How to Capture Feedback From More of Your Customers
At Satrix Solutions, we take pride in the fact that we regularly achieve survey response rates of 50% to 80% on behalf of our clients.
There are many factors that affect survey response rates. How long will it take customers to complete the survey? Are the questions relevant to all those invited to participate? Are question language, order and scales all in accordance with best-practices? Is your messaging before and during the survey compelling? Does your technology and approach take spam avoidance into account?
All of these can have a significant impact on how many customers receive the survey and whether they are willing to take the time to share their feedback. One of the main determinants of response rates is the nature of the relationship your company has with its customers.
1) Are they long-term retainer agreements or is the work mostly project based?
2) Does the account/client services team speak with your customers daily, weekly, monthly or less frequently?
3) How much of the customer’s budget is allocated to the work they do with your company?
Achieving Higher Survey Response Rates
Generally speaking, the more frequent the interaction and the more the customer feels they have a vested interest in seeing your business improve, the higher your survey response rates will be.
Another key variable in achieving high survey response rates is whether your customers believe their feedback will influence change. This is where many companies falter. When conducting a survey, your company is essentially entering into an implicit agreement with customers to use their feedback to enhance the service experience. Otherwise, there is little incentive for them to share their views, and survey responses will likely deteriorate over time.
The change need not be immediate, but eventually, customers want to see evidence that their input is being acted upon. Therefore, following up with your customers after a survey is absolutely critical and a systematic approach for doing so should be clearly defined, with specific responsibilities assigned to business leaders and front-line personnel.
Adopting these best practices can have a dramatic impact on the percentage of customers likely to respond and, therefore, the statistical validity of the data and insight gathered.
Read more about generating reliable survey data here.