How to do a customer satisfaction survey?

To judge the quality of the customer experience within a company, there is nothing better than a customer satisfaction survey. It can be presented in the form of a questionnaire and allows the collection of customer opinions on various aspects related to the services offered by the company. Similarly, the customer satisfaction survey allows you to know the relevance of a new campaign or the launch of a new product/service. However, companies that try this policy to evaluate the level of customer experience must follow certain recommendations. These will allow the company to conduct a conclusive customer satisfaction survey.

Customer satisfaction survey: defining the target

For all companies that want to be competitive, the customer satisfaction survey must follow certain standards. To do this, you need to ask yourself some important questions. These include the essential elements to be assessed during the survey. The objective may be, for example, to get an idea of customer satisfaction with the services offered by the company. You can also choose to conduct a customer satisfaction survey to evaluate a specific element (reception, delivery, after-sales service of the company). As you can see, the objective of the survey will determine its target.

Identifying the target of a customer satisfaction survey allows for greater efficiency. You can choose to target all your customers or just a segment of them depending on your objectives. For example, you can address the interview questionnaire to your customers who use certain products or services in a specific way.

The target of the customer satisfaction survey will also take into account the scope of the questionnaire. That said, you can plan the questionnaire on a national, regional or even city basis. In other words, it is essential to think of a framework for the customer satisfaction survey in the same way as for traditional surveys. It should also be noted in this sense that with the advent of digitalization, modern companies generally choose online customer satisfaction surveys.

Customer satisfaction survey: define the periodicity

For a customer satisfaction survey, it is also important to define a periodicity. Depending on your business model and your corporate objectives, you may choose to do a one-time or periodic interview. For example, to evaluate the customer experience following a purchase process, you can plan an interview questionnaire. The company can also choose another monthly periodicity, for example, taking into account its objectives. In the context of a monthly customer satisfaction survey, it can provide a customer satisfaction index. With these parameters in mind, you can use an online survey tool like a chatbot to automate the discussions. This will save you time and ensure optimal results.

Woman on computer keyboard

Writing the customer satisfaction survey

A customer satisfaction survey will be considered effective when the questionnaire administered provides some comfort to the customer. Similarly, the interview must be relevant to the company’s interests. It must be said that with a good care of the questionnaire, the company can expect a greater profitability and an increase of its notoriety.

Be clear and precise

The questionnaire for a customer satisfaction survey should not be too complex or too vague. In reality, the customer does not have to make an effort to understand the information the company needs. Better yet, it is not up to the respondents to choose the modes of response. Anticipate this and make proposals to them. Of course, the questions you include in the questionnaire must be perfectly understandable. Technical terms should be avoided when conducting a customer satisfaction survey. The same goes for the jargon related to your profession. You will then have accurate answers for the administered questionnaire.

Choose the type of questions

The results you get from the customer satisfaction survey will depend on the questions and the way they are asked. To do this, the structure must also be considered when writing your survey questions. Indeed, the correct formulation implies the anticipation of possible answers. This will lead you to choose between different marketing techniques.

Among others, we distinguish between open-ended questions. Here, respondents have the opportunity to provide any type of response to the questions asked. Closed questions are those for which the results are almost imposed. The questionnaire provides for answers to such questions, as well as their number. Here, the dialogue is closed and the client can easily have the impression of being interrogated. For this reason, it is not advisable to abuse this type of question.

For the customer satisfaction survey questionnaire, the company can also rely on yes/no or true/false questions. There, the answers will only be the choice between one or the other of the two possibilities.

We also distinguish in the batch, the questions with multiple choices with single answer and the questions with multiple choices with multiple answers. The wording of the question must be clear and precise. This is what will allow the client to give conclusive answers.

The duration of the investigation

A customer satisfaction survey should be short enough to avoid boring the target. The experience the customer will have during this questionnaire phase must be good. This is what will ensure that the results are truly worthwhile to society.

Keep in mind the objectives of the survey and stick to them when writing the questionnaire. Then don’t stray from the essential. With every question you write, this objective should be your compass. This is an important parameter to have truly exploitable results in the framework of satisfaction surveys.

The rating system

Satisfaction surveys that include a rating system are generally more effective than those that have a checkbox system. Asking the customer to rate a service or the company is clearer and also helps the company to make a better evaluation. In fact, it is on this rating that companies base their overall rating following satisfaction surveys.

Finally, don’t forget to leave a free comment area at the end of the interview questionnaire. It is a way to give respondents a voice to express their requests and observations.

Amandine Carpentier

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