Conducting customer satisfaction surveys provides brands with valuable data to improve their outreach strategies.
This can range from boosting customer service efforts to creating a seamless shopping experience. No matter how a brand uses customer survey data, the main goal is to always ensure the shopper has a pleasant experience.
In this blog post, we'll cover the basics of customer surveys, why they matter, and the 5 main steps to conducting them.
What Are Customer Satisfaction Surveys?
A valuable research method for any business, customer satisfaction surveys gather feedback to improve the customer's overall experience.
Typically, these surveys gather information on...
- Product/service quality
- Customer service efforts
- Key customer pain points
- Overall shopping experience
Using this information, businesses get a deeper look into what their customers are experiencing (versus just guessing). They will be able to understand what customers like and don't like, allowing them to create a better shopping experience.
Value of Conducting Customer Surveys
Brands have plenty to gain by running customer surveys...and plenty to lose by not conducting them.
Recent research shows that 91% of customers won't shop with a brand after just one poor experience. Thankfully, customer satisfaction surveys can help nip poor experiences in the bud.
Let's review some of their key benefits.
Improved Customer Retention and Loyalty
By highlighting customer pain points, preferences, and general opinions, these surveys ultimately lead to higher retention and loyalty rates.
Brands can use this data to make the necessary improvements within their company. As a result, customers are likely to be more satisfied with the brand. Thus, they continue to purchase from the brand again and again.
Furthermore, customers appreciate when their feedback is used to create a better shopping experience. This factor alone can also boost retention and loyalty rates.
Data-Driven Decision Making
Customer satisfaction surveys allow brands to make actionable, data-driven decisions.
Let's say a brand wants to create better customer outreach strategies, but they don't run any surveys. They will likely end up wasting time and money making changes that aren't backed by actual customer data.
To avoid this, the brand can invest in customer surveys, which will ensure they make changes that have a positive impact on their shoppers.
Competitive Advantage
Customer survey data also provides brands with a competitive advantage.
By implementing the survey data into their customer outreach methods, brands can create unique strategies that will help differentiate them from competitors.
On top of this, conducting customer surveys can also reveal current trends. This provides brands with ways to create innovative strategies that will help them stand out against rivals in the industry.
Continuously running customer surveys will help brands stay updated with these trends to ensure they don't fall behind.
Recommended Reading: Best Types of Competitive Assessments (+ Pros & Cons)
How to Conduct Customer Satisfaction Surveys
Customer satisfaction surveys follow the standard market research process. While these can be run internally, it's best to partner with a third-party team who's experienced in the field.
Step 1: Proposal
All customer satisfaction surveys need to start with a proposal.
A proposal highlights the key objectives of the market research, laying out the process, expectations, and deliverables. The proposal covers the timeline for the market research, and ultimately the cost of the customer satisfaction research.
Cost is dependent on the methodology, survey length, and the number of customers invited to participate.
Step 2: Kickoff
Once a third-party customer satisfaction survey firm is chosen, a kickoff meeting is hosted.
Either conducted by phone, video call, or in-person, a kickoff meeting reviews the market research process and officially launches the project.
The market research firm will also prepare an agenda to cover potential survey questions. Additionally, the CSAT company will recommend best practice questions, while also listening to the needs of the client.
Step 3: Set Up and Design
This is a crucial step in the customer satisfaction survey process. Here, the market research firm designs the survey script.
The company takes the feedback gathered from the kickoff meeting to design a unique customer satisfaction survey. This survey may include just a few short and simple questions, or could go into great detail on the customer experience (CX).
Step 4: Fieldwork
Now that the survey is finalized, a soft launch should be utilized to test the process.
This ensures everything is working correctly for the full-launch by sending out the survey to only a small pool of respondents. This is easier to do with a phone or online survey than a mail survey (due to printing and timeframes).
Once the test drive is complete, the full fieldwork begins. Cutting-edge market research firms like ours provide clients with 24-7 access to the data, so results can be checked up to the second.
Length of fieldwork ranges depending on methodology (online is short, phone and mail are longer).
Step 5: Analysis and Reporting
Once fieldwork is complete, analysis can begin.
Customer satisfaction survey analysis should break down results by demographics such as:
- Age
- Location
- Length of time being a customer
- Gender
While other demographics can be highlighted, the above are most common.
The market research report will include an executive summary of themes, recommendations, question-by-question results, and often an infographic. In some cases, the report may also include customer personas to help visualize the data.
Contact Our Customer Survey Company
Utilizing our years of combined experience in customer research, we'll partner with your team to create a unique survey based on the needs of your business.
To learn more about our market research services, get in touch with us today!
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Lark Allen
As a Content Marketing Specialist, Lark has a strong background and passion for creative, professional, and journalistic writing. She is also a self-proclaimed music freak and 90s enthusiast.
Learn more about Lark, here.
