Many businesses need to conduct surveys of their customers to learn more about them and how they use the company’s product or service. If these customer surveys are designed poorly, however, they can lead to inaccurate results regarding customer experience which won’t hold much value for the company.
To avoid wasting time, and to get the most out of your customer surveys, it is important that the questions are well-thought-out. Asking irrelevant or redundant questions won’t serve you in the long run.
If you want to maximize the potential of your consumer feedback, keep reading for five ways you can improve your customer surveys to yield better results.
1. Ask Open-Ended Questions
Open-ended questions require the respondent to answer in their own words. For example, instead of asking “Do you like our product?”, ask, “What do you like about our product?”
This will allow for more detailed and helpful responses from your customers, which will give you a better idea of ways you can make improvements to your products or services. A study mentioned in Forbes found that 84% of companies that improved their customer experience saw an increase in their revenue as a result.
Helpful tip: you may want to start with a few closed-ended questions before moving on to the open-ended ones, as open questions can be intimidating for some.
2. Make Your Survey Short and Concise
You don’t want to ask your respondents too many questions, as this can deter them from completing the entire survey.
Instead, keep it short and sweet. Only include a few relevant questions that you know will provide insight into the opinions and experiences of your consumers.
Keeping things straightforward means there are less barriers stopping your customers from completing the survey, as they will not feel overwhelmed or bombarded by the scope and number of questions.
3. Use a Rating System
Using a rating system allows respondents to give feedback in a more straightforward format, as they only need to pick from a few options. Rating systems are also useful because they can be used with both open- and closed-ended questions.
A rating system with five options, such as “Never”, “Rarely”, “Sometimes”, “Often” and, “Always”, allows respondents to provide the required information in a less complicated way. They will be more inclined to complete the questions, as a rating system requires less thought and action.
Rating systems can also be beneficial when asking about positive and negative experiences, as they allow for more detailed responses than just a simple “Yes” or “No”.
4. Include an Option for Participant Comments
Written comments on your product or service can help to better understand your customers’ experiences. Most of the time, people who are bothered enough to write their own comments are the ones who truly care about the product or service being reviewed.
Comments are especially useful if you are asking for both positive and negative feedback, as participants can give detailed responses on which aspects of your business they like, and which they think should be improved.
For example, if someone rates your product as “Rarely” using a five-point rating scale, they may explain this in further detail if there is a comment section available to them.
5. Allow Participants to Respond Anonymously
If you feel that your customers might not be comfortable leaving feedback about their experiences with your company’s products or services, let them know that they can choose to remain anonymous.
You may also want to give respondents the option of leaving their contact details, in the case that there are any issues with their feedback.
Regardless of whether they choose anonymity or otherwise, giving them the option to choose will allow for more candid responses. It can help them express themselves more freely without the fear of being identified.
Why Should Your Business Improve Survey Quality?
Better customer experience equals better customer retention. However, to get a better customer experience, you need to listen to your customers’ feedback. Utilizing a good quality questionnaire is just one of the many ways you can increase your chances of retaining customers for life.
Having better quality surveys can lead to improved satisfaction rates for your customers, which in turn will increase the likelihood of them coming back and continuing to use your products or services.
Retention360 is software that allows you to create custom surveys and feedback tools. This tool offers genuine insight into how your customers feel about the service they are receiving, and what you can do to provide a better customer experience.
Retention360’s feedback software allows companies to quickly and securely survey their customers in the most effective ways possible. Customers can leave feedback in multiple ways when using Retention360, whether that be an image, video, text, or survey.
With Retention360, AI technology is used to analyze customer emotion. Customers can reach the business in multiple ways to give feedback, such as through email, SMS, and phone.
Ready to start improving your business in ways that matter to your customers? Take your customer surveys to the next level and see how your business stands to benefit.
