As an entrepreneur, you understand your products. You believe in your goals. But the question must be asked: do you really know your clients?
As a leader, you may have a million ideas running through your head at any given moment. Knowing which of those ideas are actually important to your customers must be part of your business strategy and development.
One of the most effective ways to learn about your patrons is to have them do the work for you! By utilizing an online survey format that is fun and engaging, you can gain insights from current and potential clients while helping them learn more about your business. Win-win!
How can a customer survey help your company?
- Generate content and validate the effectiveness of your branding
- Learn the needs and pains of your client base and better target your remedy
- Discover the language your customers use to dialogue about your products
- Reveal the direct competition in your market
- Show you truly care about your customers by valuing their opinion!
Crafting The Perfect Survey That People Want To Fill Out
Have you ever seen a “How Are We Doing?” survey card that comes with the check at some restaurants? Have you ever actually filled one out? Of course not! They are cumbersome, long, and feel impersonal. Even if you fill it out, do you believe that anything would really change?
When you develop a survey to gain insight into your market, you must create and implement a design that is built with your market in mind! Here are three steps to creating an online survey that people actually want to fill out:
1. Take A Pre-Survey Survey
When it comes to creating a survey, create with your buyers in mind. Before you design, gather several key individuals in your business sphere – consistent customers, stakeholders, or employees – and ask their opinion on what questions should be asked.
Don’t assume you know what your people want to hear! You may be surprised at what questions your stakeholders actually want to answer. Robert Cialdini, in his work on persuasion and influence in the marketplace, notes that people are likely to say yes to a prompt when they are reading content written in words they recognize!
2. Design To Delight
Once you’ve collected information from your stakeholders, it’s time to begin to create the survey questions that will make up the meat of your survey. Just as important as what questions you ask is how you ask them. If your questions are too vague or difficult to answer with a gut response, those taking the survey are likely to stop or leave the survey before finishing.
So what are some good guidelines for creating a delightfully designed survey?
Pick A Proven Survey Builder
When it is time to build your survey, pick an online form builder that has proven to be easy to use and effective in reaching your audience. You can use any simple survey maker like AidaForm (sign up here), SurveyMonkey or even a Google Form. No matter which form builder you use, make sure it will reach your intended audience on the medium they use most often – social media, websites, or email.
Ask Quick and Easy Demographics Questions First
By asking simple questions first, your respondents will begin to get in an answering rhythm and are more likely to continue into more subjective questions. These questions will also provide helpful demographic information for later reviews of your survey. Just don’t include too many of these and overwhelm your audience!
Don’t Ask Leading Questions, Imply Assumptions, Or Confuse
“Are you sure you don’t want to not pick this answer?” What? Your customers are smarter than you think, and they can pick up on surveys that are attempting to lead them to a specific answer or confuse them. Avoid blowing the integrity of your survey or your company by ensuring that your questions are honest and take all views into account. People respond to humility and transparency!
Fast, Simple, and Rewarding Is Best
You are busy, and so are your clients. Don’t waste their time with long-winded surveys that ask the same question in six different ways. Make sure that your survey is short, and appealing to the eyes of those taking it!
Want to give your respondents another reason to stick around to the end of the survey? Offer an incentive such as a gift card or giveaway that will help your customers answer honestly and fully!
3. Review, Revise, Relaunch
Once you’ve sent out your survey and begun to receive responses, it’s time to review the data you are receiving. Are the surveys being filled out completely? Are your respondents skipping any questions? Is the survey being started but not finished?
Like any part of your business strategy, your surveys must be constantly reviewed and updated in order to remain relevant. This is why launching your survey with a few, committed stakeholders giving input is vital! Don’t leave the research and development phase to your patrons alone.
You may be building the plane as you are flying it, but at least you’ll know the wings and landing gear are good to go!
It Pays To Ask!
You may be afraid to step into the world of online surveys because of your own experiences in the past, or the experiences of others you have heard about. However, it is clear that to succeed in the competitive marketplace, you need to know your clients even better than you know your products.
When you take the time to serve your audience, they will serve you with their business!
