Tips For Gaining Customer Feedback Via Surveys

I truly cannot tell you the amount of times I’ve purchased a product, then later received a follow-up email asking me to complete an online survey detailing my experience with the company from which I bought my item, the checkout process and my recent customer journey with the brand. The number has got to be well into the hundreds, perhaps even into the thousands. I assume you’ve had similar experiences. Just as numerous are the amount of times I’ve started to fill out one of these surveys, and then very quickly thought to myself, “Ah, forget this, this is completely ridiculous,” and immediately exited out of my browser window, never returning to complete the survey or give it a second thought.

It’s not rocket science that surveys can greatly assist a company in gaining invaluable information from customers and their thoughts on their experiences. However, surveys are only good if they are completed. An unsubmitted, half-done survey services no one, not the customer nor the brand offering it. Therefore, let’s lay down a few tips to remember to help make your surveys work just a bit better for you, should you choose to utilize them. Let’s get those surveys completed!

1. First and foremost, keep it short.

Many customers are more than willing to spend a minute or two reviewing a recent product they purchased, particularly for a brand that they respect and enjoy, but the very moment it feels like a project or that the company is asking them to do work, they’re completely out. Far too many times, I’ve personally embarked on filling out a survey, only to discover that as I progressed through it, it actually turned out to be several pages in length. Some surveys contain fifty plus questions and multiple windows which one must click through before ever being given the option to make it to that coveted “complete survey” or “submit” button. Remember KISS - Keep it simple, stupid!

Martin Powton has similar feelings, “If I land on a survey and I see page 1 of 15 or after navigating through the first page I see I am only on 3% then my heart sinks. The thought of carrying on completing the rest of this survey is nauseating…?” (via mycustomer.com)

We all know surveys that contain those bubble options ranging from a scale of 1-10, where a participant can document how plausible they are to do something, how satisfied they are with their experiences or how likely they are to recommend the services / products of a brand to other users. The useful Net Promotor Score does in fact operate in this sort of manner, offering a 1-10 choice option.

However, generally speaking there’s absolutely no need for this level of complexity with regard to most questions on a survey. Wherever possible, drop the option of 1-10 separate response choices, and instead go with a 1-5 scale. All a larger scale achieves is to make the screen or app where the survey is located appear more complicated and overwhelming. Having twenty questions, with a 1-10 scale for each question just bloats the survey. Consider having your survey contain only a few pertinent questions, with a 1-5 scale. If you truly need to provide the 1-10 option, then of course use it, but only if you earnestly believe it’s going to provide you with an actual advantage. Otherwise, the 1-5 option scale should suffice.

Remember that the entire purpose of a survey is to capture insights that can improve your offering and add value for customers. If the survey is long enough to discourage participation, you’re left with the exact opposite outcome. You do not get completed surveys, which reduces the value of the data you are collecting. You also subject the customer to a frustrating process, thus undermining the perception of customer centricity. Those happy to participate may walk away disappointed or even upset. Disgruntled customers who were using the survey to voice their complaints now have more reason to distrust your brand.

2. Too much data doesn’t necessarily always do you favors.

Of course the goal is to gain insight into your customers’ feelings and thoughts, but remember not to push it too far. Ask customers to do too much and, just like myself, they run for the hills. Additionally, you’re not actually going to gain that much supplemental information out of your customers by offering more bubbles or boxes for them to check off. All you’re going to do is overwhelm them. It’s a no-brainer that everyone is overwhelmed and busy these days. You absolutely must balance the risk with the reward here. You’ll acquire the feedback you need just fine by having a 1-5 scale spanning over simply a few different questions. Next, add a comment box at the bottom for customers to specifically address their thoughts and concerns.

In many cases, a twenty five question survey with 1-10 scaling options will not give you much more relevant, let alone actionable, information than you could obtain by conducting a more concise, pointed inquiry. 

Another element of your surveys that’s imperative to consider is the specific nature of the content of questions you are asking of your customers. Remember to make the inquiries something you’re actually willing to change / improve within your operations. If numerous customers come back with similar responses on particular issues, make sure you’re prepared to actually implement those changes down the road in actionable ways. There’s no use asking a question for something which you’re not planning to address or navigate. Furthermore, if customers feel they answered your questions, then later see that they were not even addressed, this will cause confidence in your band to take a negative downturn.

3. Offer incentives to customers for completing the survey.

To engage more customers into filling out a survey all the way to the end, offer incentives that actually mean something. Many surveys will say something like, “Fill out our survey to be entered into our monthly drawing where you could win up to $100!” This has never once enticed me to fill out a survey of any kind whatsoever. I’ve never won a raffle for anything in my life. I don’t for one second believe it’s about to happen now because I completed a survey.

Utpal Dholakia appears to agree on the matter when detailing Why Customers Hate Participating in Surveys, "’Take our survey and you could win $1000!’ offers. I find these to be almost insulting.” (psychologytoday.com)

Furthermore, many customers are probably just like myself, and depending on the reputation of the company offering the survey, don’t even totally believe there will be any raffle at all. We think, “Ah, yeah right, they aren’t getting me this time!” Hence, we aren’t filling out any survey with this sort of language. As a company, you completely blew it, missing your opportunity to gain customer insight by taking this kind of approach.

Rather, offer your customers a real, tangible reward for survey completion. If you told me I could gain just a mere $2 for completing the survey, I’d do it every…single…time. The conversion rate for getting customers to complete a survey with this sort of method will skyrocket your returns. Let’s do some quick math here. $100 divided by $2 equals 50 completed surveys!

Finally, remember to place your incentive language in BIG, BOLD letters in your email blast, app or at the very top of the survey. Engagement is the name of the game here. KISS!

4. A few examples of simple surveys that illustrate some of these discussed tips:

Next 3 screenshots taken from hubspot survey samples.

Putting it all together.

Provide real, tangible incentives at the very beginning of your surveys. Make these offers as easy to recognize and understand as humanly possible. Next, make sure the actual survey you do provide to your customers is simple and short. I recommend something with three to seven questions, each consisting of a 1-5 bubble or check box option to fill in. Then provide a comment section where customers can expand upon their answers and input additional information.

Moreover, consider putting all of this onto one page so your customers are enticed to complete the survey. This provides them the opportunity to immediately look down and see that they will be done quickly and moving on with their day. Companies can acquire far more responses and customer feedback by following these steps. The sheer number of responses is going to provide you with a more robust set of data points as opposed to just a few returned overly-long surveys. 

Make your surveys just like this article. Boom, boom, boom, done. Next!