Writing questions and sending them out to customers is easy. Designing and executing a customer survey that provides useful information for improving your business, however, is challenging. All too often, companies assume they need to communicate with their customers. They then jump into a customer satisfaction survey without sufficient planning.
This kind of hurried survey can sometimes do more harm than good. It creates a negative impression with otherwise satisfied customers.
Here’s how to avoid common pitfalls of customer satisfaction surveys and implement a truly useful system of feedback and action.
Common Problems with Customer Satisfaction Surveys
We’ve all participated in customer satisfaction surveys. Some may have been okay, others maybe not.
Have you ever taken a customer satisfaction survey and wondered, “Is this survey meant for me?”. Did they even send it to the right person?” I know I have.
It can be frustrating if you genuinely want to give feedback to a company but their survey asks about only things that don’t apply to your experience. A hard-to-understand online survey or one that doesn’t adapt to your device can be frustrating.
If you have to stop to figure out what a survey is trying to ask, it adds insult to injury.
These are common issues with gathering customer feedback. However, with planning and awareness you can greatly improve your chances of getting a customer satisfaction survey right.
First and foremost, a customer satisfaction survey should enhance the customer-company relationship, not compromise it.
A survey’s quality should, at the very least, match that of your products and services.
I’ve seen a situation where a company had very satisfied customers. Despite this, their customer satisfaction survey generated extremely disappointing results. The company’s customers expected only the highest quality. When they received a poorly thought-out and executed survey, they reacted negatively.
Goals of Surveying Your Customers
The goal of a customer satisfaction survey should be to establish a lasting program. This program should foster goodwill with customers and provide valuable information for company decision-making in the years to come.
Focusing on obtaining instant information from your customers, responding to it, and then moving on is easy. However, this reactive approach will have only limited effectiveness.
Instead, invest time in planning your surveys. Create a system for handling the data they produce. This will help you anticipate your customers’ needs.
Here are some things to think about before undertaking a customer satisfaction survey:
- As I mentioned earlier, just writing a few questions and sending them to your customers is easy. The hard part of customer satisfaction measurement is designing and executing a customer survey. This survey must provide useful information for improving your business.
- A customer satisfaction program will raise customer expectations. Most of the effort on a customer satisfaction program should focus on what happens after completing the survey. This includes handling and analyzing the collected data. It is important that the budget and resources be there for taking action afterwards.
- All departments should integrate and coordinate ownership and commitment for the program. For example, will a sales or service representative know the survey is happening and what its goals are? Spread the word about your customer satisfaction survey around the organization.
Creating a Customer Satisfaction System
When determining how, where, and when to survey your customers, plan for the long haul, not just a short term initiative.
Starting and stopping customer satisfaction efforts can do more harm than good. View your customer satisfaction program as an ongoing effort, not just a one-time event.
Developing the program and understanding customers’ wants and needs takes time. However, this investment will pay off with happier customers for years to come. We recommend two key activities for anyone starting a customer satisfaction program. These activities complement the standard techniques for designing any survey.
Perform a Customer Needs Assessment
This involves conducting in-depth interviews with a few select customers, either face-to-face or over the phone. These interviews ensure you understand what is most important to them, their needs, their views on your company, and their opinions on your planned customer satisfaction survey.
Two-way communication early in the process is crucial. It helps obtain actionable information and ensures that your survey asks the right questions to the right people in the right way.
Have A Stakeholders Strategy Session
The success of a customer satisfaction survey is measured by the actions it drives.
The survey must ask the right questions and address customers’ needs. Additionally, you must integrate the feedback system into your company’s operations.
Since your customer survey will be an ongoing part of running your business, it is crucial to have broad support and understanding for it. This ensures that the survey is effectively integrated into your operations.
A strategy session should include key people from sales, marketing, development, and operations. They should meet for four to six hours to work on the survey objectives and how these objectives align with the company’s mission and values.
The session might also include discussions on the appropriate customer segments to target. Additionally, it could involve training from a customer satisfaction expert, whether internal or external, on best practices. The session may also define the scope of the customer feedback you will solicit.
To learn more about how to turn customer satisfaction survey results into action click here.
