In an increasingly customer-centric world, customer surveys help businesses know customer preferences and improve their overall operations.
The trend in customer surveys has increased over the past years. According to a study, 86% of customers received at least one survey from a brand in 2020—however, only 7%respond to these surveys.
While you might think handing out surveys is useless to your operations, it can actually help you gauge how well you are doing. At the same time, you should be mindful of forming biases and influenced responses in your customers.
Learn the best practices in creating customer surveys for your business in this article.
Importance of customer surveys
Businesses must have specific metrics to know when customers are satisfied with their products and services.
Customer surveys are an important tool for gaining insight into customer satisfaction and loyalty. By collecting feedback, companies can identify areas of improvement and develop strategies to meet their needs further.
Surveys provide valuable data that can be used to inform decisions about product development, marketing, and customer service.
Customer surveys can also help organizations build relationships with customers. By getting their feedback and opinion, companies can show that they value and listen to their customers and their preferences.
This usually translates to increased customer retention and repeat business.
Types of customer surveys you should have
You can use several types of customer surveys to gauge your client’s satisfaction and behavior, such as the following.
Customer satisfaction surveys
Customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys measure customers’ contentment with their recent transactions. It is comprised of two parts: close-ended questions and open-ended responses.
Usually done right after purchase or call, a CSAT survey mainly asks the clients how satisfied they are with the service they get. Respondents are given options ranging from 1 (not satisfied) to 5 (very satisfied).
Net promoter score
Net promoter score (NPS) surveys usually go right after CSAT surveys. It measures how likely a client will recommend the company or their products to others. Respondents can rate the business from 1 (not recommended) to 10 (highly recommended).
NPS respondents are categorized into three:
- Detractors – who gave low scores and can damage your brand through negative word-of-mouth,
- Passives – who are satisfied with your services but can be swayed by competing offers, and
- Promoters – who are loyal to your brand and more likely to fuel your growth by recommending you to others.
Customer effort score
A customer effort score (CES) survey deals more with a customer’s overall experience with the brand. It measures the amount of effort they have to put into solving their problem, whether through website navigation, chat, or phone call.
Given that more customers leave only after one bad experience, CES is crucial in streamlining and improving a brand’s service further.
Visual surveys
Lastly, visual surveys use images such as stars or emojis to represent customer satisfaction with their experience.
A visual survey is a quick way to collect feedback and insight into a client’s current experience. Star ratings are the best example of this, mostly used to rate hotel stays, rideshare, and delivery services.
Best practices in creating customer surveys
Handing out customer surveys with errors can be worse than not having customer surveys at all. This is because your surveys can be bridled with errors in design, biases, and other factors that will make your data invalid and useless.
Always keep the following best practices in mind when creating customer surveys to ensure their accuracy and validity.
Keep your questions straightforward
Always keep your questions straightforward and easy to answer, especially with CSAT surveys. Use close-ended questions as much as possible and include a few open-ended responses in the latter parts.
Place personal questions at the end
As much as possible, avoid starting your survey with more personal questions, including age, gender, and citizenship.
It’s best to treat your surveys as if you are talking directly to your customers. Structure your questions from their overall experience down to the specifics. This way, you can also avoid biases in terms of demographics and other aspects.
Make your survey short enough
Avoid making your survey too long and elaborate that it takes much of their time. Make your survey short but full of helpful information to improve your business.
An ideal length for customer surveys is around 15 to 20 questions, answerable in five minutes or less.
Keep your choices and questions balanced
Having questions or options that lean in a single way can lead your customers to give inauthentic answers.
Frame your questions in a way that won’t influence your respondents’ answers. For instance, address your agents as “representatives” or “staff” instead of using “friendly and courteous staff.”
This goes the same with their options. Complete your range from “very satisfied” to “very dissatisfied” instead of stopping at neutral answers.
Refrain from using double-barreled questions
Having double-barreled questions or asking your customers for feedback on two separate things at once can confuse them.
Instead, use “overall experience” or separate two entities into different questions so they can clearly state what they like and dislike about each item.
Review your survey before sending
Always review your customer surveys before sending them out to your clients. Check for grammatical errors, spelling, missing items, and other aspects that could make your gathered data incomplete.
Outsourcing customer survey management
You cannot constantly monitor and manage customer surveys independently, especially with a growing customer base. You must have a reliable team handling survey management, from creation to distribution and results reporting.
Outsourcing survey management to service providers like OP360 helps you best with managing surveys and gaining insights straight from your patrons. Your teams can take care of designing surveys free from bias and sending them out after their transactions.
Through this, you can focus on investing in service and product improvements to increase your customer experience and expand your audience base.
