When administering a customer satisfaction survey, your response rate should be of utmost concern. The better your response rate, the less non-response bias you’ll have. The less non-response bias, the better your data and subsequent findings will be. The following describes four factors that you be impacting your response rate:
The frequency of surveys
Sometimes you need to administer various surveys to gather data. However, answering too many surveys at once can leave respondents bogged down. They may feel extreme survey fatigue. This can lead to the respondents rushing through the surveys, spending less time on questions, and potentially answering dishonestly. This can yield invalid data.
The timing of surveys
When it comes to customer satisfaction surveys, timing is key. Although you don’t want to bombard respondents with frequent surveys, having only one survey a year is not ideal either. To increase response rates, it’s better to carry out surveys throughout the year. When asking for feedback from customers, it’s always best to administer a survey within 24 hours of the purchase. This will ensure accurate and honest data because the interaction between the customer and your company is still fresh in his or her mind.
Certain products require that customers use them for several days, weeks or even months before seeing results. For this reason, it is best to wait and administer the survey later. So let’s say that a certain product is used within the first week of purchase, you should send out the survey in the second week following the purchase.
Incentive offered to respondent
Incentives can be a very important in increasing your response rate. However, they can also have negative impact on gathering valid data in customer satisfaction surveys. Specifically, customers may be less likely to offer negative feedback if they know they’re getting an incentive. However, negative feedback can be crucial in making positive changes for your company. Therefore, you may want to consider skipping an incentive if it’s not really needed.
The perceived benefit to the respondent
Customers are more likely to take your survey if they feel that their opinions are actually being considered. They like to feel that they are making an impact and that their feedback is being used for improvement. When you value a customer’s opinion, he or she will provide more honest feedback, which can be crucial to your business. Adding a paragraph at the beginning of your survey describing how your customers’ feedback will be used can help to solidify how much you value their opinions.
With the Ambivista Survey Insights Suite, you can easily create a beautifully-branded customer service survey. If you need additional guidance in creating a survey to capture your customers’ opinions, Ambivista can help!
