Customer Survey No-Nos

A customer survey is a powerful tool for finding out what customers and potential customers think of your company. For instance, to find out more about a website's visitors in general, the Webmaster might program a pop up window to invite random visitors to take a short survey. Alternatively, surveys emailed at random to past customers can give you information about their buying experiences with you, and whether or not they'll be back. They are a great way to help you make decisions about how to run your business, but not all are successful. Here are some things to avoid when planning your survey.

Don't make it too long. A good survey is fairly short, requiring as little time as possible from your customers. For example, news websites often give you as little as 60 seconds to complete. A more involved one should take no more than a few minutes to complete.

Don't make it too difficult to access. The general rule is, the further out of their way your customers have to go in order to take it, the fewer of them will complete it. The easiest way for customers to access your survey is a pop up window on the screen that will take them directly if they accept the invitation. Be sure to make it opens in a new window, so they can go right back to what they were doing after they are done.

Another suggestion is to send an email invitation to your customers. The email should contain a link that will take them directly to it. In general, a print invitation, such as a URL on a sales receipt or sent in the mail, will get the fewest results. It takes the most work for customers to complete rather than if it was a pop up or in e-mail form.

Don't make it all multiple-choice. Multiple choice questions are great for people who make and analyze surveys, because it's easier to compile results and find trends in the data. However, if your analysis is all multiple-choice you risk turning your customers off from it. It is impossible to make a multiple choice selection for every possible answer a customer could possibly have, so you might want to allow customers to choose “Other,” and then fill in their answer. Also, since most people want the opportunity to have their say or explain their answers, your final question should ask if there is anything else the customer would like to say. Be sure to allow a reasonable amount of space for their answer!

Don't forget to offer an incentive. Offering incentives is especially important if your examination is a little longer in length, or if your customers need to go out of their way to take it. Offering an incentive of some sort is advisable in order to get enough results to make your review successful. Small incentives could be coupons, small gift cards, free shipping, or something similar. A larger incentive could be a free gift or entry into a drawing for cash prizes. Also, don't forget the power of strong feelings as an incentive: If your study addresses an issue that you know many of your customers feel strongly about, such as concerns about costs, the opportunity to speak out on the issue might be incentive enough!

In general, the size of the incentive you offer should depend on how difficult or involved your examination is. If it is very short and easy to access, you may not need to offer an incentive at all. On the other hand, if it takes several minutes and/or requires your customer to go of their way to take it, a larger incentive would be appropriate.

Your customer survey may require a little trial and error to get it right, just like any other aspect of business. If you aren't sure what will get the best results with your customers, try a couple of different styles with a few different incentives, and see what gets the most response. With the right combination of convenience and incentive, your survey will help you get the feedback you need to make your business even better.