Data is the driving force in today’s world. A customer survey is a wonderful way to collect feedback on what your company is doing and what your consumers want to see, get comments to help you make the best choices for your business, and ensure you’re well-informed in general.
Many of you may be unsure where to begin, so here are our top survey success suggestions from Zoho.
#1 – Why are you doing a consumer survey?
There are several reasons why someone could submit a consumer survey. Identifying your objective early on can help you concentrate on your inquiries and get the information you need to accomplish it.
Here are a couple of the more interesting ones: prevalent ones. reasons for sending out a customer survey:
- Obtaining details
- The first step is to establish your goal market.
- Getting a deeper understanding of how people think about your product
- Identifying flaws in your customer service or the products and services you provide to consumers
- Gaining a better understanding of what appeals to your consumers or prospects
- Obtaining input on any part of your company to improve it
- Getting a sense of what others think about your company
- ‘Make your survey as clear, concise, and non-biased as possible.’
#2 – Do your homework and locate the best survey instrument and provider.
Because of the simplicity with which you can construct, deliver, and analyze surveys – not to mention the cost savings – most firms now prefer online surveys over paper or telephone-based surveys. There are several online survey options available. The trick is to choose the most suited to your requirements. Many SaaS survey providers also offer free trials. Sign up for these trials; they will assist you in making the best selection possible. During the free trial, don’t just look at the features; consider the quality of support, third-party integrations, and, of course, how the fees will pile up as the project progresses.
You should also consider the customer survey provider’s safety and security. What protections does it provide, and how does it encrypt the data it collects on your behalf? Is it following any industry rules you must adhere to? If you’re utilizing the tool in the European Union, you’ll need to comply with GDPR
#3 – Make a plan: write out all of the questions you’ll be asked.
Before you start constructing your customer survey, make a list of the questions you’d want to include. Remember that the respondent’s time is valuable, so limit the number of questions you ask and avoid asking the same questions many times. The number of questions and response times might vary depending on the survey’s objective.
When developing questions, keep the following in mind:
- Maintain a neutral tone with your survey questions.
- Unless you’re going for a qualitative survey, which takes far longer to analyze and make choices in many circumstances, try to keep open-ended questions to a minimum.
- Maintain a well-balanced selection of answers and options.
- It’s critical to keep track of the sequence in which you complete tasks. Chores to be completed fulfill your assignments fulfill all of the assignments Submit your questions.
- Allow certain questions to be answered optionally.
- Use supplemental questions if necessary.
- Run a test survey in several common browsers to ensure that all requirements are met.
#4 – Be practical: ask pertinent questions using a display and skip logic.
All of the questions in a customer survey don’t have to be relevant to every responder. You may direct your responders to questions relevant to them by using question display logic. For example, if you’re doing a study on the use of two distinct brands (“X1 Vs. X2”), you may ask different questions for each brand. Depending on the brand they choose, you may display appropriate questions. This saves time for respondents and increases the quality of replies you obtain since respondents will not fill in answers to questions that are irrelevant to them. Only make those questions necessary; else, your surveys will be meaningless.
#5 – Design: make your survey unique.
After you’ve added the questions to your survey, you can customize it aesthetically by selecting from various themes and colors. You may customize a theme to match the corporate identity of your company. Customizing the survey URL, including your business logo and brand color schemes, can aid in brand recall and familiarity for individuals who are already acquainted with your brand.
#6 – Promote: Use numerous ways to distribute your surveys.
You may deliver your surveys to your target audience in various ways.
The main issue is: how can you acquire the highest response rate possible?
Sending your survey out in several ways can guarantee that it reaches a larger audience. Still, you must think carefully about the target population you’re trying to reach and choose the appropriate channels for that.
Here are a few common ways for increasing survey response rates:
Emails
Email is one of the most promising methods for gathering client feedback on your product or service. You may launch an email campaign to your whole contact list or individually contact suitable responders. Remember to make your emails as simple as possible. We recommend writing in an “inverted pyramid” approach, in which you state the aim of the email and the expected result of this contact, followed by details about why you need input.
The feedback that has been acknowledged
Offering clients incentives for offering feedback might help you get more thorough information about their opinions of your company. Offering incentives might motivate customers to complete your survey, especially if it is lengthy and consumes a significant amount of their time.
Cash or gift cards aren’t the only options for a prize. It might be anything from a free trial to a credit or a discount on a future purchase with you, as well as free product training. The biggest incentive is to improve a product or service based on client feedback.
Using focus groups
You can purchase replies from research panels if you seek a certain audience that you don’t have access to directly. You’ll receive replies that are properly tailored to the demographics you’re seeking.
Platforms for social media
Encourage your fans to participate in your surveys by posting them on your social media sites. If you’re doing a feedback survey, there’s a risk that many of your followers aren’t your customers, so be sure to include a few pre-screening questions in your surveys to exclude responders who aren’t relevant to your survey.
Using social media to create brief polls can help you rapidly sense your brand’s image and user feelings.
Send your surveys by text message.
With 98% of the world’s population possessing a mobile phone, it’s difficult to miss an SMS. SMSes, a sometimes overlooked media, are a very efficient method to conduct surveys. Send the surveys as soon as possible after a client interacts with your business to increase the chances of a response. If you want to draw information this way, you’ll need to think about the design carefully to make sure it works with this channel.
#7 – Analyze: glean knowledge
The advantage of online surveys is that you can see the results right away. The information gathered via the customer survey will be transformed into charts, allowing you to spot and analyze patterns to make smarter business choices. You may filter answers depending on criteria if you like. For example, you may construct a report that just shows the replies from people who gave you a bad rating. Sentiment analysis can quickly comprehend large text-based comments.
Make your consumer survey more effective.
Overall, we recommend making your survey straightforward, concise, and non-biased. Surveying briefs as feasible and providing the correct mix of questions will go a long way toward ensuring that respondents provide clear, honest, and true responses. Remember, the more accurate the responses, the more accurate the data.
