Today you can find a huge number of ways to promote a site, product or service, so it’s becoming more and more difficult to dwell on one thing. There is a way out - to use many tools to one degree or another and then evaluate how effectively they worked. We will consider an important method of sociological research on the Web. This is a customer satisfaction survey survey survey.
What is an online survey?
Surely many of you have at least once seen questionnaires on the site regarding the quality of service or product, issues of relevance of content, site design, or your attitude to any problem. Perhaps for some of you, a similar online survey came by email? Did you answer the questions in the questionnaires or was this a waste of time for you?
In fact, customer surveys are a very effective way to get feedback from all over the world. Especially advanced companies organize skype conferences and focus groups in order to get to know their client base better . Not convincing? Then here are some of the most important advantages of this research method.
Benefits of Online Surveys
- You can evaluate customer satisfaction in a short time without waiting for him to contact you again for a purchase.
- You can evaluate several respondents at the same time using one questionnaire, which will greatly facilitate the work and save time for the interviewer.
- An online survey is much cheaper than a print one and practically does not require financial investments.
- It is possible to show various materials and presentations (videos, cards, photos).
- You can answer questions anonymously without contacting the interviewer.
- Of course, like any research method, evaluating customer satisfaction through the questionnaire has several disadvantages.
Disadvantages of Online Surveys
- In some cases, one may encounter a low level of representativeness of the sample, i.e. sometimes it is not clear in what status and financial situation the person being interviewed is, and for this you will have to ask questions that cannot always be answered honestly.
- The problem of interviewing older people, because few of them use Internet technology.
- The difficulties of conducting in-depth studies, since there is no way to ask clarifying questions.
But despite the prevailing conditions, customer satisfaction assessment using the questionnaire will be applied quite often. The most important thing is to make the questionnaire correct so that the respondent does not have questions during the filling process and wants to answer honestly and to the end. We will analyze the main steps that help to do this.
Step One - Motivate Survey Participants
Naturally, your audience can be busy with many other things and it will not want to solve your problems. Therefore, you need an effective means of motivation. Offer some kind of prize or discount for filling, depending on what you are selling.
Step two - ease of wording
Questionnaire questions should be simple, clear and easy to understand. Do not use complex wording or complex sentences. It is unlikely that someone will read the questions several times, and the meaning of the writing may be distorted by the respondent, which means that the assessment of customer satisfaction will be erroneous.
It is much easier to answer simple questions with several options or answers “yes” or “no”. Guide respondents in the direction you need. Offer opposite options, give the opportunity to evaluate one or another side of the activity on a ten-point scale.
Include open-ended questions that the respondent needs to answer on their own, but do not abuse them.
Step Three - Build a Questionnaire
The questionnaire to be sent, especially if it is a customer satisfaction questionnaire, should begin with a greeting. Better if it will be targeted. Next should be a block of social issues, clarification of gender and age, if necessary. Then there is a survey on the topic, starting with closed ones (with suggested answer options) and ending with open-ended questions. At the end, be sure to thank the participant for the response.
What should i avoid?
Firstly, these are the moments that you can figure out yourself. For example, how often the user visits the site or what he has already purchased in the store. On the basis of data on his purchases, you can even form an opinion about which news will interest him and which newsletters to send him.
Secondly, avoid questions about earnings and income, any personal moments (illness, intimate sphere, participation in anti-political activities), in other words, about those topics that a person is unlikely to answer openly.
Thirdly, do not overload the questionnaire with questions, at point 15 your respondent will get bored, and at the 20th point he will completely stop answering. The optimal number is 10.
Fourth, do not forget about the targetedness of your questionnaire. The respondent must understand what they are asking about, otherwise the meaning of the survey is lost.
And, finally, do not ask obvious questions that a person will answer positively for his own benefit. For example, would you like a discount or a gift?
In conclusion, I would like to note that customer satisfaction largely depends on your understanding of what he needs and what to offer him. Ignorance of the needs leads to the fact that you produce an unclaimed product, which means that you have no chance to get a satisfied, satisfied customer. The second point is to be adequately aware of your own strengths and weaknesses, and this can only be done through an opinion poll, i.e. questionnaires.