Customer satisfaction is a never-ending commitment. It does not end when you get an NPS above 50 or a great social media testimonial. How do you know if your customers are consistently satisfied with your products or services?
By asking questions.
Customers’ feedback drives key business decisions, influences growth maps, and ensures sustainability in the long run. We have compiled the best practices for customer satisfaction surveys to help you gauge customers’ opinions and make decisions that count.
Customer Satisfaction Survey Best Practices
1. Choose the Right Type of Survey
Identify your goals before you start conducting surveys. Decide what you want to know and choose a survey type that suits you the best. No two surveys have the same purpose. If you want a bird’s eye view of customer experiences, CSAT and NPS surveys would be the best options. If you want to drill down to the specifics, you can use a CES survey. You can use customer satisfaction surveys for both micro and macro-level analyses. Choose the right survey based on what kind of answers you want.
User sampling is equally important in satisfaction surveys. It doesn’t make sense to send the same survey to all your users. Bucket your users based on parameters like where they are in the customer lifecycle and what products and services pertain to them. Identify the right audience to make sure you get responses relevant to your objective.
2. Choose the Right Questions
Ask the right questions to ensure that your surveys don’t fall in the blind spot of your customers. Survey questions should be personalized, specific, and to the point. If vague, you will receive answers that are ambiguous and assumed. Say you want to know if a knowledge base article is effective. Which out of these two can give you a direct answer?
- On a scale of 0 to 10, how helpful was this article?
- Did the article help you find what you were looking for? Yes/No
The second option. Each survey is valuable, but some are more suited than the other, depending on the situation. It’s important to put thought into choosing and drafting the perfect survey question to get what you want. No matter the type of survey, keep the questions quick, crisp, and specific. Customers may have a short attention span – don’t overdo. Using a combination of open-ended, closed, and multiple-choice questions will help your users express themselves better.
3. Time your Surveys Properly
Timing is a crucial part of your surveys. You should neither be early or late, but be there at the right time. To gauge the user experience for a new launch, give customers enough time to get the hang of the product. The results of an equation matter only when all the variables are accurate. Watch the customer journey closely and identify the ideal moments to ask for feedback. What’s ideal depends on what kind of information you want. You can send a survey right after an agent closes a ticket to gauge the effectiveness of the resolution. Anytime later will not give accurate results as the customer could have forgotten the experience.
Similarly, asking these questions early can only give you half-baked results leading nowhere. With continuous trials, you can understand how to time your surveys perfectly.
4. Restrict the Number of Surveys and Questions
Conducting surveys has become easy. You can even sidestep and use automation to trigger pre-scheduled surveys. This leads to survey fatigue, which refers to customers’ indifference in their answers when overwhelmed or bored with surveys. Some think that the more you ask, the better. With surveys, this is not true. Well-crafted, well-placed surveys show your customers that you care about their opinions.
5. Act on the Survey Results
Companies put the most effort into effective feedback management and not so much into action. All the feedback is worth the effort only if translated into improvement efforts. Customers’ opinions and feedback can be valuable additions to decision-making in your business. Always ask yourself what to do with the feedback once you get it. Does it help you solve or overcome potential problems? If your answer is no, reevaluate the process. You can use tools like HappyFox Business Intelligence to process the feedback into clear insights.
6. Follow up With Customers About the Progress
Surveys should not be a one-way street. They are opportunities to interact more with your customers. A survey loop is closed only when you take action/arrive at an action plan and inform respondents about the progress. Customers are wary of automated and impersonal surveys. What could differentiate you is thanking your customers for the feedback and informing them of the meaningful efforts their feedback has brought forth. Show customers that their feedback matters and they will continue to provide it.
Conclusion
Customer satisfaction surveys help you eliminate assumptions and make way for ideas you never thought of before. Customers know what they want. All you need to do is ask them. Surveys are the closest you can get to your customers’ perception of your business.
HappyFox Help Desk lets you create great customer experiences. Deliver your vision of exceptional customer service, increase satisfaction, and establish yourself as a customer-centric brand. Schedule a custom HappyFox demo to explore more about our offerings!
