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Too often, business leaders today operate in a vacuum,
working together yet alone to determine what customers truly want or need. In, the
end, there’s no better approach to understanding your customers than simply asking
them. One of the most effective ways to keep an open dialogue with customers is
to use surveys, which give your customers (and employees, in some cases) a chance
to provide the feedback you need to understand what’s important to them.
Designing an Effective Online Survey
So, you’ve wisely decided to survey your customers—and
the rest of your company has “bought into” the idea. As is so often the case with
new-technology adoption, it pays huge dividends and accelerates ROI to partner with
an online survey leader, such as SurveyMethods.com, to benefit
from their expertise and experience to help you every step of the way.
With the assistance of such as company, there are just six quick steps to follow
in designing effective online customer surveys:
1. Clarify your survey’s objectives.
The first key to a successful survey
is to define objectives. Exactly what is it you want to know? Is there a problem
(or problems) that needs solving? What actions are you prepared to implement depending
on the results of the survey? Put a survey together with less-than-focused objectives,
and you almost guarantee a survey with unclear results. List the questions your
survey should answer. Do you want to know what your customers’ satisfaction levels
are by segment? Do you want to ask if they’d recommend your company to others? Do
you want to measure in what format and how often your customers prefer to receive
communications from your marketing department? Focus on the big picture, and keep
your objectives narrowly scoped; more complex surveys tend to less meaningful results.
2. Select your survey’s target.
Who should you survey? You may want
to start with your existing customer base, but consider surveying prospects in other
markets, as well. The proper sizes of survey samples depend on budget and the time
available to analyze the results and act on them. Statistically, larger sample sizes
deliver more accurate results. The good news: today, The Web makes it easier than
ever to sample larger groups quickly and cost-efficiently.
3. Prioritize your questions.
Obviously, every survey revolves
around a specific set of questions, but with so many options, where do you start?
Create questions related to your goals and objectives from Step 1. What customer
attitudes or perceptions do you want to measure? What answers might ultimately help
you to make more informed decisions? Remember; always provide an option that allows
a recipient to say, “I don’t know” or skip a question entirely, especially when
you’re asking for subjective opinions vs. quantitative facts. Also, don't ask more
questions than necessary; the shorter the survey, the better your chances of success.
4. Test the survey.
It may sound obvious, but before
you hit “Send” and broadcast the survey to your selected sample world, test it thoroughly
on as many different PC platforms, operating systems, various Web browsers, etc.
Try to “break” it in any way you can, because it’s an unpredictable technology world
out there.
5. Communicate your purpose.
It’s important to communicate to
customers why they’re being surveyed, how you’d appreciate their support and what
you intend to do with the information you gather. In other words, what’s in it for
THEM? Explain why the survey is relevant to the recipient. Will it help the company
create better products and services, improve customer service, seek more competitive
pricing, etc.? One proven technique is to send an email announcing the survey to
your existing customer base, asking for assistance and highlighting a direct link
to the survey within the message. Providing an incentive can greatly increase response
rates, especially from your top customer segments; it’s amazing what customers will
do for a ballpoint pen, free T-shirt or other promotional items you may have sitting
around in boxes anyway.
6. Analyze and ACT upon the results.
As soon as your send a survey and
results begin to trickle in, you can begin analyzing the data. Once it’s in your
database, it can be sliced, diced and analyzed as needed in spreadsheets, presentation
programs and statistical software. Finally, it’s time to act. Compare the results
of your survey to your original objectives, recommending specific business responses
as a result. After all, isn’t that the reason you surveyed customers in the first
place?
So, which is better: Email or Web-based surveys?
Email-based Surveys
Email surveys are both quick and
cost-effective. While more of your customers will use email than have full Internet
access, email surveys are limited to simple questionnaires.
Advantages:
- Speed—an email questionnaire can deliver several thousand responses
in days.
- Cost—after initial setup, there’s practically none.
- Media flexibility—you can attach pictures and sound files in HTML
emails.
- Higher response rates —compared to ordinary “snail” mail surveys.
Disadvantages:
- You must have (or purchase) a list of email addresses.
- Many people dislike unsolicited email even more than unsolicited regular mail.
- You cannot use email surveys to generalize findings to the whole populations.
- Email surveys can’t automatically skip questions, randomize questions or change
answer-choice order as needed.
Web-based Surveys
Web surveys are becoming more popular
every day, as they offer significant advantages in speed, cost and flexibility to
perform more complex logic. Still, choosing the right survey solutions provider
and software is absolutely critical.
Advantages:
- Extremely fast—a survey posted on a popular Web site can gather several
thousand responses within a few hours.
- Cost—again, after initial setup, there’s practically none.
- Media flexibility—some survey software allow you to display pictures,
video and play sound.
- Complex Logic—questionnaires can use complex question-skipping logic,
randomizations and other features that can deliver better data.
- Graphics—questionnaires can include colors, fonts and other formatting
options not available in most email surveys.
- The Honesty Factor—Most people will give more honest answers to a computer
rather than to a person or sheet of paper.
- More details—Respondents typically provide longer answers to open-ended
questions on the Web than they do on other kinds of self-administered surveys.
- Superior analysis—SurveyMethods.com provides you with easy to use analysis
tools that enable you to conduct group analysis, segmentation analysis and more.
Disadvantages:
- People can easily quit mid-questionnaire online.
- If your survey “pops up” on a web page, you often have no idea who’s replying –
in such a case ensure you ask questions about the person’s background, demographics,
etc.
Summary
Surveys are by no means new. But
today, conducting a survey with a substantial sample is substantially much more
efficient and affordable with new technologies and the support of online survey
industry leaders, such as the proven experts SurveyMethods.com.
It’s no longer necessary to assume or guess what your customers’ needs and expectations
might be. Ask them yourself—with a quick, cost-efficient online survey. You might
be surprised what you learn!
If you need help in creating and implementing your online research strategy, contact
us today at http://www.surveymethods.com/contactus.aspx.
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