Nebraska SBDC Blog

As states start to open back up and businesses begin to re-open their doors, reconnecting with clients and customers is more critical than ever. One of the most effective ways to understand your customers is by conducting surveys.

Surveys are a proven method of connecting with customers to get feedback that will help you understand how the customer thinks and feels about your product. The goal is to receive unbiased and objective information that can help you make important decisions about your product and business.

It’s important to not only send a well constructed survey, but also to know when to ask for feedback and how to analyze the data.

When To Send a Survey

The four best times to send out a survey asking for customer feedback are:

1. During a key milestone, for example, when the customer has signed up for a membership or is approaching an anniversary with your business.
2. When customers fall out of the journey, for example, if a customer asks to cancel a subscription or hasn’t purchased an item in a long time.
3. After a customer receives a customer service contact, either by phone or online.
4. When there is interaction without conversion, for example, if a customer abandons their cart or opts out of signing up after a free trial.

How to Construct a Survey and Analyze the Data

When putting together a survey, it’s important to avoid asking leading questions, making the survey too long, or using complicated language. If you make these mistakes, you open your survey up to falling victim to response bias, which can skew your data and results.

When analyzing the data, it’s important to understand what you’re looking for. Having quality data doesn’t mean very much if you don’t know how to analyze it. So first ask yourself, “What do I want to know?” Consider what you’re hoping to find, and then dig into the data to investigate.

When analyzing survey data it’s important to look at what the variables tell you and to look for any patterns. What themes stand out? How do responses differ between age groups? How do responses vary by location? When you begin seeing the patterns and trends with your customers, you can make meaningful decisions that will be beneficial to your business.

Surveys are a useful tool for any business, and with businesses opening up once again, understanding customers and what they want is more important than ever. If you need a little more help figuring out how to conduct a survey, check out this beginner’s guide to surveys from Chattermill.

Printed with permission from ASBDC. For the original article, click here.