The Keys to Asking the Right Questions in Customer Surveys
Customer loyalty isn’t just a modern business catchphrase – it can be the difference between success and failure in competitive markets. Creating a customer experience that breeds loyalty results in a higher referral rate as well as increased customer retention. Customer surveys are key to building that loyalty.
In today’s socially connected, information-heavy world, businesses can get ahead by gathering insightful customer feedback. And this insight starts with asking the right questions.
4 Ways Brands Go Wrong When Creating Customer Survey Questions
Coming up with the right questions to ask in customer surveys to get truly insightful responses is not easy. First, avoid these four mistakes:
1. The answer scale isn’t aligned with the question
For example, if you are asking a yes/no question, the answer choices shouldn’t be a scale from 1 to 6 – the answer choices should be yes, no and I don’t know. Make sure the answer choices make sense in the context of the question.
2. Asking leading questions
Leading questions – that is, questions that consciously or subconsciously prompt the answer for the reader – will not get you accurate customer survey responses.
For example, if you ask, “How satisfied are you with the following products?” the word “satisfied” may trigger an artificially positive response.
You’re looking for honesty in your customer surveys – not just positive responses. A better question to ask would be, “Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the following products?” and provide a scale for the survey-taker to rate their experience.
3. The answer scale is out of balance
Make sure that both ends of an answer scale are equally weighted.
For example, in this question, “How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the following products, on a scale of 1-6, where 1 is dissatisfied and 6 is very satisfied,” you should put “very” in front of “dissatisfied” to balance the imperative of the answers.
4. The customer survey questions are too general
This is probably the most common mistake we see companies making when drafting survey questions. To get accurate, helpful feedback from customers, you need to make the questions as specific as possible.
For example, this question would be far too general: “How much time do you take when putting together a dinner party?” After all, there are multiple factors involved in hosting a dinner party, from buying ingredients, preparing the food, eating the meal, cleaning up afterwards… the list goes on. Your survey question should be much more specific in order to result in useful customer insight.
The #1 Rule in Crafting Customer Survey Questions
The number one, most important rule when you are creating a customer survey is to ask questions that are relevant to the purpose of your study.
Eliminate unnecessary questions by putting them through this filter. Ask yourself and ask your team:
“How are we going to use the results from this specific question?”
If you can’t answer that question in a satisfactory way, remove the question from the survey. Keep it on file to use in a future survey, but don’t use it when it’s not helpful to the purpose of your study.
The difference between useful and non-useful questions can often be the difference between “need to know” and “nice to know.” If you need to know the answer, include the question. If the insight would be nice to have, but is not necessary to your study, remove the question.
Are you ready to create customer surveys that count? Learn more about creating online surveys for the 21st century with Questback.
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