3 Tips to Improve Customer Relationships Using Online Surveys
3 Tips to Improve Customer Relationships Using Online Surveys
Just as lead generation
is important, so is feedback gathering is too. Explore and test online surveys
and find what your customers are thinking about you.
You can ask your customers hundreds of potential questions, but remember that the best questions that you can ask will largely depend on your goals, as well. Asking too many irrelevant questions that are also too lengthy, or in the wrong format, can result in inaccurate and incomplete data. Without the correct information, you lose the value of an important tool, which should be bringing you crucial insights to improve customer satisfaction.
In the retail and hospitality
industry, your business should offer top-notch customer service. Once a
customer engages with your business, their first impressions will last, and
that is a singular opportunity to either sway them towards doing business with
you or otherwise. Which is why your business should always be prepared to
please both your potential and current customers by delivering great products
and services, right at the start of the first contact. But how can you predict
what people will expect from your business? Surely you cannot please everyone,
nor can you read their minds from your initial encounter. The best way to get
is by gathering your customers' feedback through forms and surveys.
Surveys and polls will tell you if
you are doing anything right or if your customers are not in favour of how they
have been serviced. Likewise, you can use surveys for:
- · Feedback on your products
and services
- · Conducting market research
- · Feedback on your customer
service
- · Gauging your employees'
satisfaction
With the trend of most transactions
going digital, alongside the prevalence of quarantine regulations, the best choice of
conducting your surveys should be online. Creating surveys or polls is
quick and easy, especially when you make use of online tools. There are many
free or paid services, but the latter offers additional features such as survey
logic, more data export choices, as well as fully customizable elements.
This is not to say you shouldn't
still be using phone calls, direct mail, or in-person surveys. Alternatively,
you can use them too if you think your customers will respond more through
them. Here are the benefits, as well as tips, on how you can improve
relationships with your customers using online survey forms:
1. More Efficient Feedback Gathering
· Speed. Conduct your data
gathering faster and receive equally quicker responses. Turnaround time can
almost be instantaneous since customer information can be gathered
automatically. You don't have to wait for paper questionnaires to be submitted
back to you, one-by-one. You can also send out hundreds of your feedback forms
all at once.
· Cheaper. Save on research costs,
postage, as well as allocating time and manpower to transcribe collated
information onto a database. Imagine being able to conduct market research at a
fraction of the cost.
· Accuracy. Answers on your questions
will not get lost in translation, as your customers enter their responses
directly into your survey tools. This weeds out human error from the
transcription, as well.
· Easier Analysis. Survey results can be
easily viewed at any time and be shared with anyone. They can also be monitored
even if they are still ongoing. This enables you to react faster to what needs
to be changed, as well.
2. Easier for Both Parties
These days, the convenience of
performing transactions online is almost everyone's preference – both for
businesses and customers. Expect nothing less from your customers, especially
when answering surveys. Let them do it at their own pace, and at their own
time.
On your end, save more time for
productivity by not having to wait on their reply. You can do other tasks in
the meantime. And when data does arrive, it can be quickly formatted to your
preferences, with seamless tracking of your respondents' information on their
name, and specific transaction.
You can also keep everything quiet
and private. Some customers will prefer to go straight to your staff, or worse,
up to your managers if they ever have issues with your services particularly
on-ground. However, most of the time, you'll get feedback privately and
anonymously through your feedback forms. And you should be thankful for these
gestures, as the last thing you want is an angry rant made in public.
You can read more about improving
customer relationships with regards to marketing analytics, here.
3. Unmatched Flexibility
Questionnaires that were printed out
limit the means to adjust to specific situations. Not only was the order of the
questions unchangeable, but the flow of the questions had to follow a specific
route, even if some questions were not relevant to a respondent's situation.
With online survey tools, you can have survey logic adjust your questions, with
some that can even be skipped without being seen, altogether.
That's how flexible online forms can
be created. They can be custom-made for your respondents and adjust on-the-fly
as each answer goes towards not just one, but different paths. This way, your
customers will feel that they're not just answering a generic poll but
something that is relevant to them where their feedback is deemed important.
Get Started
Here’s a quick list of 5 popular online
survey tools that you can check out and help you begin in creating your polls
and surveys. All of these are free but other premium features are available in
their paid plans. It’s recommended to test them and other similar platforms first
before deciding on one that you’ll eventually use for your business. Take note
too that many of these online survey tools have a month on month flexible plans
that allows you to downgrade, upgrade, and even cancel anytime.
·
Create unlimited surveys comprised of 10 questions and over
100 responses.
·
Automatic Scoring feature for user-created quizzes.
·
Can assist you in composing your survey questions.
·
Full-time customer support.
·
Make flexible survey forms, with Google Forms being a part of
Google's suite of office and productivity tools.
·
Be able to create a lot of surveys that can receive an
unlimited number of responses.
·
Add custom themes, templates, survey logic, and allow for
user collaboration.
·
Offers 4 key metrics for gathering information for your business:
§ Customer insights
§ Brand and market research
§ Product research
§ Employee experiences
·
Online reporting.
·
Get 10 questions per survey and 100 responses.
Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo)
·
Create 3 surveys with an unlimited number of questions and
100 responses per survey.
·
Customize your surveys with radio buttons, checkboxes, as
well as short or long answers to questions.
·
Have full-time access to their community forums.
· Easy drag and drop of
features that you want to add to your form. It is very user-friendly that is
why this is a favorite among non-technical users.
· One of its best features
is that it can be integrated into lots of other tools and software from Slack,
Zapier, Office 365, Google Suite, Facebook, Mailchimp, Hubspot, Salesforce, and
many more.
· They have a free forever
plan.
These are just some of the tools that
you can use for your surveys. There may be other tools which may be better
suited to your specific needs, but this initial list will definitely give you
an idea on how flexible and affordable your options are in terms of producing
your own surveys and polls.
Conclusion
As businesses invest more on going
online, feedback gathering also follows the same line. Adapt and go where your
customers flock to, and let them access your business from where they are. In
fact, building your online presence is already a sign that you are willing to
follow along where they need to see you. It is also telling them that you are
there to listen to them and cater to their needs. Online surveys are meant to
augment how we communicate with our customers, to be able to understand them
better.
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