Customer surveys are tools used to collect customer feedback for a business. Customer surveys provide opportunities to measure customer satisfaction and identify any miscommunications or roadblocks by asking specific questions regarding the customer experience. The data provided by your surveys is based on real insights and opinions rather than on assumptions, and this information helps businesses discover their own strengths and weaknesses.
Types of customer surveys
There are various types of customer surveys, the most common including:
- Customer satisfaction surveys: Surveys like net promoter score (NPS), customer satisfaction score, and customer effort score (CES) surveys all use rating scales (e.g. 0–5, very unlikely to very likely, etc.) to measure levels of customer satisfaction.
- User experience or usability surveys: This type of survey measures how easy it is for a customer to use your product, navigate your website, understand your app, and more.
- Research and development surveys: Often referred to as concept testing, research and development surveys help a company understand their customers’ needs and are especially useful prior to the launch of a product to gauge interest and insights.
[Read more: How to Conduct a Small Business Survey]
Customer survey tools and features
Utilizing online survey tools is a great way to ensure a smooth surveying process. Here are some key features of customer survey tools to consider:
- Display options: A survey tool should allow multiple display options to be utilized on your website, through social media platforms, or via email.
- Segmentation: Segmentation allows you to target a specific audience with specific surveys.
- Template design and a flexible look: The survey tool you choose should offer various template designs to choose from, like a box survey vs. a full-screen survey. It should also provide options for font sizes, colors, and other design elements.
- Randomized options: Use a survey tool that allows you to randomize your questions so they aren’t always organized in the same order. This will help remove bias so as not to sway your audience’s responses.
- Data analysis: A good survey tool will provide you with an integrated view of all the responses in one place. This helps you better analyze the data and draw insightful conclusions.
- Auto-saving: Auto-saving is a must-have for any surveys to ensure you don’t lose valuable information.
Some popular survey platforms include Survey Monkey, Google Forms, and Notify Visitors. Browse your options while considering the above features and find the best tool for effectively surveying your customers.
Utilizing online survey tools is a great way to ensure a smooth surveying process.
Customer survey success tips
Define your survey’s goal
What do you want to learn from your customer survey? For example, perhaps you want to learn how satisfied your customers are with a specific product. This will help you include the right questions and rating scales to collect the feedback you’re seeking. It will also help you eliminate any unnecessary questions that won’t fulfill your end goal.
Design the survey
When developing your survey, you can include a variety of question types to gauge your customers’ satisfaction, user experience, or future needs. For instance, ask a combination of open-ended questions, yes/no questions, and questions that require customers to use rating scales.
Some examples of questions on customer surveys include:
- On a scale from 1–10, how likely are you to recommend our product to your friends?
- How much do you agree or disagree with the following statement regarding your customer experience with your latest purchase?
- Have you ever contacted our customer service? If so, were all of your problems resolved to your satisfaction?
- How might we improve our website’s navigation to ensure a seamless user experience?
Using various types of questions will help you gain a better understanding of where you’re falling short, why and how you’re falling short, and how you can best improve these problem areas.
[Read more: 8 Popular Small Business Survey Tools]
Send out and promote the survey
Once you’ve finished creating the survey, promote it on your website and social media platforms, via email, and in other available ways to ensure it gets in front of the right audience and draws in a large enough respondent pool for accurate data. You might even consider offering incentives — like discount codes or a chance to win a prize — to customers who fill out your survey.
Analyze and implement insights from the survey
After you begin receiving feedback from your customers, thank them for their insights and communicate how you will take their feedback into consideration, as well as your plan to improve things. Your commitment to customer satisfaction will go a long way in building long-term loyalty and trust.
[Read more: How to Conduct a Small Business Survey]
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