How can a survey save your business? How to create a good survey?

Along with behavioral analytics, surveys are the other way to get information about our clients. Thanks to them, we receive information about the needs, values, and feelings of our clients, while the analytics tell us about real behaviors or habits. The Google Analytics’ data is not able to answer all our questions, they don’t recognize some aspects of website traffic, for example, they’re not able to assess the degree of satisfaction with the service or the website usage. That's what surveys can do for us. Therefore, both techniques complete each other, creating a real customer profile for us, and thus can significantly contribute to improving conversions and, as a result, increasing profits. So if you do not use surveys in your company or you think they are ineffective, you should at least try it. How to conduct effective surveys? How to optimize the process of acquiring information from the surveys?

Why should I conduct a survey?

Do you want to learn more about your clients' needs and improve your services? Your customers' answers will be a good source of information. Thanks to the survey you will find out what customers like on your website and what troubles them, whether they have problems with forms of delivery or finding the right products. You will show yourself as a brand interested in customers’ opinions and taking into account their suggestions. By asking customers about their feelings, you build a bond with them - they feel that their suggestions are not ignored, and the company and brand have a chance to stay in their consciousness. If you want to conduct a customer survey, don’t treat it as an obligatory marketing strategy that you must implement, because it’s a good and common practice. Ask yourself: what do I want to learn about my clients? How do I want to acquire and use this knowledge? Answer the questions and then start to plan the survey.

Who is the recipient of my survey?

First of all, define the target recipient of your survey. Who can provide you with the data that interests you? Segment your customer base and group the recipients - new customers can give you completely different feedback than, for example, regular customers. So if you have a survey tailored to a particular group, make sure it’s not sent to recipients outside of it. This only causes impatience to recipients and negatively affects the reliability of the data. According to research, the best results are given by surveys that were sent shortly after the visit or purchase.

How to make a good survey?

• It should be transparent and clear. Avoid industry jargon, unless you know that your customers use it. Additionally, make it neutral - don’t ask questions that suggest an answer.
• It should be short. If you don’t want to discourage your audience - limit the length of the survey. Let it be a maximum of 5-7 questions. Who would like to answer more? The entire completion of the survey shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes. Otherwise, you will get much less completed returns than you expect.
• Limit a rating scale range - a rating from 1-3 or from 1-5 is the maximum. The wider scale discourages and doesn’t give you a clear answer. What is the difference between 6 and 7 on a 10-point scale?
• Don’t use 'yes' or 'no' questions. They don’t have great cognitive value. The most valuable will be multiple choice or open questions (but don't ask too many open questions, because you won't get an answer!). Ask questions that relate to customer experience - they will give you the information you need.
• Don’t ask your recipients to do any calculations for you, provide figures or percentages. It annoys and discourages them, and the responses you receive can be worthless.
• Leave a place for comments so that respondents can comment, provide their suggestions, express their opinion. This can be valuable information for you.
• Try to make it possible for the recipients to complete the survey through their preferred communication channel.

Someone has completed the survey. What’s next?

Remember three important rules:

1. Don’t send many reminders to complete the survey. You can do it only once.
2. If you receive very negative feedback, respond to it in person as soon as possible.
3. Remember to thank for positive opinions, especially if they’re not anonymous.

Surveys are one of the best ways to profile your clients, get to know their needs and learn directly from them how to improve your service or satisfy them. Surveys are important not only for building a brand's online presence strategy, but also give you the chance to identify real problems to keep customers and encourage new ones.

Wanna know more? Check other ways you can attract clients in business!