Learning what your customers are thinking helps you serve and retain them. Conducting a survey can provide valuable input you can use to address areas that need attention as well as pursue opportunities you may be overlooking.
Market research can be as extensive as conducting one-on-one interviews or convening focus groups. Yet instead of high-dollar options, email surveys are fairly easy to set up and send out (especially if you use a provider such as Survey Monkey).
As with any marketing effort, start with your goal. What metrics do you want to measure? Customer satisfaction scores often involve asking a customer to rate a product, service or support they’ve received based on options that range from Very Dissatisfied to Very Satisfied. You can also ask how likely they are to refer a friend or family member to your company – using the same scale.
If you plan to send to all customers, you may ask them to rate their experiences with your company, using a mix of rating options, yes/no questions as well as a text blank if they have additional input. If you plan to send out to customers after a service or installation job has been completed, you’ll gear your questions to that specific encounter.
Whenever you send out a survey, begin your email with a request that thanks the customer for the opportunity to serve and asks if they’ll do you the favor of completing this survey so that you can be even more helpful in the future. Let them know how long the survey takes to complete. Also consider giving them an incentive to spend their time on this – such as offering a discount or drawing entry if they provide an email address.
For the investment, an email survey is a useful tool to get metrics on satisfaction – even accounting for those who don’t open or respond.