What makes your business? Frankly speaking, it’s your customers. It’s like how fans are the reason why celebrities exist, because without them, such celebrities will not gain the fame they have now. And, that goes the same for your business. Without your customers, your business will not be able to thrive.
And, that all depends on how you market your company. There’s nothing more important than the opinion of the masses when it comes to marketing. After all, without the approval and buy-in of the public, it would be hard to get any product or concept off the ground. But, due to advancements in technology, there are plenty of choices at hand for businesses to choose from in order to gain such opinions: digital analysis, online analytical softwares and many more.
As I’ve talked about in my previous article regarding Website Diagnostic, there are many tools available online for you to analyse your business through your website’s performance. In this high-tech era of analytics, the idea of customer satisfaction surveys sounds almost-quaint.
What is a survey? A survey is a research method used for collecting data from a predefined group of respondents to gain information and insights into various topics of interest.
Surveys provide your business with feedback and information about customers’ wants and needs, which will eventually fulfil customer satisfaction and brand loyalty (which are vital factors that contribute to your business’s success). The honest responses collected can be used to improve different areas of the business.
Survey responses can confirm or provoke discussions on strategic business decisions and provide unbiased data to guide decision making. Feedback gleaned from surveys can also tell you what customers think about your brand and products, as well as provide a baseline for comparison over time.
Surveys provide concrete and hard numbers
You know how it’s like when you tend to believe in something more if there was statistical evidence? That is what a survey does. It directly gives you the green signal you require before you take action in changing a particular system within your business or making any important decisions for your business. Because it reflects a significant portion of people versus just a handful.
Similarly, in customer service surveys, one should know whether an angry customer is expressing a unique or common complaint. Likewise, one happy customer does not mean a startup is on its way to a huge initial public offering (IPO). Surveys can help gauge the representativeness of individual views and experiences.
Additionally, surveys also provide essential benchmarks through those data. Surveys are regularly used to make individual decisions — like whether to run a particular advertising campaign or create a new service — but they get even more powerful when repeated over time.
One common phrase among survey researchers is “trend is your friend.” After all, repeatedly asking the same question at different points in time gives a clear vantage point on how things are changing.
Surveys are relatively inexpensive
Online surveys and mobile surveys, in particular, have a very small cost per respondent. Even if incentives are given to respondents, the cost per response is often far less than the cost of administering a paper survey or phone survey, and the number of potential responses can be in the thousands. As such, it will not add much to your current business expenses.
Surveys give a voice
Conducting a survey gives your customers and respondents a voice. It is here where you will know which type of customers are loyal to your brand. Why? Because it is said that the typical ways people react when facing a poorly performing organisation are: either “exiting” taking their business elsewhere, or “voicing” their concerts and trying to change things from within.
How loyal people are to a cause or a company affects whether they choose to vote with their feet and exit or voice their opinions and speak up. And evidently, this will affect your business’s position in the market moving forward — either positively or negatively (hopefully, it is the former).
Surveys are dependable
The anonymity of certain surveys allows respondents to answer with more candid and valid answers. To get the most accurate data, you need respondents to be as open and honest as possible with their answers. Surveys conducted anonymously provide an avenue for more honest and unambiguous responses than other types of research methodologies, especially if it is clearly stated that survey answers will remain completely confidential.
Overall, surveys can help your business in improving its marketing strategy, demographic research, product testing, customer feedback, brand loyalty, and employee retention and satisfaction.
There are two main types of survey techniques called questionnaires and interviews. And, they can be done via online, email, phone call, text message or paper. You can design your survey in a way that it focuses on a specific area that you want to get feedback on 一 be it on marketing, product evaluation and many more.
Your survey will directly help you in attaining any particular information you need if you do it correctly.
Still unsure how to properly conduct your survey? Or, what questions to include in your survey? Come and talk to us today through our chat bot and we will help you get started in creating the most effective survey for your business!
Did I also mention that: If you own an SME, you can claim up to 80% for your projects under the Enterprise Development Grant (EDG)? Because, you can!
