This articles gives you a quick overview of why customer feedback surveys matter, the top seven questions to ask, and survey best practices to get you started.
Let’s state the obvious here: Your customer is your business and customer satisfaction is crucial to the success of your business.
So how are you measuring customer satisfaction? If you’re like most businesses, you’re using customer feedback surveys. (And if you’re not, you should get on board.)
Why Customer Surveys Matter
You can get a general idea of customer satisfaction in a variety of ways.
- Sales numbers going up? Customers must be satisfied.
- Positive comments on social media? Customers must be satisfied.
But is this really giving you insight into your customer? Not really.
Customer feedback surveys give you the opportunity to ask pointed questions, set up specific scenarios, and elicit detailed responses about your brand, your product, or your customer interaction.
Put yourself in the customer’s seat and see your business through their eyes. With a well-organized customer survey, you’ll learn how to:
- Make the customer journey better
- Improve customer service
- Retain more customers
- Make your product better
Survey results give you actual, tangible data that you can use to make strategic business decisions.
Getting Your Next Customer Feedback Survey Right: 7 Questions To Include
A poorly planned survey will waste your time and your customer’s time, alike. Especially since customers now expect you to personalize your every touch point with them.
The below questions are important to ask if you are:
- Looking for feedback on your product
- Trying to learn more about your customer support efforts
- Wondering how you compare to the competition
- Surveying your customer’s overall experience with your company
Looking For Feedback On Your Product?
Gain an understanding of how your customer feels about your product by asking these questions.
Question #1: What do you like most about this product?
Question #2: What’s one thing you would change about this product?
First, find out what’s good about your product and why your customers like it. This gives you the opportunity to capitalize on the positive aspects of your product. Use this information to launch a new marketing campaign or start planning your next product release.
Next, learn what customers would rather change about your product. This allows you to address problems or bugs and helps you plan for upgrades or added features.
Wondering How You Compare To The Competition?
Question #3: Why did you select our product over that of our competitor’s?
This question can give you a peek into what your competitors are offering, how they’re marketing it, and maybe even price or terms. Use this information to make your products and support even better and tailor your marketing efforts.
Want To Learn More About Your Customer Support Efforts?
Question #4: Are you satisfied with the support you received?
Question #5: Did you contact us more than once about the same issue?
These are simple questions that can provide you with valuable insight. If you find many of your customers aren’t satisfied with the support they received, then you know there’s a problem somewhere in your process.
Likewise, if customers are contacting you multiple times about the same problem, then you need to dig a little deeper to identify where your support process is broken.
Want To Learn About Your Customer’s Overall Experience With Your Company?
Bottom line, you want to keep your existing customers and gain new customers. Use these questions to learn how to turn one-time buyers into repeat customers and find out what you can do better, in general.
Question #6: Will you purchase from our company again?
Question #7: How could we improve?
If your customer isn’t likely to buy from you again, there must be a reason. Use this feedback to determine what’s keeping your customers from coming back and how you can fix it.
And when you really want to know how you can do better, ask your customer. Point blank. Give them the opportunity to explain where things went wrong in their journey or what they’d like to see from you. Seem scary? It can be, but there’s no better way to find out exactly what your customer is thinking.
Survey Best Practices and Closing Thoughts
There’s no shortage of instructions on drafting the best customer feedback surveys. All of those resources can be summed up in one piece of advice: Test your survey.
Take the survey yourself. Was it difficult to get through? Too long or boring? Confusing? If you had trouble with your own survey, you can be sure your customers will struggle.
With your well-planned and tested survey, you can begin collecting feedback and using the results to increase your customers’ satisfaction and grow your business.
