Roy Williams, a best-selling author and marketing consultant, once said “the first step in exceeding your Customer’s expectations is to know those expectations.” I have sat in meeting after meeting listening to business leaders talk about the importance of the Customer Experience, but they have not put forth the effort to better understand what their customers desire.
Customer Feedback Surveys can be an effective tool to not only help you better understand your customers, but also provide you with new business opportunities, the ability to identify unhappy and loyal customers as well as provide a measurable benchmark to improve the customer experience. Although there are many benefits, if not executed effectively, Customer Feedback Surveys can also have a negative outcome. For example, if the questions are not appropriate for your audience, customers can feel like you don’t have a good grasp on their business. If the survey is too long, users will opt out and you won’t get a desirable response rate. If you don’t address specific concerns a respondent gave, they feel like they wasted their time filling out the survey.
Developing and executing a Customer Feedback Survey is a strategic initiative that must be done effectively to provide value. There are several elements that must be considered, such as target audience, types of questions, length of survey, distribution method, survey incentives and survey follow up.
Target Audience: The first step in developing a Customer Feedback Survey is to understand the audience you are trying to get feedback from. This is not only the most important step, but it can also be the most challenging. You must identify contacts, level of interaction with the company’s product or service and the amount of time that has passed since the customer’s last interaction with the surveying company.
Identifying Contacts: Surveys must be sent to people and not companies or titles. Meaning, surveys can only be effective if you are sending them directly to the person that has interacted with your company and/or company’s product. A survey should never be sent generically to the “Warehouse Manager” or to “To whom it may concern at ABC Company.”
Level of interaction: Many companies work within multiple levels of an organization, from C-Suite contacts that identify the need to Procurement Departments that determine purchasing options to Mid-Level Managers and Users that interact with your company’s products and/or services. The types of questions you ask in the survey will depend on your contact’s level of familiarly with your product or service. For example, you should not send a survey to a procurement contact that asks about the user experience of a product, since most likely they have never used the product and would only be able to give second-hand feedback if they gave any feedback at all.
Last interaction: The contacts you send a survey to should have a recent experience. Although we would all like to believe our company is always “top-of-mind” with our customers, the reality is that we usually are not. You should not send a survey to a contact that interacted with your company 5 years ago. The ideal timeframe is within a week of interaction, however, if that is not possible it should not be more than 6-12 months.
Although these suggestions may seem obvious, they can be hard to identify. The best way to do this is to ensure all contacts are in your company’s CRM and that your CRM has areas to identify the individual contact’s relationship with your company and product. If you do not have this information in your CRM or do not have a CRM at all, it is still possible to get the information but will take extra work with the participation of your sales force.
Survey Questions: The types of questions you ask and the way you ask them are very important to get high response rates and to provide you with valuable information. There are several items to consider when writing questions; value of the responses, questions to avoid, language and specificity.
Value of responses: For every question you write, ask yourself “what will I do with the information?” If the answer is nothing….then don’t include it.
Types of questions to avoid: Leading questions, loaded questions, multiple questions within one statement and any question that includes absolutes like “always” or “never” are all examples of poorly constructed surveys that will not yield valuable results.
Language: Avoid using any terms that could be considered industry or company jargon. For example, many companies call their “Sales Reps” by another title such as “Account Managers” or “Business Solutions Managers.” Don’t assume your customers understand these titles and refer to people, products and solutions using the language your customer would understand.
Be specific: When writing questions, be specific and direct about what you are asking. Questions that are too broad or open to interpretation can lead to skewed results that are not reflective of the respondent’s actual feelings.
Length of Survey: The length of a survey is very important to getting a higher response rate. If it is too long, respondents with opt out before the survey is completed. If it is too short, you won’t get valuable feedback. There is no magic number of exactly how many questions you should include in your survey, however, research shows that the survey should only take about 5 minutes for the respondent to complete. If the questions are short and concise, you can usually include around 10-15. However, if your questions are longer and open ended you will need to scale back to 5-10.
Distribution Method: To ensure a high response rate, it must be easy for the respondents to answer the questions and submit the survey. Electronic surveys are the easiest, least time consuming and most cost-effective types of surveys to distribute. However, it is important to recognize that they also come with some disadvantages, such as getting stuck in SPAM, being deleted because the responded is not familiar with the sender’s email address and not all respondents are always at a computer. It is also important to note that 30% of electronic surveys are taken on a mobile device. If you decided to choose this method, make sure your survey is formatted to be taken easily on a phone or tablet. Depending on your target market, direct mail and direct phone call methods should also be considered.
Survey Incentives: Although we would all like to believe that respondents will be compelled to fill out the survey for the greater good it can serve; it is not true in many cases. Remember when you are asking someone to fill out your company’s survey, you are asking them to give up some time in their day to complete it. Incentives come in many different forms and are a great way to increase response rates and thank respondents for their time. Although incentives can be a valuable tool, it is important to recognize that some companies have a policy against their employees receiving any gift from a supplier. To avoid any issue, include an option at the beginning of the survey to allow the respondent to opt out of receiving the incentive.
Survey Follow Up: If done effectively, surveys can offer a tremendous amount of benefits to your organization, but they can also backfire and have negative consequences if there is no follow up. As stated above, when asking a customer to respond to a survey you are also asking for their time to help your business improve. All respondents should at the very least receive a “Thank you” letter or email for taking the time to answer your questions. This will make them feel appreciated for the time and effort they put forth and will also encourage them to take future surveys. Additionally, if you receive any negative comments on the survey, those need to be followed up immediately by a Senior Leader in your organization. Many times, respondents write these comments to be heard, following up with them immediately can help salvage a relationship that otherwise might be lost.
A recent study found that 77% of customers view brands more favorably if the company seeks out and applies customer feedback. The key is that they not only seek out feedback but that they apply it. The single most important element of conducting a Customer Feedback Survey is to do something with the information you receive, otherwise it is a wasted effort. Ultimately the survey should not be designed to get the feedback you want, but the feedback you need to improve your business.
Although surveys can be a key component of your feedback strategy, they should not be the only mechanism to receive feedback. Stay on the look-out for future articles that will address other types of feedback options.