A Step-by-Step Guide
Looking to create an impactful survey that brings valuable customer feedback? From the words you use in your questions to the execution channels—every step plays a big role in the overall success of your customer survey campaign.
If you want to gather valuable customer feedback for your business, it’s important to strategize and execute each part of your surveys in the right way. This article provides you with a step-by-step guide to creating a successful customer survey campaign and tapping into meaningful insights.
What are Customer Surveys?
Customer surveys are a method to collect valuable customer feedback that helps companies analyze and optimize their current business solutions. The responses can be used to gain insights into customer expectations, identify existing gaps in your products or services, and boost the overall growth of your business.
There are multiple types of customer surveys that can be used to perform market research and measure your customers’ experiences. Some of these include the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) survey, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey, and the Customer Effort Score (CES) survey, to name a few.
Top 3 Benefits Of Using Customer Surveys
According to research by PWC, 73% of people say customer experience is a key factor in their purchasing decisions, and 43% will pay more for a better experience. Let’s say, you have a reasonable interest in knowing what you have done right or wrong in your business, and how you can improve your customers’ satisfaction. An effective way to do this is by sending out surveys.
To help you get a better idea, let’s dive into the top 3 benefits of conducting customer surveys for your business.
- Provide Insightful Customer Feedback
Survey responses are a great way to gain valuable feedback from your customers. Are they loving your product, or is there any room for improvement? Survey data gives you clear insights into your customers and their overall experience with your business. - Increase Customer Retention
When you understand your customers better, you are also able to provide them with better solutions. Result? increased sales and customer loyalty. Even though no one likes getting spammed, people like it when they feel heard, especially if you execute the improvements pointed out by your customers or solve their existing issues. This is a great indicator that you care, which manifests itself by improving customer relationships. - Make Data-Driven Decisions
You make better business decisions when you have relevant data about who your customers are, their behaviour patterns, and how they interact with your business. This optimizes your entire sales funnel and can also save you some costly mistakes.
How To Create A Customer Survey Campaign That Brings Results?
Now that you know how customer surveys can help improve your business, let’s talk about how you can create a successful customer survey campaign that works.
Plan Your Survey Campaign
Before you start sending out the surveys, it’s important to have a clear campaign strategy. You need to ensure your surveys have the right questions, asked in the right way, at the right time. Your campaign will only be as effective as the strategy behind creating it.
- Determine The Survey Goal
You shouldn’t try to get all answers at once. Instead, focus your surveys on achieving one specific goal. Once you have decided that, create the survey questions around it. This ensures you are not diverted from the end goal, and your customers don’t feel confused. - Define Your Target Audience
Not every customer needs to receive all the surveys that you send out. You can segment and target your customers based on certain common factors, such as their geographical locations, consumer trends, or behaviour patterns.
For example, you can create a survey for customers who have purchased the same product or have raised similar complaints. Once you have decided who your target audience is, make sure all your surveys are sent out based on the guidelines.
- Pick The Right Survey Tool
Now that you have strategized your campaign and defined your target customers, it’s time to create the surveys. Use the right tools to optimize the survey creation process and get accurate data. Reviewfy.io comes with a strategic 5-question form with varied response types, incentivization, and a user-friendly interface to make your online survey creation easier and encourage user responses.
Prepare the Survey Questionnaire
This is perhaps the most important part of a survey campaign—the questionnaire. Ask the right questions and keep the survey length short to maximize response rates. Here are three tips for creating the survey questionnaire like a pro.
- Choose the survey topic.
As discussed earlier, plan your goal before creating the surveys. Ask only those questions that are relevant to the goal you want to achieve from the survey data. For example, if you are looking to develop a certain product, ask your customers only about that specific product and their experience with it.
- Choose the types of survey questions
An important factor to consider in your survey design is the type of survey questions asked. There are a multiple types of questions that bring different responses. For example, binary questions are great for situations where you need a yes/no answer, while multiple choice questions (MCQs) can collect categorical data about your customers.
Instead of reaching out to your customers without prior planning, decide what response types will bring you maximum insights and use the survey question types based on them.
- Design and layout
Make it easy for your customers to answer your survey. This means having an optimal survey length, a navigable layout, and an overall user-friendly experience. The simpler the feel of your survey, the more likely customers are to respond to it.
Execute The Customer Survey
Now that you know how to create the perfect survey questionnaire, it’s time for the final action. Start rolling out your surveys in the right way to reap the benefits of your hard work till now.
- Run Pilot Surveys: It’s a good idea to run pilot surveys to a smaller set of sample groups before executing the main survey campaign. This helps you identify any existing problems and push for improvements before sending them out to your customers.
- Determine The Survey Channels: The more your survey is visible, the better your chances are of getting responses. Leverage multiple channels to reach your customers and encourage them to fill out your surveys.
- Understand The Existing Problems- The main challenge of executing surveys is to get accurate responses. To deal with this, figure out any gaps and biases in your survey forms to gain maximum insights. Improve and iterate the strategies to get better results.
Analyze The Results
So, you have sent out your surveys and received enough responses. But how do you turn this data into actionable insights? To help you out, here’s a two-step process to successfully complete your survey campaign.
- Evaluate The Responses- It’s a good practice to categorize the responses in a way that relates to different parts of your business. Ensure you have chalked out your aims through the survey and add your key findings.
- Create A Summary Report- A summary report is a great way to showcase your survey results and present them to different stakeholders of your business. Design a detailed report providing a deep understanding of all the insights you gained through your campaign and how they can be used to improve the existing solutions.
Three Important Things To Consider For A Successful Customer Survey Campaign
- Designing Your Customer Survey
Effective online surveys have a strategic design—from planning your end goal to the types of questions asked, every step needs a solid strategy. Take multiple factors into consideration, such as the length of your survey, the language you use in your questions, or whether you are willing to give your customers the option to answer on their own or provide specific response choices.
Ensure everything is planned ahead of time and aligns with the campaign objective. You can also leverage psychological tactics to encourage survey participation and add incentives for the respondents. - When Should You Send The Survey?
The time frame of your survey plays a key role in gaining maximum responses. Here are 5 different situations when you can send out surveys to your customers.- At different stages of the customer lifecycle, from first interacting with your brand to making purchases
- Immediately after interaction with customers about a certain aspect of your product or service
- After any purchase, they have made from your brand
- Follow-up surveys to follow up on your customers for different reasons and also encourage participation
- Post specific campaigns or promotions to understand your customers’ experience.
- Turning The Insights Into Actions
This is the final step towards getting happy customers and, in turn, better responses for the upcoming surveys. Take immediate action to resolve any existing issues or improve the customer experience once the data is generated. This not only makes your customers feel heard but also increases their loyalty toward your brand.
It’s also a good idea to share these insights internally with different stakeholders in your business. It gives them a better understanding of any gap between the present working condition and the desired output and optimizes business processes.
Reviewfy.io: The Only Tool You Need For Successful Customer Surveys
A customer survey is a powerful way to tap into valuable insights for your business. Now that you know how to create an impactful survey, use these tips to create a survey campaign that actually works.
Looking to create customer surveys in a few easy steps that get maximum responses? Reviewfy.io is your ultimate customer survey tool with a strategic 5-questionnaire form, incentivization, and complete support at every step of your journey. Check out our platform now to learn more.
