In order to capture a clear view of your customer’s experience and level of satisfaction, it is important to design effective surveys. This way you will be able to benefit from how they view you and your company, and what they think about your brand and the quality of customer service you provide to them. Effective customer experience surveys are not only cost-effective but time-efficient also. So, don’t waste another minute by sending out ineffective surveys to your customers and learn from the following six mistakes companies make when designing a customer experience survey.
1. Unable to Respond Promptly to Negative Feedback
Customers don’t like waiting, especially when it concerns receiving a response for their complaint. Therefore, as soon as you receive any negative survey comments, call your customers quickly by telephone or email and resolve the matter. With social media platforms changing the face of how quickly companies can interact with customers, you can also respond through these platforms and try addressing their issues, which ultimately results in reinstating your reputation. Prompt response to negative feedback on customer experience survey is the key to attaining high level of customer satisfaction.
2. No Acknowledgment of Praise From Customers
Prompt response shouldn’t only cater to customer conflicts and complaints but should also remember to appreciate praise from customers. If a customer offers his/her admiration to your dedicated services or products, take some time out and offer your acknowledgement by thanking them personally. For customers to receive a personal thank on your behalf means a lot and it is a key factor when it comes to customer retention.
3. Giving Out Rewards to Customers for Completing the Survey
Sometimes in order to motivate customers to complete your customer experience survey, you might go out of your way and offer them rewards, which might not fit with your company’s image. Find other feasible and sensible ways to ask customers to fill the surveys. For instance, you could say: “We would really appreciate it if you could take some time out and complete our survey so that we can have a better understanding of how we can serve you.” You could also volunteer to donate proceeds of completed surveys to a charity, which is relevant to several customers.
4. Ask Customers to be a Part of an Advisory Council
Try to make commitments with your customers, which you promise to fulfil at a later date. By asking them to join an ‘advisory council’ or have a similar honorary place and then leaving them out of the big picture, doesn’t do justice. Customers if given such positions should be reverted to and asked constantly about their expectations so that you have a better understanding of how to fulfil them.
5. Lengthy and Unrealistic Customer Experience Survey
While designing a customer experience survey take into consideration what you are expecting to gain from this survey. Do you want to know customer preferences; do you want to know how the customers view your brand or what are the negative aspects of your brand? Designing questions that will effectively respond to your queries can be a challenging task. Customers will be put off by lengthy and repetitive questions so try to make it easy for the customers to respond.
6. Asking Intrusive Demographic Questions
Some people can become offended if your customer experience survey asks about personal questions such as income, gender and age. You can either try ignoring these questions in the survey or provide options to make it easier for them to respond. Don’t expect the customer to trust you with all their personal information. Try to be courteous and if these details are important to your purpose try redirecting the question so that the customer feels comfortable while responding such intrusive demographic questions.
Companies perform several mistakes when it comes to designing a customer experience survey. In order to optimise results, you should include questions, which will directly cater to your purpose of conducting the survey. Time is of the essence and customer are most unlikely to wait and spend time on filling out a lengthy survey, therefore try to keep it concise and engaging so that they are interested and motivated to complete your customer experience survey.