketing Sherpa 2008


Creating the Questions

  Good Questions Help Meet the Objective   Use the Objective

  Ask what you need to know, not what you want to know

  Resist the temptation of… “Just one more question”

  Every question should support to your objective

  Objective: To explore what attracts customers and separates us from competitors.

Do include: Pick the offers/features that makes us unique from competitors.

Do Not include: How likely are you to purchase X if we began offering it?

Objective: To test the feasibility of a new product

Do include: What attributes would make you more or less interested in purchasing?

Do Not include: Please rate your satisfaction with our website.



Good questions: what you need to know to meet that objective

Example: I need to understand where I should improve my business Objective: To identify the needs of my customers and what’s most important to them

Need to Know:   What behaviors/services/products make my customers/members happy?   What behaviors/services/products cause them dissatisfaction?   What is most important to them?

Example: There are not enough people attending our events Objective: To learn what I can do to improve the attendance to our events

Need to Know:   Is there a topic / speaker of interest?   Is there a preferred location?   Is there a day / time that is preferred?



  Prewritten questions for several objectives

  Best practices built-in

  Edit/remove questions

  Add additional questions

  Add your brand

Save Time and Effort:

Use the Survey Templates


Creating the Questions: Well Crafted Questions

 Use the right question type to get the answers you need

■  What will you need to do with the results to make a change?

■  Can you create a baseline to measure future progress?

Tip: The majority of close-ended questions make it easier to analyze, spot trends and create a base line.

Tip: Get the best of both worlds

Use a closed-ended and include a comment area so respondent may go

into more detail if they wish!


Creating the Questions: Which question type should I use?

Closed–ended Pros & Cons

•  Easy to answer •  Responses are easy to analyze and

allow for great comparison •  Answer options need to be

comprehensive

Open–ended Pros & Cons

•  Not limited by answer options

  Gain customer voice – their words, new ideas, testimonials, service issues

•  Harder to answer = respondent fatigue

•  Harder to analyze

•  Time-consuming to evaluate

•  Limits comparison

Avoid a common mistake: Using too many open-ended questions.



 Keep Things Simple

■  The less words the better  Questions should be short and easy to

understand

■  Stay away from acronyms and techno-jargon

■  Avoid double-barreled questions How satisfied are you with our online

ordering process and customer service?   Respondents may be satisfied with one and not the

other

  Ask only one thing per question

■  Avoid biasing the response with

leading questions

Wrong: Don’t you agree that our staff is

knowledgeable?

Right: How would you rate the

knowledge of our staff?

Wrong: Are you very satisfied or just

somewhat satisfied with us?

Right: Overall, how satisfied are you with us?

Words like “always” and “never” will bias the response

in the opposite direction.


Effective Overall Design

– White Background –  Black Text –  Times New Roman, Arial

or Verdana

Make the survey easy to read and complete

To brand your survey:

  Include your logo on every page of the survey for recognition

  Leave the rest of the branding for where you distribute the survey (website, email, etc.)

Recommendations:



■  First Question (s)   Make the first questions easy to answer. Get them off and running…

■  Most important questions up front   Prioritize your questions based on what’s most important & what you can act upon

■  Profile/demographic questions at the end ■  Explain why you need the information: Improved service, Customized offerings ■  Typical demographic questions: Marital Status, Age, Education, Income Level.

The Order of Your Questions Matters

Easy to re-order your questions



The End: Where do you want respondents to go?

  Once respondents complete your survey, decide where they land

  Two options:

1) Respondents land on a website where they can:

  Access an incentive

  Register for your next event

  Review customer testimonials

2) Respondents are brought to a closing page where you can:

  Thank respondents for participating

  Remind participants what will be done with the results

  Provide access to an incentive



Checklist:   Is the survey easy to follow and complete?   Was any part confusing or difficult to answer?   Is the survey leading respondents to answer in a particular way?   Does the skip logic work correctly? (Are all questions relevant to different groups?)   Will you be able to take action on its results?   How long did it take to complete?

Test your online surveys before sending   Re-visit your objective, then take the survey yourself (it won’t affect your results)

  Let others who weren’t involved in creating it test it: share the Test URL

Tip: Pilot it to 10% of your list if you’re unsure about your audience’s response


Distributing your Survey



Three Distribution Options

1.  Use the Survey URL to put the survey on your website, social media site, in transactional emails, or printed collateral

2.  Use a Constant Contact Invitation to create a professional looking, personalized email invitation and be able to track it’s success

3.  Insert the survey into any of your Regular Constant Contact Emails such as your newsletters, promotions or event communications



Question: Which distribution option should I use?

Answer: What kind of results do you want?

 Anonymous

 Reward:  Completely honest feedback, no bias in answers.

 Risk:  You do not know who is having problems to reach out and help that individual

 Method:  Post the Survey URL on your website, social media site, include in your personal email or give the person the URL at time of interaction

 Know the Identity

 Reward:  You know who said what, can do Follow up with people that answered a particular way

 Risk:  Answers might not be completely truthful because of the link to the respondent

 Method:  Send a Constant Contact Email Invitation or use the Insert Survey Link in your newsletter or other Constant Contact emails

  Common for employee surveys



When Do You Need the Results?

Typical Timing of Responses

  Over half of the survey responses will come in within the first day

  7 out 8 responses arrive within the first week

  One week is sufficient if time is more important than maximizing response

  Two weeks is the recommended run time (enough time to send a reminder)

-People Pulse Survey Response Rate Study


Distributing your Surveys: When?

Action-Driven Survey New customer (How did they find you? Interests?) Satisfaction with purchase/event/project Change in the customer base (New location) Change in service/product offerings

  Make available when the action occurs or soon after so experience is fresh

Periodic Survey Long term customer satisfaction New product/service ideas Pulse on marketplace/competition

  Coincide with your calendar –  Avoid days before/after holidays and

major industry events –  Send when planned communication is

light –  Avoid busy times for target audience

E.g. Employee surveys for sales people should avoid end of month

  Get feedback monthly/quarterly –  People can’t remember their engagement

with you well when it was 6 months ago

Regular Communication

Holiday/Event Effecting Business

Promotional Communication

Date Deadline Communication

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun 1 Gift Idea Email

2 Newsletter 3

Weekend Sale Specials-PM

4 5 6

7 8 9 Mother’s Day Gift Ideas-Extended Hours

10 11 Last day for delivery

12 13 Mother’s Day

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 Summer Specials-Extended Hours

25 26 Memorial Day Weekend

27 Memorial Day Weekend



30 31

Tip: Have a regular way for people to submit feedback (like a suggestion box.) Your audience may have feedback well before/after your scheduled surveys.


Distributing your surveys: When?

  Experience-Driven ■  Events, transactions and engagements

■  Satisfaction ■  How people found you

■  Ideas for immediate improvements

■  Ongoing to very specific audiences

2.  Planning-Driven ■  Relationships, overall satisfaction, product direction

■  Results drive strategy and planning

■  2 to 4 times per year


The Right Content for your Audience


The Right Content

■  Consistent brand: color palette and logo

■  Personalization - avoid general salutations like “Dear Customer” , include first/last name

–  Personalized emails can increase response rates by nearly 60%

■  Clearly state the topic of your survey and how participating will benefit them

■  Specify the time it will take to complete

■  Clearly display the call to action –  Place URL in preview pane. Don’t make

respondents scroll down to see it.

■  Inform of confidentiality: Is it anonymous?

■  Include a closing date

–  If not enough responses, could always extend

■  Include a thank-you statement from recognizable entity upon completion

Content directly relates to your response rate.

Keep it short & sweet and make it about your audience!

Content That Will Get your Audience to Take Your Survey


The Right Content: Email Invitation Example

  Branding

  Personalization

  Purpose

  Incentives

  Deadline Date

  Confidentiality

  Clear Call to Action

  Signed by person perceived powerful


The Right Content: Email Invitation Example

Benefit Oriented All about the recipient

“We strive to make your experience better every time you visit.”

“Your feedback will help us to better serve you in the future.”


The Right Content: Newsletter Email Example

Help fulfill needs

“We are grateful for any insights you can share…so that we can continue to evolve and grow and deliver an experience that fulfills the needs of our guests.”

  Personalization

  Purpose/Benefit

  Incentives

  Deadline Date

  Clear Call to Action


The Right Content: Promotion Email Example

 Rate & Review Your Favorites

 “Loyal customers like you”

 “With the launch of our product reviews online, we invite you to be among the first to share your thoughts on our products.”

  Feel like part of a select group

  Plenty of white space   Clear calls to action


The Right Content: Social Media Website Example

 Research Study Request

  Brand

  Great reach

  Clear incentive


The Right Content: Blog Example

 Reach & Audience Segmentation

  Fun!

  Interactive

  Far-reaching


The Right Content: Company Website Example

 Understanding customers’ needs and concerns

  Brand

  Great reach

  Clear call to action


Using Survey Results


Taking Action on the Results

 Response rate is affected by:

•  Your relationship with survey audience •  The invitation/greeting page/webpage •  Survey length •  Survey design •  Survey topic •  Incentives •  Reminders

 Did you receive enough responses to reflect your audience as a whole?

•  Sample size •  Larger the audience = higher confidence

in the results

Marketing Research Association average response rates:

 10-15% for telephone surveys

 Mail surveys even lower

 20-50% for online surveys

The Results are In!


Taking Action on Results

 Step 1: Review the overall results to get a snapshot

  Results can be reviewed as soon as they are submitted, charts can help you identify trends

 Step 2: Analyze your results   Export results to share with others, use filtering for deeper analysis, take

testimonials from open-ended text results

 Step 3: Plan and take follow-up actions   Use findings to create an action plan based on changes

you know customers want: a.k.a. prioritize resources

 Step 4: Follow up with respondents   Easily create lists of people with similar responses, target future

communication based on interest, share insights and actions

 Step 5: Survey again to know if your action plan is working!   Use the results of your first survey to measure the impact of your actions

The most important part of creating online surveys and polls!

Use the same questions in your next survey to be able to accurately measure your results over time


Taking Action on the Results: Polls

The Poll Results are In!

 And the next free webinar is…

“With 71% of the vote, the next free webinar from Constant Contact is Growing your Email List. Thanks to everyone who voted! Register

now to reserve your spot.”


Taking Action on Results: Survey

Survey results say: create a loyalty program to win new business Follow up email

says…

“During our latest survey you indicated that you would recommend our salon to your friends and family…and we’d like to take you up on your offer!


Taking Action on Survey Results

 “I run a series of tastings with themes based on different wine growing regions.

 Attendance was inconsistent and beginning to drop. Through surveys, I discovered that

people were not satisfied with themes about regions and grapes. They wanted information about matching wines with meals.

 I changed the focus of my e-newsletter and my tasting themes.

Attendance has increased.”

 Andrea  Wine Manager  Andover Liquors

Andover Liquors

Copyright © 2009 Constant Contact, Inc. 55 Copyright © 2008 Constant Contact, Inc.

Your Next Steps

 Try it, free! ■  Sign up for a 60-day trial of

Online Survey and Polls

 Ready to learn more? ■  Visit the Constant Contact

Learning Center and join the weekly, live Survey Tour

■  Watch on-demandTutorials ■  Read Product Guides

 Let others help you expand your knowledge ■  Join the ConnectUp! online

community: community.constantcontact.com


Questions? Your Turn!


Thank you for your time!

Technology

Power of Online Surveys