Many businessmen overlook easy ways to make better surveys. Why should you…
Customer surveys can be a very useful marketing tool. They can give vital information to gear your next marketing project and attract more customers similar to your best customers (you know, the customers who pay you the most in services and give you the least amount of trouble)
Here are some basic guidelines to making your customer surveys:
1. Find out who your best customers are, and give the survey to them. You want to attract more of those kind of people. Find out what made them a first time buyer. Find out why they choose your product or service over others.
2. Don’t make your surveys too long. Try to make the survey such that it takes less than 3 minutes to complete. Respect your best client’s time. You’re seeking helpful advice, not a novel.
3. Keep it anonymous. Don’t have them write their names on the survey. You’ll probably get more honest answers. If you’re clients are online, don’t put the survey in the email. Have them follow a link to the survey where they don’t have to put their name (unless its a random selection code where you offer something they can win)
4. Leave an open comment section. Let your customers speak their mind. This can be a goldmine of information.
5. If using ranking questions (on a scale of 1-10 how do you like our service/office/ whatever) don’t rely too much on the average score of all surveys returned. Why? Because people aren’t average. Look at the variance and standard deviation too. If the variance and standard deviation are too high, like when 1 SD is worth more than 2 points on a 1-10 scale, then the average is not a very useful indicator for the customers’ general satisfaction. Something else is going on.
6. Be sure to ask what you can improve on. Make it clear from the beginning of your survey that you need help and advice. If you get enough similar responses on what to improve upon, you know you’re doing something wrong and you’ll know to focus on to get a competitive advantage.
7. Find out which medium your best customers use. Do they read stuff in their physical mail? Stuff from you in their email box? When they meet you in person? Find out when and how they will get back to you.
There you go, get started here. You may ask “What question format should I use?” or “What analysis should I use once I get the data?” or “How will interpret the information on some types of questions?”
Ahh I’ll get to these questions soon. For now, focus on the above.
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