
Customer surveys may seem like a daunting task. But there are several options that make it easy to find out what your customers think, plus the information you get from the survey can be not only eye-opening but extremely helpful in uncovering hidden problems. On the positive side, your survey, if done correctly, can glean many testimonials that can be used in your marketing and social media.
My favorite tool for customer surveys is Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com) where you can set up your survey, send it out and have the results emailed to you. This is FREE for up to 100 responses. One of the best features of Survey Monkey is that the overall analysis is updated whenever a customer completes the survey.
I just recently completed a customer survey for DA Exterminating using a custom survey questionnaire that I wrote and set up. The response rate was about 15% which we considered good and the responses were very positive. "The customer survey June conducted gave us just the information we needed. We were pleased that our customers rated us so highly and we were able to follow up on a few 'problems' that our customers expressed," says Chris Caire, DA Exterminating (800-650-PEST).
Tips for surveying customers
- Make the survey easy to complete with no more than 10 questions.
- Use multiple choice questions.
- Use open-ended questions sparingly as they tend to get fewer responses than multiple choice or ranking type questions.
- Include this statement when you ask for open-ended comments: “If you have a problem with our service or our company, please describe it here and include your name and phone number so we can contact you.”
- Offering an incentive such as an entry into a drawing for something. . . . tickets, meal, etc.. . will increase response rate.
- Follow up with any customer who complains!
- Carefully consider what you really want to know from your customers when you write your survey.
- Click here to see the survey we conducted for DA Exterminating.