According to Linchpin, altering customer expectations is one of the biggest challenges the transportation industry will have to overcome in 2021.
Keeping this challenge top of mind, many are conducting a transportation company Voice of Customer (VoC) survey to offer exceptional value to their passengers.
With 75% of Americans planning to travel in the next six months, there is perhaps a no better time to measure areas of satisfaction and opportunity within transportation services.
Continue reading as our VoC market research company discusses the step-by-step process of a survey we conducted for a shortline railroads holding company.
The Challenge
The transportation company conducted a customer survey in 2014. However, with changing customer expectations they could no longer rely on the outdated data.
It would not be beneficial to implement sales, marketing, or business initiatives on insights that are no longer valid.
The shortline railroads holding company needed new data to address:
- Holes in service
- Satisfaction levels
- Likelihood to recommend (NPS)
- Issues to correct
- Awareness of service offerings
The Solution
To address the challenges of the client, our customer satisfaction market research company recommended conducting a VoC study.
There are various approaches to collecting customer feedback such as online surveys, phone surveys, in-depth interviews, and more.
Based on the client’s budget and objectives, Drive Research recommended an online methodology.
Doing so, our team was able to create an email survey invitation and send a message to current and previous customers as well as prospects of the transportation company.
We also recommended an online survey because they are the most cost-effective market research methodology that also delivers quality feedback for clients.
Recommended Reading: The Ultimate Guide to Customer Satisfaction Surveys
The Approach
The transportation company Voice of Customer survey followed a streamlined approach we implement with many clients.
Kickoff Meeting
The transportation company and the Drive Research team met to discuss the objectives of the research.
These types of conversations help frame the survey design to assure the client earns the type of insight needed to improve customer satisfaction.
Survey Design
After the kickoff meeting, our market research team begins drafting survey questions. In this case, the survey questions included open-ended questions, closed-ended questions, and rating scales.
Examples of questions asked in a transportation company VoC survey include:
- What factors drive your choice of transportation companies?
- How does [CLIENT NAME] compare to other transportation companies?
- What is your level of satisfaction with [CLIENT NAME]?
- What words would you use to describe the transportation company?
The survey draft was approved by the client and added to our online programming software.
For more examples, read 8 Questions to Include in Your Voice of Customer Survey.
Fieldwork
Before our market research company distributed the survey, the client sent a pre-notice email with their contact list to prepare them for the upcoming survey.
This step helps respondents feel more comfortable and give Drive Research more brand recognition when sending an email survey invitation.
Past and present customers and prospects received the email and clicked the VoC survey link. The link was hosted on the Drive Research survey domain.
Reporting the Results
As fieldwork ended, our team began cleaning the survey data. We identify and remove any duplicate responses or illegitimate responses.
Once Voice of Customer survey insights was cleaned, we began reporting on the results.
The comprehensive market research report was sent to the client to review prior to hosting a debrief meeting.
Debrief Meeting
The transportation company and our team met for a final debrief meeting. During this meeting, the project manager walks through the report page-by-page.
In doing so, the client can ask any additional questions or for further context of the results.
Details of the transportation company VoC survey:
- 33 questions, ~9 minutes in length.
- VoC survey landing page hosted on surveys.driveresearch.com.
- The questionnaire included ratings, closed-ended, and open-ended questions.
- Fieldwork lasted from Friday, April 2 to Monday, April 12 (10-days).
- Included an invite, 2 reminders, and a final reminder from the client directly.
The Results
The Voice of Customer market research earned 29 responses. The results offer a 17.2% margin of error at the 95% confidence interval.
The VoC survey for the transportation company provided data to the following objectives:
- What is important to customers and what are the expectations?
- What are the brand associations, image, and value proposition?
- How does the brand compare to the competition?
- What are the communication preferences of customers?
The shortline railroads holding company received a comprehensive market research report.
The in-depth report includes components such a background and methodology, executive summary of themes with improvement areas, infographic, respondent persona, and next steps for market research.
At the end of the VoC market research report, our team included an appendix.
The appendix includes a link with available exports with question-by-question breakdowns of the survey results.
Contact Our Voice of Customer Market Research Firm
Drive Research is a national market research company specializing in Voice of Customer surveys and interviews. Our team partners with organizations of all industries to conduct qualitative and quantitative research studies.
Interested in learning more about our services? Contact our team below.
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Emily Carroll
A SUNY Cortland graduate, Emily has taken her passion for social and content marketing to Drive Research as the Marketing Coordinator. She has earned certificates for both Google Analytics and Google AdWords.
Learn more about Emily, here.
