Most companies today have some form of customer survey program to collect information and ensure satisfaction. In some cases a business or consumer could literally be prompted multiple times a day for this purpose. So how can your company ensure that your survey is completed and you capture the information you need?
There are a couple of best practices you should keep in mind to help your survey stand out of from the crowd:
- Timing – In general, surveying your customer promptly after their interaction will help ensure the customer recalls their experience and details of the interaction. When possible, try to engage customers between 15 minutes to 72 hours after their visit or service.
- Length – The shorter your survey is, the more likely your survey will be completed. This is especially true if you tell the customer up front how many questions to expect. The survey methodology may dictate the acceptable length; an SMS (texting) survey should not exceed 4 questions, while an email or paper survey can be lengthier (we recommend no more than 9 questions). The type of survey may also influence the length. A simple post interaction survey should be 2-4 questions, but a customer satisfaction survey (e.g. after a large product purchase) could be longer.
- Contact channel – Different channels have different response rates and penetration. Email surveys are more likely to be lost or filed as spam, but are very unobtrusive for respondents. Text messages (SMS) typically have high response rates (up to 56%), but in some industries a client must have agreed to receive them. Other channels like IVR, apps, and direct mail have varying response rates and their own benefits and drawbacks. You should select a contact channel that meets your research criteria while providing the highest response rates possible.
- Incentives – Providing incentives to respondents will greatly increase your response and click-through rates. However, customer incentives are typically not encouraged as they can also introduce response bias. Respondents may think that providing positive results will increase their chances of earning the incentive. Our recommendation is to use other engagement techniques and only use carefully designed incentives when response rates are still extremely low.
Carlos Robledo
For more info on NICE Systems Voice of the Customer solution please visit www.nice.com/fizzback