Love learning? Me too. In the spirit of my love to learn and (gasp) almost back to school season, I recently, took a Voice of Customer (VoC) research certification course! The course provided an in-depth look at VoC research and got me thinking...
What are the best questions to ask?
Is there such a thing as best questions to ask?
Spoiler alert – Yes.
There are standard best-practice questions to ask in VoC research, however, phrasing and follow-up questions can always be modified to fit the specific needs of any industry and organization. These best-practice questions can virtually be applied to all B2B and B2C VoC surveys.
Wondering the best 5 questions to ask in VoC research? Find out below!
Ready. Set. Let's get started!
Question 1: What is the first word or phrase that comes to mind when you see or hear [Insert Organization Name]?
Why ask this question first? It allows us to collect initial, unbiased top-of-mind feedback. Wondering why top-of-mind thoughts are so important? Think of it as the bare bones of how customers identify your brand.
For example, let’s say you own a coffee shop and think “coffee” will be the top response. But it turns out the top three words used by customers were (1) “Bob” your café manager, (2) “quality”, and (3) “price”. This tells us a much deeper story behind your coffee shop than just what you sell.
Don’t forget we can always ask, “Why?” as a follow-up to this question to have insight on why a word or phrase was used. In the example above we may be left wondering if prices are low or high, what about the coffee shop is high quality, and whether customers think Bob provides satisfactory customer service.
What happens if customers did overwhelming use the word “coffee” to describe your coffee shop? Well that provides us insight as well! Perhaps there are opportunities to further connect with customers, or maybe that’s your niche and it really stands out in the minds of your customers.
Question 2: How likely would you be to recommend [Insert Organization Name] to a friend or colleague?
This question is used to measure an organization’s net promoter score (NPS), which is a key performance indicator (KPI) metric used as a benchmark to measure your organization overtime and compare it to others.
It’s important to note that NPS utilizes a 0 to 10 scale ranging from “Not at all likely” to “Extremely likely”. All NPS scores range from -100 to +100. Typically a well-known brand with high satisfaction earns an NPS between +70 to +80, so while +100 is technically possible many organizations keep their gaze on +70.
NPS identifies customers as one of three types (1) promoters, (2) passives, and (3) detractors. From here the results of this question are used to create a score, which takes the percentage of detractors and subtracts that from the percentage of promoters. When asking NPS, a follow-up question asking “Why” is commonly used to explore the reasons behind the score which points to areas of success and opportunity.
Interested in learning more about NPS? Read more here.
Question 3: Which of the following factors matter most when selecting a company for [Insert Industry]?
My guess is all organizations focus on addressing solutions to problems in some sense. This question provides an opportunity to name factors or areas of focus to test whether or not they are actually aligned with the customers’ needs.
This is a pretty simple one, but it’s helpful when developing marketing, sales strategy, business avenues, and research and development.
Get data for more effective decision making.
Question 4: How satisfied are you with each of the following factors with [Insert Organization Name]?
Similar to the prior question, this question utilizes the same factors listed in the question used above. Instead of measuring what customers find most important, this question determines how well the organization meets customers’ needs for each factor listed. Once fieldwork is complete, the results of this question are compared to the prior question to create a matrix that provides insight on areas of success and improvement. This matrix is powerful because it clearly identifies where an organization should focus.
Want to know what you customers want?
Ask the right questions and dig into the data.
Question 5: How likely are you to switch [Insert Industry] vendors?
Similar to NPS, this question (otherwise known as likelihood to switch (LTS)) measures how loyal customers are. Safe to say, if customers are very happy they will be less likely to switch and vice versa. A follow-up question asking why should be placed after this question to identify reasons why customers are or aren’t likely to switch. Something to look into here is how these results mesh with the findings from the matrix created from questions 3 and 4, and NPS.
Interested in learning more about the VoC research process? Check out tips from our pros.
Contact Drive Research Market Research Company
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