CX Blog

Is your customer feedback survey broken? These 5 Tips WILL help!

Written by Vivek Jaiswal | Co-founder, Customer Guru

Here are 5 easy to implement solutions that will DEFINITELY improve response quality and quantity for your Customer Feedback Survey.

The current trend is such that every business is seeking feedback and trying to capture opinions and inputs of its customers with respect to its products and services. There are so many surveys floating around: you buy some grocery, the next day you have a survey in your email; buy some shoes, the survey pops up again! The flip side of this is that consumers are suffering from survey burnout and are in two minds whether to take surveys or not. They are experiencing, as one expert calls the phenomenon, a customer feedback fatigue.

So, is this where it all ends? Should analysts and management teams call it quits? Do you give the customers a break and stop seeking advice that can shape the company’s future? Absolutely not! Au contraire, you should be persistent and follow these few tips below to create effective customer surveys – the ones that customers respond to.

Customers avoid surveys for many reasons and there are some basic ground rules that should be followed while creating a survey. The inputs from customers should be more of action points for the company – they must be the ‘to-do’ things and ‘to-change’ concepts that in turn will help resolve the customers’ pain and improve their experience.

If you feel that your surveys are being left incomplete or are not being answered at all, it’s time to go back to the drawing board. Surveys that are answered correctly are more important than the ones that are filled with garbage, because the former will assist your business in essential decision making, help attend to poor service levels and, most importantly, quantify customer satisfaction.

Let us understand what the essential ingredients for an awesome customer survey are as we put together 5 simple pointers to create an effective review.

KISS (Keep it Short and Simple!)

The customer base for any business varies: customers are of different cultures and demographics. The words that form your question should be such that they connect with a global audience. Using big, unessential and complex words that makes the customer run for the dictionary is not helping your cause. Simple language, short sentences with straight to the point questions will keep the customer engaged till the very end.

According to SurveyMonkey, surveys that opened with a simple, multiple-choice question had a massive 89% completion rate on average. By comparison, surveys that began with an open-ended question (comment box) had a significantly lower completion rate at 84%.

Chart: Survey completion rate vs. question type

Source: surveymonkey

Ask the right question

Before you start jotting the questions, ask yourself what you wish to achieve with the responses. If the goal is vague or unnecessary, then strike the question off your list. For example, the response to the question ‘How did you hear about us?’ should fit in and be relevant to the goal that you want to achieve. The response to the question must help you achieve something tangible. If there is no real purpose behind the question, then please get rid of it.

The aim should be to encourage customers to hit the ‘Next’ button and not look for the ‘Back’ button.

Use the appropriate tool and template

The internet is abuzz with infinite information with regards to the same. Do select a relevant feedback solution such as Omoto for NPS Survey, or Survey Monkey for more generic poll, so that you can create a professional customer survey. These tools also provide a multitude of templates that reflect your business personality. Go ahead and choose the one that suits you, create your survey and start emailing your customers.

Value the customer’s time

You are using the customer’s invaluable time when you send him/her a survey. Ensure that you use that time most judiciously by asking only pertinent questions. Experts suggest that 10 questions or less will ensure the maximum response rates. Some companies have surveys that go on for 25-30 questions; the sheer size of the survey is what puts customers off and most people drop out before completing the questionnaire.

The survey completion rates are inversely proportional to the number of questions. According to SurveyMonkey, a 10 question survey has an 89% completion rate on average. 20 question surveys are slightly lower at 87%, followed by 30 question surveys at 85%. However, when a survey has 40 questions, the completion rate is 79%.

Source: survey monkey

Make your surveys mobile friendly

Any communication that isn’t easily viewable on mobile will not hold your customers for long. Ensure that the surveys are not just easily readable on a mobile device, it should be easy to tap on the options too! A well designed interactive survey on the mobile will receive a far better response than any other media.

Are there any other pointers that can help you create effective surveys, subsequently helping in increasing response rates? We would love to hear from you! Also, give these tips a try or share them with someone who you know would benefit from them!


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