Even as a marketer, I have a love/hate relationship with surveys. I don’t like when they are too long, difficult to complete, or ask for information the company should already know about me. I do love a well thought out survey that is easy and quick to complete while providing actionable data.
The set of questions below I have fine-tuned over many years and have found it to be an effective way to get some valuable customer data.
- Please select your customer type from the list below.
- Which of the following best describes you?
- I use X products
- I manage those who use X products
- How would you describe your overall satisfaction level compared to last year?
- What does “company” do particularly well to earn your recommendation? (seen for those giving Very Satisfied rating)
- What would “company” need to do to earn a better recommendation? (seen for those giving any other rating)
- How likely are you to continue using our products and services?
- Overall, how satisfied are you with the following “company” products?
- Overall, how satisfied are you with the following “company” services?
- Overall, how easy is it to do business with “company”?
- Regarding your answer above, what could we do to be easier to do business with?
- Please tell us the 3 most important things we can do to improve our existing products and services.
- Please tell us the 3 things you liked most about our products and services.
Here is some additional insight to better understand why these questions are what they are:
Customer Type: Ideally, this is information you already have and shouldn’t be asking the customer. However, depending on how truly anonymous this survey is, the ease in having this data tied to the other survey data, and to allow the customer to segment themselves which may differ than how you perceive them, this is valuable. Knowing the type of customer is valuable for segmenting with any of your other survey questions.
User or Manager of User: Often those who use your products differ from those who purchased your products. Another valuable way to segment your survey data.
Satisfaction Rating: You could certainly replace this question with the Net Promoter Score (NPS) question or add it as well. Aside from your opinion on the value of the NPS question, I would argue it’s much easier to respond to a five-point scale Very Satisfied to Very Dissatisfied question than to figure out a 0-10 scale question.
Likely to continue using our products: A great question to see how answers differ between those who are using your products and those who are managing those who are using your products. Also, this may give your sales and support teams a heads up about customer frustration that can be addressed.
Easy to do Business: Perhaps in some way your company has the customer in a stranglehold so they will tell you they are going to continue using your products. Truly, no one wants an unhappy customer. Let’s find out if we are making their lives painful in some way and trend this data to see if the customer is noticing our improvements.
3 Things: You may be asking why I would only ask for three things we could improve or three things the customer likes about us. We originally just asked for feedback and that questions was left unanswered more often than not. By asking three things, those who want to provide more still will and those who maybe weren’t going to will see this as a more doable request. Test this for yourself and see.