Customer surveys are an important part of any business. They help you gather feedback from your customers and learn more about their needs and wants.
Proving a positive customer experience has fast become a top priority for businesses and studies show 2022 will be no different. The driver here is that 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience.
Conducting continuous customer feedback surveys is an actionable, data-driven strategy to achieving this business objective.
However, if you're not conducting them correctly, they can do more harm than good.
In this blog post, our market research company will discuss three signs that you need help with customer surveys. If any of these apply to you, it's time to get some assistance (like with Drive Research).
1. Low Response Rates
One of the biggest signs that you need help with customer surveys is if your response rates are low.
If customers aren't taking the time to respond to your surveys, it's because they either don't care about them or they don't think they're worth their time. In either case, this is not good news for your business!
When it comes to customer satisfaction surveys, ensuring your survey participation and completion rate is crucial.
You want to make sure as many of your customers as possible are taking the time to provide feedback. If response rates are low, you could be missing out on valuable feedback that could help improve your business.
Our customer survey company recommends the following tactics to improve response rates:
- Provide incentives
- Keep the survey short
- Explain why their feedback is valuable
- Offer surveys in multiple forums (online, paper, by phone)
💡 The Key Takeaway: Depending on your industry and respondent type, a response rate of 50% or higher is considered excellent. A high response rate is often driven by a strong relationship with the business, little time to take the survey, and an incentive to complete the questionnaire.
2. The Data Does Not Guide Business Decisions
If you're finding that the data from your customer surveys is not effectively guiding your business decisions, this is another sign that you need help.
Customer feedback should be used to make changes and improvements to your products and services - but only if it's accurate and reliable.
When survey data is not being effectively used to improve business decisions, it means there are probably bigger issues with the way the surveys are being conducted.
This can lead to frustration on the part of customers who feel like their feedback isn't being taken seriously. It can also lead to wasted time and resources as businesses try to fix things that may not even be broken.
As we cover in our Ultimate Guide to Customer Satisfaction Surveys, it is essential that you determine what you want to learn from the feedback you receive through your customer satisfaction survey.
If this is not clearly defined, you are less likely to receive beneficial feedback from your customers.
Here are a few customer survey sample questions our team recommends including to generate the best results.
💡 The Key Takeaway: While surveying customers is important to keep them happy and engaged, this type of market research should also be used to guide future business decisions. If the data is of poor quality, then so will the strategies you implement based on it.
3. You Don’t Have A Way of Contacting Customers
After a customer takes the time to fill in your survey and share their valuable feedback, you should never stop there. It is important that you chase up on reported issues in your survey data.
As helpful as it is to see what your customers write in the survey, not having a way to contact them afterward means you're missing out on some crucial communication.
This can lead to customers feeling ignored or not valued, and it may cause them to be less likely to respond the next time you send them a survey, or worse, avoid working with you again.
Having the ability to contact customers after reviewing their feedback is a great way to seek clarification or hear suggestions on how you can resolve a problem they brought up in their survey responses.
If you don't currently have a way of contacting customers to follow up on their survey responses, it's time to get help from an expert!
For instance, our customer survey company utilizes resources such as paid Facebooks ads, geofencing technology, and panel vendors to reach your target demographic.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Don't have access to a customer email, phone, or mailing list? That is a big challenge to overcome. Lean on a third-party market research firm like Drive Research to capture the attention of your customers or target audience.
Contact Us For Help On Your Next Customer Survey
While you can always settle for DIY survey tools, these methods often bring in less valuable feedback and can leave you dissatisfied with the outcome of your survey.
If you find yourself needing help with your next customer satisfaction survey, reach out to our team at Drive Research to get you the feedback your company needs and deserves!
We are a full-service market research firm specializing in customer experience (CX). We partner with brands across the country to deliver fresh insights into customer wants, needs, preferences, buying behaviors, and more.
Contact Drive Research today for a quote.Â
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Emily Carroll
A SUNY Cortland graduate, Emily has taken her passion for social and content marketing to Drive Research as the Marketing Manager. She has earned certificates for both Google Analytics and Google AdWords.
Learn more about Emily, here.
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