It’s not always easy to get customers to provide feedback in a survey. So, when they do, you want to make sure your survey is designed to get the most information possible while not frustrating the customer.
There are some things to keep in mind as you’re designing your feedback survey:
1. Factor in the entire experience: in the case of a cell phone feedback survey, for example, your current survey may focus on the customer’s in store experience, since that is where they are interacting with the brand and you can easily offer a survey. Your questions may relate solely to the in store experience; since that does not encompass the entire experience with the brand, it’s best to add questions related to more peripheral points of service, such as network coverage, connectivity satisfaction, speed of online browsing, etc. If you’re only focusing on one point of the customer journey, you may not be aware of other things that are driving customers away.
2. Measure, then really analyze: don’t focus on one statistic, such as overall satisfaction; that may mislead you into a false sense of security. It’s best to really dig down into each aspect of the customer journey and compare those to overall satisfaction to really learn what motivates customers to stay with you and what motivates them to leave.
For example, you may find that customers are generally dissatisfied with the speed of service in the checkout line, yet they are giving fairly high ratings for overall satisfaction and likelihood of returning. This tells you, especially if it is a trend over time, that while this needs to improve, it’s not a “make or break” situation for customers. On the flip side, you may find that product selection is a consistent issue, and those customers are also saying they won’t be back. This is more of a “make and break” issue that needs to be addressed quickly.
3. Have a follow up plan in place: studies show that if a customer requests follow up on a feedback survey, and they are highly satisfied with the follow up, even if their issue may not have been fully resolved, they are 61% more likely to return in the future.
Your best bet is to have a double closed loop resolution in place. When a customer requests follow up, make sure there is a plan in place to reach out to the customer as quickly as possible after the survey is submitted. Then, follow up a second time to ensure that follow up was in fact done, and the customer’s issue was resolved. This sends a great message to customers while making sure there is no breakdown in the customer journey.
Customer feedback can be hard to come by; make sure you’re making the most of it.
