Have you ever thought: ‘I wonder what our best prospects are really looking for when shopping for my product or service’?, or ‘What if we knew what problems our target market had, and could deliver the right solutions to them at the right time?, or ‘I wonder what prospects find annoying/frustrating or lacking in the products or services we provide, so we could learn how to better meet their needs?
There’s a pretty simple way to answer all of these questions, and many more. And it doesn’t require months of research or expensive focus groups. You could simply ask your core customers the right questions to help you provide a better experience or learn more about why they make the decisions they do.
You could do this all with a simple email or online survey – which is also inexpensive and easy to create.
Surveys are great for capturing information finding out customer pain and pleasure points regardless of your industry, product or service. Regular surveys will help you get to know your customers. They are great for improving the customer experience or learning about an event in real-time. By analyzing survey data and implementing changes, you will be improving your company and showing your customers that you value their opinions.
What kind of questions should you ask?
Keep it simple. Close-ended questions are easy to answer and easy to analyze. Open-ended questions will be harder to answer and harder to analyze ,but they will provide greater knowledge and insight. As a rule of thumb, keep your survey to a maximum of eight close-ended questions and one to three open-ended questions.
What to avoid?
Avoid loaded or leading questions (phrasing that leads respondents towards a certain answer), questions that are too general or not specific enough, jargon or abbreviations, double-barreled questions (asking more than one question at a time) or making all questions mandatory.
What to include?
Include an incentive; this could be a discount, a giveaway or account credit. Ask for contact information and permission to receive daily, weekly or monthly emails from you. Do your best to keep your audience segmented, use different surveys for your regular customers and other surveys for new clients coming on board.
I sent out my first email survey, now what?
Whether or not you receive positive or constructive feedback, your customers will appreciate the fact that you asked them in the first place. Remember, your survey feedback is worthless if you don’t take action on it. Share the results internally by including customer comments in email and explain what these results have taught you and what action is going to be taken. Also, share with your community and clients through social media, your newsletter or a blog post.
Want to try your hand at email surveys? Start your free trial today!
