One of the most common questions people ask us is, “How often should you survey your clients and customers?”

This question doesn’t always have a straightforward answer. Depending on your industry, and the survey, it could be every few months or once a year. Let’s look at some common scenarios to help you decide how often to survey your clients and customers.

The Customer Satisfaction Survey

This survey is one you send to your most active customers to help maintain a relationship with them. This survey is most successful when sent twice per year.

This type of survey lets your customers know you appreciate their loyalty, and their purchases, and you want them to take an active part in your business by providing feedback and input.

The Survey Sent After the Purchase

Whether you’ve just completed a project for a client, or a customer has purchased a product from you, you’ll want to send a survey to get your customer’s thoughts on your service or product.

The goal of this survey is two-fold. First, you want to know what they think, and second, you want to continue building a relationship so they come back to you in the future.

This type of survey is best sent very shortly after the project completion or product purchase. Don’t wait too long as people’s memories are fleeting. But, do wait enough time for your client or customer to use your product or service.

Final Thoughts

There are other types of surveys – for example, surveys sent out after an event or training event, market research or bench marking surveys. The event surveys are best sent after the event, and the other types should be sent at times relevant to what’s going on in your industry.

Before sending your survey, have a strategy that involves how often you’ll send surveys and what you intend to gain from them.

Lastly, we recommend waiting about two months in-between survey sends so you don’t overwhelm your customers and clients. (tweet this)

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Image: Lesly B. Juarez