The Purpose of Conducting a Customer Satisfaction Survey
The primary reason to conduct a customer
satisfaction survey is to see if you are providing products and
services your customers want.
Most importantly, you want to
make sure you are doing everything you can to stay ahead of your
competition and enhance customer retention and loyalty.
Customer Satisfaction Survey Results Guide You in Improving Your Business
Sometimes what you think your customers want is
completely different from what they really do want. A carefully devised
and worded customer satisfaction survey will give you the information
you need to see what your customers think.
Results will pinpoint areas that need
improvement and allow customers to vent any dissatisfaction with your
business. Generally speaking, consumers are more concerned with
customer service issues than with redesign or implementation of new
products. A customer satisfaction survey will indicate what areas need
improvement in your business-customer relations.
Bribing Your Customers to Take Your Customer Satisfaction Survey
Many people do not want to spend the time to take a customer satisfaction survey. After all, "what's in it for them?"
This is why you must think of an incentive to get your customers to
fill out a customer satisfaction survey. By the same token, because an
incentive is involved (meaning not everyone taking the survey is doing
so because they wanted to share their opinion), be sure to word your
survey questions so that customers will tell the truth.
The
incentive can be anything that costs your business little to nothing to
give away. You will want to be sure that the incentive ties in with the
products and services your business provide, since your customers came
to you for those particular items in the first place.
 When
you provide an incentive, you are thanking your customers ahead of time
for taking the time to take your customer satisfaction survey.
If you have a website, be sure to post the information about your
customer satisfaction survey along with the incentive, such as, "Please
take our customer satisfaction survey and receive ABC software FREE!"
Upon completion of the customer satisfaction survey there would be a
button to click to download the software.
A sense of urgency
will keep consumers from forgetting to take the survey. Be sure to post
when the customer satisfaction survey and its accompanying offer will
end.
If you have collected your customer's e-mail addresses,
you can also send them an e-mail about your survey, the incentive, and
the end date.
Ideas for Customer Satisfaction Survey Incentives
- Software/software upgrade download.
- Extension of service/free service for one month.
- An e-book download.
- Coupon code good for 10% off a customer's next purchase.
- A free subscription to a magazine for a year.
And so on. You get the idea.
Points to Remember
- Your survey should be worded in such a way that customers tell the truth.
- Your survey, incentive, and ending date should be advertised on your website and e-mailed to current customers.
- Your customer satisfaction survey should address one or two key issues that are most important to you at the moment.
- Your customer satisfaction survey should take no more than 15 minutes to complete.
Additional Resources for Customer Service Surveys and Questionnaires
Question Pro: Customer Satisfaction Survey Templates
Surveys Pro: Premium Survey Services
Create Survey
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