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 Survey the Scene: Writing A Customer Survey
By Anna Precht Traylor As you know, a survey is a quick and easy way to gain insight into what your customers think about your business. In order for it to be effective, however, it is absolutely critical that you write the right kinds of questions. If your questionnaire isn’t well planned and well written, you’ll likely end up wasting time and energy and find yourself sifting through meaningless data. To get the most out of your survey, follow these important tips. Before You Write a Question Many small business owners start their survey writing by drafting questions. Big mistake! With neither an anchoring focus nor a rudder for direction, their surveys end up floating aimlessly. Before you write a single question, write down your goals and objectives. This is a crucial first step in your questionnaire process. When followed, it ensures that as you write specific questions, you’ll always have a well-defined research structure that adheres to your governing ideas. Examples of goal-oriented statements to start you off include:
Don’t risk having readers toss your survey in their deleted mail folder; make sure they actually respond. To do so, you need an effective and compelling invitation message. First, don't include words that are typically associated with marketing email or worse spam, like "Free" or "Act Now" in the subject line. In the body of your email, include the Who, What, Why, and How of your survey: The Who: Your business’ name and all contact information should be in the message. The What: Explain what topic your questionnaire covers. The Why: Whether it’s to improve products or better meet customer needs, tell readers why you’re interested in their thoughts. The How: Give simple, straightforward instructions on how they can complete the survey. Also, if you’re offering an incentive for customers who take the survey, of course, include that information as well. How to Ask the Questions The content of your questions will depend on your specific industry and survey topic, but the best qualities of question writing are universal: Keep it short. Your customers are busy and will get bored and overwhelmed with a survey that goes on and on. Limit each survey to a very specific topic with a few pointed questions. Keep questions concise. Any questions that require considerable explanation or clauses and parenthesis are likely to confuse your customer and decrease the likely that they’ll answer. If they have to work to figure out what you’re asking, chances are they won’t. Be specific. Ambiguous, wishy-washy questions will result in vague, useless data. Keep it simple. Leave your technical and industry jargon in your office reports. Use layman’s terms when talking to your customers. Limit open-ended questions. Too many fields for “Other” or “Additional Comments” will flood you with data or intimidate your respondents. Maintain strict parameters for responses and add an optional field at the end for closing comments if you feel it’s necessary. Make “skip options” extra clear. Statements like “If you answered ‘Yes’ to question 5, please skip to question 12,” may lose participants if not done well. Make the process easy to follow and intuitive to understand. Be consistent. Don’t alternate back and forth between topics of questions or types of queries. Keep your multiple-choice questions together and scales of agreement/disagreement together so that a natural flow is maintained. What To Avoid
Once you have written your questions, give them to various friends and colleagues. Ask them to report on which specific items seem problematic and how they experienced the general flow of the survey. Once you incorporate their suggestions, you’re ready to get the value data your customers’ opinions will provide. Print This Page | Email This Page |
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