If You’re Not Surveying Customers, You’re Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’

Do you truly know how well you’re doing with your clients and customers? Are there problem areas or holes in your customer service you’re unaware of? Would you like to find out what they really think? There’s only one way to get this information—ask them! A well-crafted customer survey can be a useful tool that will help you discover the answers to these and many other items you may not even have known were issues for your customers.

So why ask questions at all?

The primary incentive for a customer survey is to eliminate problems before they become part of your reputation, and find ways to improve your service or products. Most of the time, we never learn about a disappointed customer: they’ll simply look somewhere else. CustomerThink.com has discovered that more than half of consumers have experienced issues and complaints with the products and services they’ve purchased. Creating a survey helps you find and correct mistakes that can be the difference between holding onto a client or not.

What kind of questions work best?

Make sure you have a clear goal to your surveys, and you ask questions that require  more than ticking a box, or assigning a numerical value to your query. Avoid “Yes” or “No” questions. Allow them to expand on their experience and feelings. (This can also be a great way to collect testimonials!)

How exactly should you hold the survey?

There are many ways to conduct a survey. However, if possible, the most effective way appears to be via an online survey, thus giving the respondent a good chance to think about and form well thought-out answers, something which may not occur via a phone call or personal contact. Look at offering a bonus for filling out your survey, and try to be timely as to when you send it. If you’re a new comer to this, consider using a company that specializes in this type of data collection, such as SurveyMonkey. However you achieve it, getting a read on how your customers view your business is invaluable data to have.