Want to foster goodwill with your customers? If yes, you should conduct a customer satisfaction survey. Surveys help you get valuable information from your customers to assist in your business decision-making. What’s more,\ high levels of customer satisfaction are strong predictors of loyalty, retention, and referrals.
When it comes to designing and delivering a customer satisfaction survey, there are many places where you can go wrong. Sending a “defective” survey can be quite detrimental. Not only will you not get the data you are seeking, but it can also affect the reputation of your company. Surveys are, after all, still an extension of your brand.
In this article, we’ll address the best practices that enable businesses to design survey more efficiently and effectively:
- Ask for Their Overall Perception
Before you start asking several individual questions about your products and services, ask for their general and overall perception. This single question allows you to get a quick pulse on customers’ overall sentiment. Why do we suggest including this up front? In the event that some customers do not finish the survey, at least you’ll have data on this key metric. - Limit the Number of Questions You Ask
Keep the length of your survey short by limiting the number of questions you ask. Surveys that are short, clear, and to the point will result in higher and more accurate response rates. Recipients don’t often have enough time and patience to complete the long surveys. - Use Concrete Language in the Survey
Give a clear understanding of what you are asking in the survey. Whether it is about a place, event, person, or other topic—provide precise details and specific identifying information. - Limit Demographic Questions when Possible
Want respondents to take your survey more seriously? Avoid questions that make respondents feel vulnerable, such as demographic questions that may identify respondents. If demographics are important to your research question, ensure that they are all optional. - Avoid Using Acronyms, Technical Terms, or Jargon
Avoid using acronyms, technical terms, or jargon in the survey that may confuse others. While designing the survey, use concise, clear, simple, uncomplicated words to make the survey more user-friendly. - Conduct Your Survey After the Customer’s Experience
It’s very easy to send a customer feedback survey to gain valuable insights. You can get meaningful customer feedback by asking the right questions at the right time. After a customer experiences your services, send the survey immediately afterwards. - Send Reminder Emails to Recipients
Send a reminder to survey recipients who haven’t responded. Reminding them once or twice is fine but don’t hassle recipients by sending the reminder too many times. After all, recipients are not obligated to fill out any survey. - Add a Comment Field or “Other” Textbox
An open textbox allows respondents to express themselves within their own words. Add a survey with this question and allow your customers to express themselves freely. - Respond to Positive and Negative Feedback
Once you receive the feedback from customers, react quickly and strategically to all feedback. Never take negative feedback as criticism. Rather, leverage negative feedback as a platform by which to improve your offerings. - Appreciate the Respondents for Taking Time to Respond
Respondents took the time to fill out your survey, and you should make sure you let them know that you’re thankful. This could be in the form of incentives or simply words of thanks.
While designing the customer satisfaction survey, you can follow the above-mentioned best practices to improve the response rate when sending survey invitation emails for your customer satisfaction survey.
