The most effective way to improve your products and services is to gain constructive feedback from your current customers. This way the improvements you make will be made not by your assumption of what your clients and customers desire, but by the areas of opportunity they identify.
An excellent way to gain both positive and constructive feedback is by conducting an online consumer survey. In a recent blog post by merchant services giant North American Bancard a few tips for writing your next consumer survey were provided.
Tip #1 Make Your Questions Short And To The Point
Don’t over complicate your questions. Many consumers are willing to participate in surveys, but if the questions are too complicated—and require more than one read through to comprehend, they may begin your survey, but not complete it.
Tip #2 Opt For Type-Free Answers
Instead of making your consumers type out every answer, offer multiple choice or a “on a scale of 1-5” so that they can quickly select their response. However, leave areas throughout where consumers can write additional comments if they desire.
Tip #3 Don’t Forget The N/A Option
The likelihood of some of your questions not applying to all of your consumers is high. For this reason, make sure that you have a “non-applicable” option. Otherwise, consumers may become frustrated with your survey—or will pick an option which provides you with inaccurate survey results.
To make your consumer surveys easy to access, send the online link out with your weekly or monthly email marketing campaign. You can also include a link to your survey to your receipts or promotional materials. To increase the odds of participation consider entering all participants in a raffle for a prize.
