Datalerious – Helping you make sense of your data

Customer surveys are a great way to get feedback to help you understand if your product or service is actually helping your customers, and if they’re satisfied with it. However, surveys can take time – both for customers to complete, and for you to develop, collect responses, and analyze those responses. So, it’s in the best interest of both your customers and you to keep your surveys as to the point as possible. The best 3 questions to ask are about: Current satisfactionAny areas for improvementIf they’d recommend it to a friend You can really write any questions you want for your own survey. But you really should focus on the critical questions. As a starting point, surveys are generally done to understand customer satisfaction (current situation) and areas for improvement (future situation). In other words: is what we’re doing now good enough, and if not, how can we improve things? 1. Current satisfaction “Were you satisfied with the [product/service?]” This is a really straightforward question to ask, and also for customers to answer. It also gives you a clear indication of the overall satisfaction of your product/service. It lets you know that you’re on track with what you’re currently doing. Or, if you’re way off base. But, if you’re way off base, it doesn’t let you know how or why. Which leads to the next question… 2. Areas for Improvement This one is a little trickier. It is very tempting to ask “How can we improve our product/service”. But remember that your customer’s perspective is different than your own. You’re the expert in your field, so you’re looking at the areas for possible improvement from the advantage point of having more information about the tools and strategies that are available to improve your own products/services. However, your customer’s perspective is about the issue that brought them to use your product/service in the first place. There was SOMETHING that made want to use your product/service, something that your product/service could fix or improve for them. So, did your product/service actually fix that something for them? And if not, why not? That’s what you want to focus on. If your product/service didn’t help them, or it didn’t help them enough, how can it be more relevant to your customers’ needs? Now, because this is trickier information to gather, it also means that there isn’t just one way to ask this question. You’ll want to get creative with how you ask this, so that it’s still easy for your customer to answer, but also gives you valuable and useful information. If you’re asking about a physical product, you could focus on some of the physical attributes or specifications. Is the size appropriate, is it the wrong colour, does it work the way it was supposed to? You could ask, “Are you still using the [product]? If no, why not?” If you’re asking about a service or program that you offered, you could ask if the service or program met their expectations, and if it didn’t why not? Asking “why not” is a big question. You’re don’t really know what type of answers you’re going to get. However, it provides enough flexibility for your customers to really provide their own opinions. Yes, you may have to read through more detailed answers – but it’ll be worth it to understand your customers concerns from their own perspectives. 3. If they'd recommend it to a friend "Would you recommend this [product/service] to a friend?" In my opinion, this is the best way of finding out quickly if your product/service is a) good quality, and b) helpful. Asking if they’d use the product or service again themselves is one thing – but finding out if they’d actually recommend it to someone else puts that recommendation on a different level. I would never recommend a bad product or service to someone else; in fact, I’d recommend they DON’T use it! Asking about a product/service recommendation is not just about your product/service, but it also puts your customer’s opinion on the line as well. They’re likely only going to want to suggest good quality items to their friends. So, finding out if your product/service is in that category is extremely helpful to you. Conclusion Focus on what you really want to know and only ask questions that are going to give you good information to work with. Never ask a question because it would be interesting to know – focus on what you need to know. This lets you know if you should keep on doing what you’re doing (because you’re doing it well), or if you need to change something. And always have a plan about how you’re going to use the information you’re collecting. For every question you ask, ask yourself how you’re going to use the information you’ve collected. Is it actually going to tell you something meaningful? Developing survey questions can challenging. On one hand, you have the flexibility to ask any questions that you want. On the other hand, you want to make it as meaningful as possible for both you and your customers. Staying focussed on what you’re trying to find out is key. And asking the above three questions is a great way to stay focussed on gathering information that’s going to be most helpful for you.

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