Customer experience, perception, and likelihood to recommend are common market research buzz words used these days. Many organizations know the power of customer surveys and value they provide, but are you wondering if there is a "right" time to send a customer survey?
The short answer is yes.
However, the ideal time for one organization may not be the same for another. Customer research is not a "one size fits all" approach. The way a customer survey is sent, how often customer surveys are sent, and how often reporting is done can vary. It all depends on the goals and objectives of the market research.
For the purposes of this post, how often customer surveys are sent is the key focus. Learn more about the best times to send a customer survey and find out which is the best for your organization.
When is the "right" time to send a customer survey? Find out below!
Yearly Customer Surveys
For many organizations, conducting a yearly customer survey is ideal. This option great for organizations that want to assess key performance indicators (KPIs) every 12 months. This lets the marketing team, business development team, and management assess how initiatives performed and understand how metrics have changed on a yearly basis.
Why assess metrics every 12 months? This partially depends on how many survey responses are collected. As a market research company, we want to receive enough responses to draw meaningful key findings and recommendations. Response rates for most customer surveys range from 30% up to 75%. Yearly customer surveys are effective for organizations that reach a limited number of customers each year or organizations that reach thousands.
Quarterly Customer Surveys
Organizations that reach enough customers to draw meaningful key findings and recommendations from quarterly customer surveys may consider this approach. Quarterly customer surveys can be thought of as the next level from yearly customer surveys.
This approach lets the marketing team, business development team, and management measure the latest initiatives and KPIs on a quarterly basis. Quarterly customer surveys give a competitive edge to organizations that reach hundreds or thousands of customers each year, implement various marketing strategies each year, or are in a competitive market.
Ongoing Customer Surveys Sent After an Order is Received
Another option is to send each customer a survey after an order is received. There are a variety of ways this can be done. The organization can send a file of customer contacts to the market research company after an order is sent, or on a weekly or monthly basis. Or the customer invite can be triggered through a sales order or another action in your CRM tool.
Reporting for this type of ongoing study can be done as often as needed by the organization. This could include a live link to the data to see results as survey responses are submitted. This could also include reporting on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. This type market research offers a lot of customization to how often customer surveys are sent and how often reporting is done.
Customer Survey Best Practices
Tips When Sending a Customer Survey via Email:
There are five basic tips when sending a customer survey via email. Make the subject line relevant, keep the email short, put a link to the survey at the beginning of the email, inform the reader how long the survey takes, and offer contact information if questions arise. Learn more about the five tips when sending a customer survey via email.
Best Customer Survey Questions:
Wondering what the best customer survey questions are? We've got you covered! In a previous post our market research company wrote some of our favorite questions to include in a customer survey. The questions were separated into several categories including awareness and image, communication, competition, concept, customers, decisions, demographics or firmographics, key performance indicators (KPIs), lead generation, performance, testimonials, and website. Here are the best customer survey questions.
Common Customer Survey Mistakes:
An experienced market research company knows mistakes need to be avoided to ensure a successful customer survey project. Common customer survey mistakes include not asking customers for feedback, not benchmarking the results, conducting the customer survey in-house, not asking "tough" questions, making the survey overwhelming to complete, not thanking customers for their feedback, not taking next steps with the research findings, and using the results of the customer survey for bonuses. Learn more about the common customer survey mistakes to avoid.
Actionable Ways to Put Customer Survey Findings to Use:
Taking next steps with the findings of a customer survey project is crucial. The first step is to collect the feedback and the next is to do something with the results. Three actionable ways to put customer survey findings to use include following up with respondents, better understanding customer profiles, and integrating decision-making criteria into your marketing. Here's more on actionable ways to put customer survey findings to use.
An Inside Look at the Voice of Customer Survey Process:
Wondering what a customer survey project looks like from start to end? All customer survey projects begin with a kickoff call that covers the objectives of the research and the timeline for the project. After this, the survey is developed, the survey is programmed, the survey is tested, the survey is launched, reporting and analysis is completed, and then the findings are presented. Learn all about the customer survey process.
Customer Survey Market Research
Drive Research is a market research company that specializes in customer surveys. Want to learn more about our custom market research services? Learn how to contact us below!
Message us on our website
Email us at [email protected]
Call us at 888-725-DATA
Text us at 315-303-2040