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The Survey Says - Or Does It?

The dreaded customer satisfaction survey, you send them out year-on-year and see falling response rates year-on-year. But have you considered why response rates are falling and what you can do about it? After all, the fate of your business can depend on the responses you receive.

When email surveys were first developed, it was innovative and saved time spent going from person to person asking questions. However, time has moved on, and the majority of people consider email surveys to be spam or not worth their time - most people don't even open them. This means that response rates are low and the insight gained from them is very limited.

So let's take a look at some of the myths surrounding email surveys.

Myth 1 - Surveys should always be long - they've been that way forever

Traditionally, surveys consist of 10 questions and were originally developed in this format in the 1940s. This was revolutionary in the post-war era, but since then, no one has really challenged this format.

However, stretching what you need into 10 questions can lead to repetition; try asking only what you need the answer to. It could be as simple as one question, for example, "On a scale of 1-5, how easy was the ordering process?". If you receive a large number of low ratings, you know your ordering process needs work.

Remember: asking unnecessary questions will disillusion those taking the survey. Keep it to the point.

Myth 2 - Everyone having an input will bring benefits to all

Survey designers can feel as though theyre not getting the full picture if they're keeping it short. After all, knowing how your customers feel about your ordering process doesn't give you information about which areas of the ordering process are working better than others, and it also doesnt tell you how well your sales team are performing, or if your customers like the quality of the products.

This can lead to longer surveys that contain questions from every department in the business, just to ensure all the important questions are answered. Also known as the "Frankensurvey" - a long, oversized collaboration of parts that were put together in a quest for perfection.

However, these long surveys can lead to a drop in participation or an increase in "Not Applicable" answers. After all, someone buying from you online might not be able to answer questions about how clean your shopfront is or how well laid out your products are. To avoid this, think of the areas of your business that the respondent used and ask them relevant questions about their exact experience with you. If a certain department didn't have any part in the customer's journey, why do they need to be included in the survey?

Myth 3 - Not everyone will respond, that's OK, just ask more people

You might find that your response rate is lower than you expected, which can lead to the incorrect assumption that you just need to ask more people. However, this way of thinking could lead to even lower response rates as your audience now feels as though youre desperate for their attention (Imagine a small child going through the "why" phase). Receiving a feedback survey immediately after buying from you, again one week later, and again after a month is only going to increase one thing: your unsubscribe rates.

Let's think of this another way. You want to have a representative number of responses, after all, one negative response doesn't mean you need to change your whole business model. So, if you decide you want 250 responses, with a typical response rate of 1%, you would need to send out 25,000 surveys. Unless you have at least that many customers, you need to realise that you're going to receive fewer responses than you're hoping for.

Myth 4 - All of these stats are useful, so I need all of them

Your Frankensurvey has had responses, and the sheer amount of data you've amassed has vindicated the length of the survey. You know all there is to know about your business, its processes, and how customers view their journey with you.

But, what's missing from it? Clarity. Are you sure the customer is satisfied if you're asking them questions that have nothing to do with their overall satisfaction?

If you're asking about the finer details of their experience with your business, how do you know whether the overall experience was good or not? For example, you now know that your sales team were excellent, your customer services team were prompt in their responses, that the shipping speed was satisfactory, and that the product was well designed. However, what you dont see is that the overall process was too long, so the customer had to contact customer services several times, chasing their order. Therefore, even though the individual areas of your business work well independently, there are areas of your business that need improvement.

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