Creating a feedback survey is easy. You can ask your customers, employees, and social media followers anything you want, whenever you want. But getting them to answer your questions? That’s a whole different ball game.
In this post, we’ll look at some feedback survey best practices to help you get the most honest and useful responses.
1. Make your surveys short
People are busy. They don’t have time to take a 30-question survey.
Keep your surveys short and sweet. This is especially important for customer feedback surveys, but it’s a good rule of thumb for most types of surveys.
Not only will short surveys be more convenient for your respondents, but they’ll also be easier for you to create. When you have a clear goal in mind for your survey, you can focus your questions on that specific goal and avoid the temptation to add in unrelated questions that will only make your survey longer.
2. Ask one question at a time
Asking multiple questions in a single survey can lead to confusion and make it difficult for respondents to provide accurate feedback.
It’s better to ask one question at a time so respondents can focus on that question and provide a thoughtful answer.
If you have a lot of questions to ask, consider creating a multi-page survey and asking a few questions on each page. This can help to break up the survey and make it feel more manageable for respondents.
3. Avoid asking leading questions
Leading questions are questions that suggest a particular answer or contain a built-in assumption. They can unintentionally skew your survey results and make your data less reliable.
For example, asking, “How much do you love our new product?” assumes that the respondent loves the product. Instead, you could ask, “What do you think of our new product?” to get a more accurate answer.
Before you finalize your survey questions, review them to make sure you’re not asking leading questions.This is especially important when creating an exit survey, where unbiased feedback is essential for understanding user dissatisfaction or reasons for churn.
4. Ask open-ended questions
Open-ended questions are questions that can’t be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” Instead, they encourage survey-takers to provide their own answers, in their own words.
Open-ended questions are crucial for getting detailed, qualitative responses in your surveys. They can help you understand the “why” behind a customer’s answer to a multiple-choice question, and they can help you uncover problems and solutions you may not have anticipated.
5. Ask for actionable feedback
The best feedback is specific and actionable. It’s easy to say “this was great” or “I didn’t like this” and leave it at that. But, that feedback doesn’t tell you how to improve.
So, when you write your questions, be sure to ask for details. Ask what specifically was great and what specifically could be improved. If you’re asking for feedback on a specific feature or product, ask how it could be better.
You can even go a step further and ask what they would like to see next. This can help you understand what your customers’ needs are and how you can meet them.
By asking for specific feedback, you can get more actionable insights that can help you improve your business.
6. Use scales to measure customer satisfaction
Scales are a great way to measure customer satisfaction. You can use a scale to measure how satisfied your customers are with your products or services, or how likely they are to recommend your brand to a friend.
Scales are easy for customers to understand and can help you quickly gauge how your customers feel about your business. You can use a 1-5 scale, a 1-10 scale, or even a 1-100 scale, depending on your needs.
7. Make sure your survey is mobile-friendly
We’ve all experienced the frustration of trying to fill out a survey on a mobile device that wasn’t optimized for it. You have to zoom in and out, and the text is so small you can’t read it.
In today’s digital world, a mobile-friendly survey is a must. You want to make sure your survey looks good and is easy to complete on any device. This includes smartphones, tablets, and desktops.
8. Choose the right time to send the survey
The timing of your survey can have a big impact on the quality of the responses. If you send a survey too soon, people may not have had time to think about their experience. But if you wait too long, they may have forgotten important details.
For example, you might send a customer satisfaction survey immediately after a customer makes a purchase. But if you’re asking employees about their experiences at a company event, you might wait until the next day to send the survey.
You can also use survey tools to schedule when your survey will be sent. That way, you can set it up in advance and make sure it goes out at the right time.
9. Follow up with customers
Finally, don’t be afraid to follow up with customers who take the time to fill out your feedback survey.
You can use the responses from your survey to identify areas where a customer may have had a poor experience. In these cases, a follow-up email (sent addresses that have been checked for validity using an email verification tool) or phone call can be a great way to address the problem and show the customer you value their feedback.
In addition, following up with customers can help you build stronger relationships with them, and it can also help you gather more in-depth feedback.
Conclusion
Feedback surveys are a great way to learn from your customers and make improvements to your business. So, make sure you take the time to create a well-thought-out survey and use our tips to increase the number of responses you get.
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