If you want to improve your customer feedback program you probably need to improve your customer survey.
An Analyst Perspective on Customer Surveys
Customer surveys make up a multi-billion dollar industry, and many of us get at least one per day. But just because surveys are everywhere doesn’t mean they’re always good.
At Interaction Metrics, we often see companies that assume they’re ready to launch their customer survey as soon as they’ve opened a SurveyMonkey account and pieced together a few questions.
However, once we show them what their survey could be, they quickly see that a grab-and-go approach isn’t best.
The problem is that customer surveys are easily plagued with biases and other flaws. This creates data that’s inaccurate or doesn’t uncover the drivers of customer loyalty.
3 Genius Tips to Improve Your Customer Survey
Tip 1: Discuss which touchpoints your survey should address, and how to design an accurate (statistically-valid) methodology.
Tip 2: Stand back and take a multi-perspectival view of your survey. Look at your customer survey from many angles:
- The customer’s perspective—is it easy to take?
- An operations perspective—does it uncover actionable insights?
- The marketplace—how does your survey compare with the competition?
- Your CEO—will your survey engage them with the voice of the customer?
Tip 3: Brainstorm how to augment your customer survey with other measurement methods.
Social media research, customer interviews, and touchpoint questionnaires are all great ways to supplement your survey. In addition, customer interviews are particularly valuable because they capture the true voice of the customer and highlight the nuances of specific customer situations.
Customer Surveys: Pros and Cons
The Pros:
- They’re quick.
- They’re cheap.
- They allow customers to vent, which can boost opinions of your company.
When customer surveys are done well, they:
- Provide digestible, quantitative data.
- Uncover nuanced qualitative insights.
- Enable progress to be tracked over time.
But despite the benefits of a great survey, it’s dangerously easy to design a bad one. Popular platforms (like SurveyMonkey and SurveyGizmo) are great for survey deployment—but only after you’ve carefully designed and vetted your questions. Make sure to account for the numerous difficulties and problems that can arise in survey design.
The Cons:
- Sampling Issues: There are two main sampling issues—sample size error and sampling bias. Size error occurs when the sample is too small to fully reflect the target population. Sampling bias occurs when the populations surveyed are incorrect or incomplete. Both lead to misrepresentative results.
- Response Bias: Even if your survey is distributed to a 100% unbiased and representative sample, the actual response population may not represent the target population. The most common instance of this is when highly satisfied customers respond to surveys more than dissatisfied and neutral customers.
- Wording and Execution Bias: One of the biggest problems in survey design is that the questions themselves bias the results. If answers are too limited, customers may select an answer that doesn’t reflect their true feelings. In the same vein, subtle positive or negative wording can affect a customer’s response.
- Rigged Process: Employees can skew their own survey results with self-administered survey selection, rigged research design, or outright cheating. This happens for a variety of reasons but regardless, a gamed system fails to produce accurate data.
- Irrelevant Questions: Many surveys ask questions that are important from a management standpoint. That doesn’t mean they resonate with or make sense to customers. In other cases, questions are so general they don’t provide meaningful data.
We’re Here to Help!
You’re on your way to becoming a survey genius, but if you need to call in the experts for a brainstorming session, we’re ready to help! Interaction Metrics is known for designing exceptional customer surveys that deliver actionable, nuanced results. Let’s discuss how to improve your customer surveys today.
Intrigued? Set a time to talk here. It’s a great way to learn about the best metrics to accomplish your goals and advance your survey strategies.
