Conducting regular customer surveys can provide you with useful information about your target audience, your market, and your company.
You can find out if customers are satisfied with the products you offer if the support is helpful and what their needs are. This allows you to identify trends and opportunities for improvement and set customer loyalty targets.
But, when evaluating customer surveys, what criteria should you use to get the most out of them? This blog summarizes seven tips to help you successfully evaluate your next customer survey.
#1 Adjusting the results
You’ve done the survey and now have the results. Now all you have to do is summarize the answers and you are ready to go.
This may seem simple, but it is not recommended.
You should critically examine the results before presenting them to the outside world as a nice graph.
Yes, unfortunately, this is a manual job, so it takes more effort, but they are worth it, trust me. But what should you base your decision on? What are the signs of inadequate response and how best to spot them?
A fairly obvious sign of an inadequate response is an abandoned person’s questionnaire. It answers only part of the question and does not give the full picture.
For example, a person who is unable to provide expert information on a particular question may notice this and refrain from completing the questionnaire. For example, because they are not customers of your company.
To avoid biased results, the answers received should not be included in the evaluation. If a question causes many participants to drop out of the survey, you may have to come back to that question in a future survey.
Another important consideration is the target group. Specific target groups, such as new customers, are determined before the survey is conducted.
#2 Check Response rate
Another important indicator is the response rate. This shows how the results relate to the number of participants and whether your survey is representative.
The more people who participate in your survey, the more meaningful it will be. In general, the closer the relationship between the researcher and the participant, the more likely participants will want to participate in the research.
For example, employee surveys generally have a higher response rate than customer surveys because of this relationship. Therefore, it is also important here to consider whether you are interviewing new or existing customers. Existing customers have proportionally higher retention rates than new customers who have had little or no contact with your company.
Is the response rate significantly higher or lower than expected, including previous surveys? If so, look for possible reasons.
#3 Comparison and measurement
The survey has been completed. We now have a large amount of data. Initially, this is unclassified and irrelevant.
The first step is to classify the data to get a broad picture. How are parameters such as gender, age, and region distributed? To be as effective and efficient as possible, it is important to always be aware of your goals and objectives.
In this case, it may be useful to collect smaller groups or units and assess them separately. For example, locations can be assessed separately or new and existing customers can be looked at separately.
#4 Quantitative assessment
The following section describes the quantification. In other words, the first step is simply to quantify the results. The next step is to explain the content of the actual responses.
For closed questions, the evaluation is still relatively straightforward, especially when there are only two contradictory answer choices. How many customers voted for option 1 and how many for option 2?
However, even when there are multiple answer choices, they can be easily compared and tabulated. With a slider, it is even more difficult.
#5 Qualitative Assessment
In addition to quantitative data analysis, qualitative evaluation of results is also important. This is because only qualitative data can provide the detailed and in-depth information needed to fully understand the data and draw conclusions from it.
On the one hand, it can provide recommendations for product improvement, and on the other, it can show why some results are strong or weak.
Evaluating qualitative or open-ended questions requires more energy and time than evaluating closed-ended questions. However, it should always be time-consuming because it usually hides the most valuable questionnaire data and provides a better understanding of the reasons for respondents’ answers.
#6 Deliverable actions
Have you evaluated your survey results? Now you can relax and feel at peace.
Not really! Because now is the time to take the right steps. The results of your customer survey have identified some areas for improvement. Now it’s up to you to make the most of this opportunity.
For example, whether everyone still likes the feel of the product, whether the service is being questioned by some customers, or whether your company is struggling to establish itself in the market. You should then take these results seriously and put them into practice.
Unfortunately, in practice, it is often the case that research can be done but recommendations for practical action cannot be made. But this is the only time when customer research can provide practical benefits for you as a company and for your customers.
#7 Presentation of results
After you have analyzed and evaluated all the results and taken the appropriate measures, it is time to prepare and present the results.
First, consider to whom you will present the results. Relevant stakeholders could be, for example, supervisors, managers, or employees of certain departments, such as customer service.
This was not very common in the past but is becoming more and more popular. This reputation is passed on to the customer.
Customers are curious and naturally expect certain improvements to be made for them by taking part in the survey.
It is, therefore, useful to contact customers again at the end of the survey and inform them of the results and next steps. This ensures transparency and increases customer loyalty.
Conclusion
Only a thorough evaluation of the results of customer surveys can provide a solid basis for deciding on the necessary measures.
As much time as possible should therefore be spent analyzing the results, as this will ultimately have a positive impact on the business.
At HeyForm, we’ve built ready-made customer-related survey templates, to begin with. We’ve also made several other free online form templates for users like you. Get started for free today.