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Get to the Heart of the Matter
Creating an effective survey will help you drive results
As summer begins to fade into the fall and people's attention shifts from vacation back to business, what better time is there than now to publish an online survey to gauge your customers' or members' thoughts and plans? Creating an effective survey can generate responses to help you craft your business plan in the weeks and months to come.
You could build a survey that asks customers for their opinion of your products or services. Maybe you're deciding what type of specials to run for the upcoming holidays, or maybe you're already starting to plan your fundraising drive for next year. Whatever the reason, conduct a survey. The options are endless.
No matter what type of survey you choose, it needs to be concise and useful. Here are three secrets for building an effective survey that will serve both your customers and your own needs:
1. You can't solve all your problems at once
Any survey must have a clear purpose and objective, with one goal in mind. For instance, a dog trainer surveying customers about a recent training class they attended with their pooch would not want to ask about Doggy Day Care services in the same survey.
As the list of potential survey items is being compiled, use your singular goal as a yardstick to measure each potential question's usefulness. Ask yourself, is this question a "nice to have" or a "need" when it comes to reaching the goal of the survey? If it's a "nice to have," toss it. Stick with "needs" only.
The dog trainer needs to ask how well the class went, if the class was a good value for customers, and if customers' pets are responding to the training. But, they may not want to ask "What treat are you using to train your pet?" It may be nice to know, but it's not necessary.
2. Good questions help drive the goal
Now that you have a goal in mind, you'll want to simplify things even further at the question level so as not to overwhelm the intended audience with too many options that could mute their opinions.
A restaurant that is surveying customers about the quality of its food offerings would not want a question that asks, "What do you think of our burger and sandwich selection?" While those two things may be relevant or even related, it's best to break them up into two questions, one about burgers and the other about sandwiches. This keeps the customer focused on each offering and helps derive more accurate opinions.
Most voluntary surveys should take five minutes or less to fill out, so you don't want to impose too greatly on your customers' valuable time. If your survey will take longer because of the number of "needed" questions, you could add an incentive (such as 10% off a future purchase, or a free t-shirt with your organization's logo on it) to encourage more participation.
And if you don't know what to ask, just use the suggested questions that are found in the survey templates.
3. Use it or lose it
Why take the time to build, test, and promote a survey -- never mind the time of your customers who fill out the survey -- if you're not going to use the results in a meaningful way?
You need to analyze the data and act on it to change your business in a way that better serves your customers. But, you should also let your customers know about the results. You could send a follow-up email to survey-takers explaining how their input is helping you to better serve them. "Thanks to your valuable input, we are now going to be offering Product X and Product Y." Or, "Based on your feedback, we're going to extend our service hours."
It's not necessary to share the detailed answers for every question with every respondent. A summary of how the survey data is being used and implemented shows that you care about your customers' thoughts and ideas.
Surveys do not replace the need for real-life relationship building. Rather, they can be used to compliment and strengthen the process of getting to know and serve your customers better. And the more effectively you craft your survey, the stronger that relationship will be.
