Crafting Surveys That Work

You probably have a good handle on what individual customers think about your product just from the support emails you answer. But support cases are a tough place to get a general sense of what all of your customers are thinking. For that, you’ll want to use some sort of survey.

Here’s a few simple things to keep in mind as your crafting your survey so it’ll actually work.

1) Keep them short.

Your survey should be drop dead simple because happy people usually don’t answer long ones.  The only time I’ve ever taken more than 5 minutes to fill out a survey is when my Internet company screwed me over.

2) Don’t use the word “satisfaction”.

When I’m in a hurry and want to buy a product at the cheapest price, I head to my local Wal-Mart. It’s not a great experience by any means but since I can get that product quickly and cheaply, I’m generally satisfied with that experience. Just because I’m satisfied doesn’t mean I like it.

A better gauge is “happiness”, even though the support industry is on the verge of over-using it. Instead of asking if a customer is satisfied with you, ask if they’re happy. It’s a small wording tweak but a powerful one.

3) Let them talk.

For one of your questions, have a freeform box where customers can write whatever they want you to know. Don’t feel like you have to make every question only have a standard set of answers. Those yes/no questions have their place but always let the customer tell you what they really think using their own words.

4) You don’t have to ask every customer.

Break customers into survey groups. Send out a survey to a specific group and leave the others alone. It’ll help prevent customers from getting survey burnout.

And add a link to the survey on your site so customers can take it even if you didn’t send them a direct link to it. They’ll love having a place to let their voice be heard.

5) Ask good questions.

Seems like a dumb one, right? But you’d be surprised at some of the useless survey questions I’ve seen. You don’t want to throw in every question that pops into your head.

Only ask questions that give you information to act on. For example, do you need their email address? Probably not so don’t ask for it in a question.

Practice makes perfect

The more surveys you create, the more you’ll be able to fine tune them. If a survey didn’t quite work for one survey group, tweak it and send it to the second one. It’s exactly like A/B testing your website. You’ll test things to learn what wording and such gets you the most answers on your surveys.

What tips and tricks have you learned from surveys you’ve sent out?