The Dos and Don’ts of Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Customer satisfaction surveys are a powerful and effective tool that every business can have at their disposal. They allow you to monitor your company’s performance and catch issues early on, helping you ultimately boost your customer retention and purchase frequency. Surveys give you insights into what your customers are thinking, but only if you conduct them in the correct way.

We’re going to cover the dos and don’ts of completing customer satisfaction surveys correctly.

How to maximize the effect of customer satisfaction surveys

Do: Surveys over the phone

Don’t: Surveys via email

If you are looking to boost customer retention and purchase frequency, then it’s crucial to conduct your customer satisfaction surveys over the phone. The great thing about actually talking to someone is that if anything is unclear for either party, you can ask questions to understand exactly what is meant by a comment. Plus, phone surveys provide a better sample. At Winsby, we typically reach a customer on the phone on every third call. When we talk to someone and ask if they would take our brief survey, 97% agree to take the survey, versus a typical response rate of less than 2% for email surveys.

Do: Use a third party

Don’t: Conduct the surveys yourself

The next tip for doing customer satisfaction surveys is to use a third party rather than your own employees. If a company calls their own customers, those customers might be more inclined to sugarcoat their issues or not be completely honest about where they want to see improvement in your operation. When a third party calls them asking about products and services, they are much more likely to be candid.

Do: Focus heavily on your script

Don’t: Use a generic survey

You won’t be able to increase your customer retention or purchase frequency if your customer satisfaction surveys aren’t detailed and tailored to your specific business. When developing your survey questions, think about what is most important to your customers. Things like timeframe, quality, billing, turnaround, availability, and similar aspects are typically important to customers across all industries. Make sure your questions are not too general and that they are relevant to your company and industry.

Do: Ask details about unhappy survey responses

Don’t: Ignore what your customers tell you

Customer satisfaction surveys reveal areas of your business and operation that need to be improved. Whenever a survey score is low, your third party should ask for details to uncover what they are unhappy about and what the best way of fixing the problem would be.

Do: Focus heavily on your script

Don’t: Sit on the information

Customer satisfaction surveys remove obstacles that are preventing growth in your business by helping you understand what your customers are thinking and how you are filling their needs. But only if you actually use the information. You have to share responses (especially negative ones) with the relevant teams, so that they can take the proper steps to fix any issues.

If you want to start boosting customer purchase frequency and retention, then contact Winsby today about our customer satisfaction surveys.