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Effective Customer Satisfaction Surveys Should Follow These 5 Rules

Bylori

5 guidelines for effective customer satisfaction surveysCustomer satisfaction surveys are an effective tool businesses can use to gauge success. A well-developed survey with a long-term strategy can provide valuable insight as to why customers selected your company, and how your business can strategize change to boost marketing ROI.  To be successful, however, a customer satisfaction survey should follow five guidelines:

  • Include a question to gauge overall customer satisfaction. This can give you a baseline from which you can measure results against future surveys. It also will direct respondents to think in terms of their impression of your company, products and services as a whole.
  • Use a simple scale. Often businesses use a scale from 1 to 5, with a thorough but brief description of what each number means. For instance, a “5” would be outstanding, whereas a “1” would be poor.
  • Remain consistent within each survey. Use the same or similar wording as well as a consistent scale throughout each survey to make it easier for customers to take and the results easier to measure. Stick with those decisions over time, so you’ll have long-term measurable results.
  • Be brief. Make sure you develop a survey with specific goals, and tailor the questions to help achieve those goals. If you try to cover too much and develop a survey that’s too long, your abandonment rate will increase.
  • Include questions that produce information about demographics. Information such as gender and age will help you develop subgroups to reach a more effective analysis of the survey results.

With a finely tuned survey in place, you’re set to reap the many benefits surveys deliver. Customer satisfaction surveys:

  • Garner real-time information about your customers’ satisfaction with your company, staff, and services.
  • Generate leads for future business.
  • Develop communication between your business and customers.
  • Give you targeted information to improve service.
  • Fine-tune product launches and services.
  • Develop resources that address customer concerns.
  • Improve customer satisfaction and increase customer retention.
  • Help you optimize your services according to your customers’ needs and further refine your niche.

Halo Programs can help your business develop customized customer satisfaction surveys. Our customer retention programs include recording the survey responses and we provide business analysis reports so you can measure customer satisfaction.

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