Surveys – every big company in America sends surveys. The technology revolution means you rarely get these surveys in writing anymore. Often they come through an email in automated fashion, asking about your happiness with a product or service you recently purchased.
I’m sure most of you small business owners see the value of a survey as dubious. I think that might be because you are looking at them through the lens of your own experiences with them from businesses who serve you. I am sure for you they appear:
- Too long;
- Impersonal;
- To have vague choices;
- To have a lot of non-applicable questions;
- Too long
Yes, I know I said ‘too long’ twice. That was purposeful because the overwhelming majority of surveys are too long. I believe this starts to aggravate the customer/client and thus the answers become less accurate, and if any digression is requested, you get brief, uninformative answers.
Surveys can be an excellent feedback tool for small business. The biggest reason why is because a small business owner almost always has the ability to make instantaneous changes that may be necessitated by a survey’s results.If a change cannot be made, at least then the owner knows it is an issue that may require communication and education of the customers. For example, you may be constrained on price by a manufacturer of a product you sell. Your customers may not know this. You may decide not to tell them about your constraint on price if it is an issue that comes out in a survey, but at least you know it is on their mind, so you can develop strategies to address it.
My personal belief is that for most businesses, a good survey can be done in 5 questions. It is also my belief that any survey you may do must be kept to less than 10. I think the tendency is to break the service/product experience down into individual processes within the sales cycle and all possible uses of the service/product. You just won’t get buy-in on completing the survey accurately this way.What you should want to find out is this:
- Whether the service/product exceeds, meets or was below expectations;
- The likeliness that the customer will return to buy again;
- The likeliness that the customer will refer other people to your business;
- What they liked most about the service/product; and
- What was the ONE THING they would change about the experience of dealing with your business.
There, pretty much, is your 5 Question Survey. You can word the survey however you like. The 1st 3 questions can be multiple answers, a rating scale of 1-10, whatever you feel works best. The last 2 questions are designed to be open ended. You are looking for the customer to tell you what they liked most about the experience of dealing with your business, and you want them to tell you what
one thing they would change if they could. And you want this in THEIR WORDS. This is incredibly valuable information. You will be finding out what is important to your customers and you will be finding out if there is something that bothers them. You start hearing the same answers to any of these 5 survey questions across a large number of surveys, and you’ll know exactly what you need to work on…and isn’t that what a survey should cause to occur?
one thing they would change if they could. And you want this in THEIR WORDS. This is incredibly valuable information. You will be finding out what is important to your customers and you will be finding out if there is something that bothers them. You start hearing the same answers to any of these 5 survey questions across a large number of surveys, and you’ll know exactly what you need to work on…and isn’t that what a survey should cause to occur?Quality over quantity is my feeling about survey taking. I’ll take 50 well thought out, completed surveys over 500 done quickly and with little thought.
This is why I believe a small business survey should be done on paper, with a cover letter from the owner explaining the importance of the survey. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope for returning the completed survey, and make sure the letter informs the reader that you, the owner, will read and review each survey personally. I would make sure a good cross-section of new and long-time customers receive them. You shouldn’t need to reward customers to get them to fill them out. If the cover letter is honest and conveys the importance of the survey to you, you’ll get the response you need, without incentive.
I have developed and written a large number of surveys over the years. If you want to do one for your business and would like some assistance, drop me a line or give me a call.