customer satisfaction survey

Make Surveys Work for You: 5 Unique Ways to Incorporate Surveys for Customer Feedback

Survey Tips

As a business owner, one of the most important things you can do is build loyal relationships with your customers. Why?

First, it’s much more cost effective to serve current customers than it is to work to generate new ones. Next, your repeat customers tend to spend more with you each time they make a purchase.

To improve your customer retention rate, though, you need to know how they feel about your products and services. You need feedback.

In this article we look at how to make surveys work for you and the five unique ways to incorporate surveys for customer feedback.

#1: Send Surveys After a Live Support Chat

One unique way to make surveys work for you is to use them after customers use the live chat feature on your website.

Most businesses who offer live chat bots on their websites see improved conversion rates from the first question. These live bots also encourage customers to keep coming back.

In addition, live chat encourages your website visitors and customers to share their feedback with you.

While your site visitors will first use the chat feature to get help, find answers to their questions, or even complain about something, you can use some of this information as feedback. You can also set up a survey to go out to these people once they’re done with their live chat to learn more from them.

You can send these surveys out after your live support chat bot has closed. You can include basic questions on whether the chat helped solve your customer’s issue or answer their question.

This live chat feedback can also help you improve your products and services. You can learn where your company is lacking and how to improve customer service.

#2: Add a Survey to Your Website

Another unique way to incorporate surveys for customer feedback is through forms on your website.

You do want to be strategic with these, though. For example, you don’t want them on every page. And, when creating the survey, you want them to make sense on the page they’re on.

These surveys should be relatively short. They should also only include questions that are relevant to the customer’s journey on your website.

By embedding these surveys on your website, you can meet your customers right where they are.

You also want to consider leaving the survey anonymous, or at the very least, making the name optional. You’ll find that customers are more willing to tell you their thoughts and needs when they don’t have to commit their names.

#3: Leverage Email Surveys After First Purchase

After your customers make their first purchase from you is a great time to send out a customer feedback survey.

This survey can deal with things from the customer’s shopping experience on your website, to the product they received, and the promptness of the shipping.

The trick with this survey is to send it at the right time. This depends on the question you ask, but a good rule of thumb is within three to five days of when the customer placed the order.

This is purely a survey for new customers. Why? You don’t want to irritate repeat customers by sending them this survey after each purchase.

To get feedback from repeat customers, send them a Net Promoter Score survey. This will tell you how likely they are to recommend you to others. This makes more sense for repeat customers because they are already invested in you. (tweet this)

For the survey for your first-time customers, here are some ideas:

  • Ask why they chose your company. Answers might include the price, shipping rate, availability, they found you first online, referral, etc.
  • Ask for feedback on the product or service they purchased.
  • Inquire about their overall experience on your website (navigation, usability, etc.).
  • Find out how they feel about your customer service.
  • Gauge how satisfied they are with your shipping.

#4: Use Surveys Right After Order Confirmation

You might consider incorporating surveys for customer feedback right after they receive their order confirmation.

One great place for this survey is right on your order confirmation page.

The questions for this survey should only deal with your website options. They include:

  • A ratings question on how easy or difficult it was to navigate your website.
  • Another question asking if they faced any challenges finding the product(s) they were looking for.
  • A question asking if they like the options you provide.

These questions should be short and generally multiple choice. Always include another box for comments.

Place this survey right under the order summary on the confirmation page. Be sure and thank the customer for shopping with you before you get into the survey.

Finally, you can also include a Net Promoter Score question asking how likely they would be to recommend you to others.

#5: Use an Abandoned Cart Survey

When it comes to unique ways to incorporate surveys for feedback, you want to consider the abandoned cart survey.

It’s extremely helpful to learn why your customer decided not to follow through with their purchase.

By getting their feedback, you can improve your conversion rate and lessen the number of abandoned carts.

This might be in the form of a pop-up on your website, or if the person has an account, you can trigger an automated email.

Make this survey quite simple with just one question. It can be multiple choice and include several options for why they might have left their cart.

Final Thoughts

By incorporating surveys into your customer feedback program, you now have a way to hear exactly what your customers are thinking. You also learn more about their needs and how they feel about your business.

Once you have data compiled, you can then act on this customer feedback to improve your business and your customer retention rate.

If you want to know more about how your customers feel about your products/services, if they’re likely to buy from you again, and if they’ll recommend you to others, the best way to go is to incorporate surveys for customer feedback.

Measuring customer feedback helps you improve their overall customer satisfaction. Ultimately your profits improve, and you build more loyal, brand ambassadors in your current customer base.

Surveys can help you get valuable customer feedback. You can then use this feedback to improve your business. Are you ready to get started with your Survey Town account? Start with your account today.

Why You Should Care About Your Customer Effort Score

Survey Tips

Do you know your customer effort score? Do you have a grasp of what it is?

Your customer effort score (CES) measures what your customers think about how easy or difficult your business makes it for them to complete an action.

The CES measures how many hoops your customers have to jump through to get what they need. For example, are they looking for info on your website and can’t find it? Or, are they getting a busy signal each time they call customer service?

One study says it is 25% more predictive of customer loyalty than the next best metric. Combined with the Net Promoter Score and Customer Satisfaction Score, you should have a working knowledge of how your customers feel about you.

Because it’s so important, in this article, we look at why you should care about your customer effort score.

The Customer Effort Survey

First, let’s look at how you get this information.

The CES survey involves a single question that is scored on a scale from one to seven.

The question might look like this:  X (your name) made it easy for me to get what I needed (or find an answer, or some variable of this).

The answer options are: strongly agree, agree, somewhat agree, neutral, somewhat disagree, disagree, strongly disagree.

If you get a negative score, you can use your survey to send them to another question that is empathetic and looks something like this: “It looks like we could have done a better job helping you. Please let us know more about your experience.

You would then list seven options underneath for them to click on. For example, answers might be: I was on hold too long, your website was confusing, no one answered my question, etc.

Now let’s look at why it matters.

You Can Improve Your Service

Using your CES data can help you improve your customer satisfaction. It can help you get your customer service right the first time, so you don’t have unsatisfied customers.

If your score is low, you want to train your staff to not only respond quickly but to respond with empathy and knowledge. If they aren’t trained correctly, they will fall short.

The CES helps you learn where your staff and your company fall short and where you can improve.

You Can Improve Your Speed

Customers waiting too long on hold? Or, are they spending a lot of time on your website and not finding answers?

Speed is so important in the 21st century. In a world of immediacy, people are not willing to wait.

So, surprise them and speed things up.

If your CES shows that customers are waiting too long, you can add staff and improve your processes.

You Can Improve Your Options

Oftentimes, people are happy to solve their problems on their own, but they need the right information to do so.

You can help your customer service process by exploring your self service tools.

Your most modern customers will be glad to look for some answers on their own. Make these easy to find, and always offer the option of talking to a person, too.

Final Thoughts

If your customers have to expend too much effort to get what they want and need from you, they aren’t going to return.

Effort is a good predictor of how loyal your customers are and will be in the future.

Your customer effort score can help you understand where your company, products/services, and staff fall short so you can improve. (tweet this)

Today’s marketplace is all about providing the best possible customer service, and that includes how much effort your customers have to spend to get what they want.

When you reduce their effort, you increase their loyalty.

Surveys help you make the best decisions for your business. Are you ready to get started with your free Survey Town trial? Start with your free account today, and you can upgrade at any time.

Image: Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

NPS Score: Why It’s Good To Use

Survey Tips

The Net Promoter (NPS) Score is the single best question to ask respondents because it not only helps you gauge customer loyalty, but it helps you learn whether your customers appreciate you so much they’d tell other people about you.

The NPS question is this: “How likely is it that you would recommend our business to someone else.”

Let’s look at the NPS score and why it’s good to use.

It Measures Repeat Business

With one simple question, you can determine if your customers will shop with you again.

It’s a great tool for forecasting your business growth potential.

The NPS score measures the likelihood of repeat business while at the same time measuring the probability of new business. (tweet this) For example, if a customer responds high on the positivity scale, you know they’ll be back, and they’ll recommend you to others. 

It’s Easy to Implement

What could be easier for respondents than a one question survey?

The NPS Score is simple, straightforward and lightning quick for your survey takers. All you want to know is how likely they are to recommend your business to a friend. 

It Helps You Track Change

Let’s say that your first NPS Score didn’t reveal great results.

You go back to the drawing board and fine tune your customer service policies. You train your staff and provide ongoing refreshers. Finally, you begin instilling the thank you culture into your business model.

It’s six months later, and you send out another survey, and the results are much improved.

By using your NPS Score, you can survey customers twice a year to see if your improvements are working. If they aren’t, you can again make changes. 

Final Thoughts

Start the process in your business today and use the Net Promoter Score as part of your overall marketing strategy and business growth plan.

You’ll gain valuable insights about the customer experience and learn where you need to improve.

Use the NPS Score to improve your customer service and your processes for the absolute best customer relationships and to ultimately grow your business.

Surveys help you make the best decisions for your business. Are you ready to get started with your free Survey Town trial? Start with your free account today, and you can upgrade at any time.

Image: Mpho Mojapelo on Unsplash