A survey is a cost-effective way of data collection in which people in a population of interest are asked a set of questions about a particular topic. The answers to survey questions are used to investigate opinions, behaviors, beliefs, and characteristics of the population. Conducting a survey can be beneficial for answering questions pertaining to social, political, and business topics, among other things. Surveys are often used in the academic field, market research, and the workplace.
Surveys can be conducted a variety of ways: in person verbally or using pencil and paper, over the telephone, and online. Business owners can use a survey creator, such as Survey King, and implement online surveys into the way their businesses operate, especially if one of their strategies for increasing their business productivity and sales is to improve customer service and focus on customer feedback.
How are surveys used?
Surveys are used in the academic field to get student opinions on their professors’ performance, and other aspects of their courses and their life on campus. By answering survey questions, students can give their input on what works and does not work at their university, and describe what they want more of and what they want less of on their campus. Allowing students to give feedback can improve campus life as well as improve how classes are taught.
The same principle can be followed in business. Business owners can implement surveys for employees to participate in and surveys for customers to participate in. Through surveys, employers and managers of a company can conduct employee evaluations and allow employees to voice their satisfaction and opinions about the company they work for, their work environment, and their position in the company. Employee satisfaction feedback surveys give business owners insight into what aspects of the workplace culture are successful, and what aspects need to be changed. This is important because employee satisfaction is relevant to customer satisfaction, especially in businesses that require a high amount of interaction between employees and customers, such as food service and retail. Employees that have to interact with customers face to face, on the telephone, or online, are more likely to provide customers with a positive experience if they enjoy the work they do and are happy in the workplace.
Create customer satisfaction surveys
To prioritize customer and consumer needs and improve customer service, businesses should create surveys for customers and consumers to participate in. Consumer product feedback surveys can reveal to business owners the demographics and characteristics of customers who buy their company’s products and use it’s offered services, as well as what products are most in demand, and how satisfied customers are with the products they buy. In addition to close-ended questions, open-ended questions can be included on a survey to give customers the opportunity to describe in detail what they like or dislike about a certain product, and give any suggestions about what aspects of a product should be changed or remain the same.
Customers who have just had an experience interacting with a customer service representative or using a live chat on a company’s website for assistance in finding a product, returning a product, or exchanging a product for another one are more likely to respond to a survey about their customer service interaction soon after the interaction, rather than later on. For this reason, business owners should prioritize the timing of when they request customer participation in surveys to make them more effective.
Surveys can improve customer retention. A well-timed, well-designed, relevant survey can make a good impression on customers, because it shows them that companies want to stay in contact with them and that their opinions and experiences as a customer are valued. Business owners should consider the important outcomes of customer feedback when they design surveys. Surveys questions should be targeted to the specific population of interest and they should not be misleading or persuasive. Additionally, surveys should not be time-consuming. A survey that is detailed, yet short and concise is more likely to be completed by participating customers. Surveys can be used to improve customer retention and provide information and insight into past successful sales, which enables businesses to not only repeat successful sales, but increase sales.
