Some companies don’t use customer surveys within their business for a number of reasons. One of these reasons is that they don’t believe their customers will respond.
Your customers aren’t responding because you’re not putting enough effort into it. Here are four small tweaks you need to make to immediately increase your customer survey response rates.
- More visibility: If you ask for in-store feedback then put the survey box in a high traffic area. Please understand I think all programs should be digital, not via a comment box, but I recognize some companies aren’t there yet. If you ask for feedback through email then change your email subject line. Make it fun and eye catching. Having “Survey: We Value Your Feedback” as your subject line will get you next to nothing.
- Advance warning: Leverage your frontline employees to plant the seed with the customer early in the relationship to make them aware that you will be asking for feedback. Let the customer know that you desperately need this feedback to continue delivering an amazing customer experience or to fix what’s broken.
- Timing: Make sure you are asking for feedback proactively and at the right time. For companies that operate a face to face business, try and collect as many email address and telephone numbers as possible. Whether you ask for feedback in person, phone or email you should aim to have the survey completed shortly after the customer experience. Doing this will allow you to recognize amazing customer service throughout your company and handle customer complaints immediately.
- Mobile: If you’re anything like me, I use my mobile phone for nearly everything including responding to surveys. Ensure that your survey is mobile responsive to make it an easy user experience for your customers.
Tip: For companies that are business to business survey your customers once a quarter or twice a year.
Double tip: In the beginning, don’t give out incentives to customers to fill out your survey. You want feedback from customers who are genuinely trying to help you not ones that are only trying to help themselves.
Triple tip: Use Net Promoter Score for all your customer survey needs.
Question: What one thing could you tweak to your current feedback process to increase response rates?