Top Tips for Creating a Successful Customer Satisfaction Survey

It is always a good idea to survey your customers once in a while. And there are really many ways you can do it. You can ask them as they are leaving your office or store. You might call them on the phone, if they willingly gave you their phone number and ask them if they were satisfied with their visit. However, most surveys are either done by hard mail or email. Here are some tips for sending a customer satisfaction survey:

• When emailing a customer satisfaction survey, do not violate any laws regarding spam. Familiarize yourself with them before you get started. Ask them if they wish to take the survey.
• Approach your customer with a survey while his purchase is still a recent experience, and his memories are accurate. Not only may he forget, but he could mix you up with another company that gave him a difficult time!
• You want to survey your customers often enough to get a good picture about their attitude toward your business…but not so often that you are becoming a nag about it. If you see this customer only once a year, you do not want to ask them to take a survey every time. But if you see him weekly or monthly, two or three times a year would be appropriate.

Ask pertinent questions on your survey:

• Were you satisfied with your purchase?
• If service was involved, did they come at the specified time? Were they polite and efficient?
• If delivery was involved, were you satisfied with the way it was handled?
• Was there anything that you did not like about the purchase?
• Do you plan to buy from us again?
• Are you willing to recommend us?
• Do you have any suggestions as to how we can make it an even better experience for you?

Now you have to read these surveys and note the problems and negative comments that come up. Fix the areas that need to be fixed. And thank them for their input! Nothing can solidify a relationship better than asking, listening, and acting on the results.

If you are thinking of using incentives to get a customer response to you survey, make sure that you give accurate details about it, including when they can expect to receive it. It can be anything from a discount the next time they come in, to a gift card sent in the mail.

Survey Tool Recommendation

BusinessBlogs.co.nz recommends Mobilize Mail for New Zealand businesses to create and send a survey to clients and prospects. Learn about their survey feature here …