Why is a customer survey essential?
Throughout our life, knowledge is the primary source of power. Using a customer survey is a wonderful way to get information about your company’s performance and what your consumers want to see and comments that may help you make better business choices and keep you better informed in general.
Zoho has put up a list of our top suggestions for survey success, which we hope will help you get started.
#1 – What’s the purpose of your customer survey?
A customer survey might be sent for several different reasons. If you know what you want to accomplish from the start, it will be easier to stay on track and acquire the answers you need.
Sending out a customer survey may be done for a variety of reasons.
obtaining data figuring out who your intended audience is
- Having a deeper understanding of how others see your product.
- Identify areas in which you may improve your customer service or the products and services you provide.
- Getting a better sense of what connects with your customers and prospects
- Make beneficial changes to your company by getting input on any element of it
- Knowing what the public thinks of your company as a whole
‘Keep your survey clear, simple, and in a non-biased language’
#2 – Research: find the right survey tool and vendor
Most firms currently prefer surveys conducted online over surveys conducted by paper or telephone because of the convenience they can be created, sent, and analysed and the lower costs. There is a slew of survey software options available nowadays. Finding the finest one for your requirements is the key. Free trials are available from many SaaS survey providers as well. Taking part in these trials will help you make the best choice. Take advantage of the free trial to check out the level of support and third-party integrations, as well as how the prices will rise as the project progresses.
It’s also a good thought to check the customer survey provider’s security measures. Is there any protection in place, and how does it encrypt the data it collects on your behalf? If so, do you have to adhere to any specific industry standards in doing so? GDPR compliance is required if the tool is being used in Europe.
#3 – Plan: prepare the questions
Consider what you want to include in your customer survey before you start putting it together. Keeping in mind that the respondent’s time is valuable, you should limit the number of questions you ask and avoid asking the same ones more than once. The number of questions and the time allotted for answering them might vary widely depending on the survey’s goal.
When developing questions, here are some things to bear in mind:
- Ensure that your survey questions are straightforward and unbiased.
- It’s best to limit the number of open-ended questions you ask unless you’re going for a qualitative survey,
- which might take a lot longer to analyse and draw conclusions from.
- Ensure that your list of answers and options is well-balanced.
- Your questions should be arranged in a logical sequence.
- If you’d like, you may make some of the questions optional.
- Consider asking follow-up questions in addition to the main ones.
- To ensure that all of the prerequisites are met, conduct a test survey in various common browsers.
#4 – Be practical: use display and skip logic to ask relevant questions
All of the questions in a customer survey don’t have to be relevant to everyone who answers them. Respondents may be guided to answers they care about using question display logic. A research study on the use of two distinct brands, “X1 Vs X2,” may include a separate set of questions for each brand, for example. According to what they choose, you may display appropriate questions. Having respondents not answer questions that aren’t relevant to them saves them time while also improving the quality of your replies. Only include those questions that are necessary for your surveys to function.
#5 – Design: customise your survey
There are a variety of themes and colours available for your survey once you’ve entered the questions. You may tailor a theme to fit your company’s brand identity. Brand recognition and familiarity may be boosted by customising the survey URL, adding your company’s logo to the survey, and using colour schemes consistent with your company’s brand identity.
#6 – Promote: send out your surveys through multiple channels
Surveys may be sent to your target audience in a variety of ways.
What’s the best way to get the most people to respond?
More people will see your survey if you send it out in several ways, but you must think carefully about your target demographic and choose the ideal channels for them.
Here are a few tried-and-true strategies for boosting survey participation:
Emails are one of the best ways to get feedback from customers about your product or service. If you have a large email list, you may send an email campaign to everyone on it or target certain replies one-on-one. Keep in mind that a clean and uncluttered appearance is preferred while sending emails. We recommend writing in an “inverted pyramid” approach, in which you begin with an explanation of why you’re sending the email and what you want to gain from it before moving on to the specifics of what you need input on.
Rewarded feedback
Providing clients with incentives for submitting feedback might help you understand what they think of your company. Rewards may help keep customers engaged in a lengthy survey, especially if it consumes a significant amount of their time.
No rule says a prize must be in the form of cash or a gift card. It may be a free trial, a credit or a discount on a future purchase, or even free product training. A better product or service based on consumer feedback is the greatest reward, though.
Using research panels
If you don’t have direct access to a certain demographic, you may buy responses from research panels. Your demographics will be taken into account when replies are provided.
Social media platforms
Surveys should be posted on social media sites and encouraged by those who follow you. Pre-screening questions may help you identify people who aren’t consumers, so be sure to include them in your surveys to ensure that only those who are interested in your product or service are included.
Social media polls are a terrific method to get a quick idea of your brand’s image and the sentiments of your customers.
SMS your surveys
An SMS is difficult to miss, given that 98% of the world’s population has a mobile phone. SMSes are a very effective surveying tool that is often undervalued. Make sure to distribute the surveys promptly after a client has connected with your business to increase the chance of a response. Drawing information in this manner requires careful consideration of your design to be compatible with this channel.
#7 – Analysis: draw out information
It’s advantageous to conduct online surveys because you can see the replies as they come in real-time. You may use the charts created from the survey data to spot and analyse patterns that can help you make smarter business choices. Responses may be filtered depending on a variety of criteria. It is possible to construct a report based on a specific group of respondents, such as those who gave you a bad rating. Sentiment analysis makes it simple to make sense of the lengthy comments submitted through text.
Optimise your customer survey
In general, we recommend that you make your survey short, to the point, and free of prejudice. An easy-to-to-complete survey relies on the honesty and openness of survey takers, so making it concise and providing the correct mix of questions is essential. Keep in mind that better data comes from better replies.
