Customer surveys are one of the best ways to learn about your organization’s products, services, strengths, and weaknesses. Unfortunately, doing a survey too often can lead to frustration and annoyance from your customers. Consequently, there is an increased likelihood of a decline in survey response rate, value, and integrity of the data you gather. To prevent such circumstances, below are six tips to avoid over surveying your customers:
- Create surveys to gather data for actionable insights
- Time how many surveys you send a customer
- Distribute surveys evenly
- Keep surveys short
- Schedule your survey from the interaction appropriately
- Coordinate survey effort
Create surveys to gather data for actionable insights
Don’t be an organization that conducts a survey just because others are doing them. Surveys should be appropriate with clear objectives, followed by action plans. In a time where customer satisfaction is a priority, consumers already feel there is too much communication. Don’t harass people just because you can. Put the focus on your survey efforts and gather only useful feedbacks that will result in a positive change in your business. You can do this by setting your survey objective. For example, is your goal to discover a problem area in your customer’s purchase experience, or are you looking for information about a particular product?
Time how many surveys you send a customer
Have you ever stayed in a hotel where they seem to ask for feedback on every customer journey you went through? One or two is alright, but when you receive 4 or 5 different survey interactions in less than three days, it can quickly become annoying. Most customers ignore the survey, but some find it so frustrating that it becomes the source of dissatisfaction for the product or service. In this case, more doesn’t mean better. Choosing a few well thought out and timed surveys will give you more valuable information from the customer.
Distribute surveys evenly
Don’t just send your surveys to the same respondents over and over again in a certain period of time. Be considerate to your respondents. Only send them another survey when a significant amount of time has passed by. Send surveys to various customers. Find a partner or system that can help you monitor invitations and responses of recent surveys.
Keep surveys short
Survey fatigue is real. Most people avoid surveys because they fear it will take too long. Try to keep your surveys under 3 minutes. However, if you can’t keep it short, at least provide a reasonable incentive to motivate respondents. Also, make sure to communicate in the invitation how long it will take to complete the survey.
Schedule your survey from the interaction appropriately
This is most true when a customer is likely to have more than one interaction with your company, for example, in resolving a customer service issue. Send your customer feedback as soon as possible. Don’t wait so long that the customer forgets the interaction or confuses it with a different one. It is also helpful if the customer has had multiple interactions with your company to call out which interaction you are looking for feedback.
Coordinate survey effort
If you belong to a large organization, are there multiple departments eliciting customer feedback? A coordinated study might be more beneficial to the entire organization than divided survey efforts. In doing so, duplication of effort is eliminated, the cost is reduced, and surveys are streamlined. Equally importantly, your customers will appreciate getting fewer surveys while still being able to share essential feedback with you.
Partner with a Data Collection Service
DataForce works with you to gather customer insights that will improve your business. We will help you plan and manage your survey initiatives for optimum research results. Our survey designers specialize in creating professional forms and survey packets that are both functional and visually appealing, to generate high response rates and impeccable results. Contact us now so we can help in the success of your Survey Project!