Questions to Ask When Surveying Your Customers

This week we’ve been discussing the importance of surveying your customers and the methods for aquiring information.  Today, let’s get int the nitty-gritty: WHAT questions to ask them.

Tips for Writing Your Survey

First, a few tips…

These are not only from the persepective of a surveyer, but also from the perspective of the customer.

• Keep it short
  Less is more.  Your survey should not take more than a page (or, god bless you if it’s only a postcard!)  You want to get them to return the survey.  Don’t give them a reason to pass.
• Keep it simple
  The easier the questions, the more likely you’ll get your survey back.  Give them a scale on which to grade your business.  Encourage quick responses.
• Keep it anonymous for some people
  When I survey my clients, I ask for their name.  We have a relationship and I want to know what they think. When I survey people who passed on doing business with them, I let them know that their identity is optional.  With them, I want information.  And, I want them to be honest.

Questions

The following are MY favorite questions to ask clients.  These questions give me information I need to make design and sales decisions in the future.  Share with us! I’d love to know what you ask your clients!  (Please post your comments below.)

Questions to grade on a scale from 5-1 (outstanding-poor):

• your overall experience with our salesperson/designer
• our accessibility and timeliness in returning your call or e-mail
• responsiveness to your concerns and questions
• the quality of the finished product
• our overall performance

Questions with an opportunity to answer in greater detail (for those that like to share):

• If you circled any “1′s” or “2′s”, we’d appreciate any feedback.
• In what areas should we concentrate our efforts to improve?

And, here’s the clincher… It’s called “The Ultimate Question“:

• On a scale from 1-10, how likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?

(More on that last question in a minute.)  I imagine people can probably fill out this survey in less than 5 minutes and stick in the mail with their other bills.  We have an ~70% return rate and it’s like Christmas when they arrive.  I love getting confirmation that we are doing things right.

The Ultimate Question

The last question on your survey is the most important:

On a scale from 1-10, how likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?

This is a question on which you can derive a lot of information.  It is based on Fred Reichheld’s book, “The Ultimate Question“.  By asking this question of your customers and tabulating the results, you will come up with a “Net Promoter Score” (NPS).  This is the score that shows how healthy your company is in terms of promoters and detractors.  (Who is shouting about your business positively or negatively.)

This is how you come up with your company’s NPS:

Customers fall into one of three categories: Promoters, Passives, or Detractors.  They will answer The Ultimate Question as such:

To come up with the NPS take the % of promoters (those people who scored 9s and 10s) and subtract the % of detractors.  For example, if you survey 10 people and you have:

• 6 people who score you with 10 (flying colors) = 60%
• 2 people who score you with 8 (passive people who generally don’t promote or detract) = 20%
• 2 people who score you with a 6 (hmmm… suspcious) = 20%

Your NPS is then 40.  Time to do some work!  The book states that most high growth companies hover around the 50-80% NPS rating.  It also gives tips on how to get that score to increase and how to get a high rate of return on your surveys.  If you are seeking a little inspiration on companies that have used the Net Promoter Score to improve their business, here is a great story from Fortune Small Business on 4 companies that have done just that.

Food for thought

A few things to think about:

• Information is only as good as what you do with it
  Come up with a system for reviewing your results.  Make a quarterly date to take a temperature on your survey results.  Make plans to build upon your strengths and improve your weaknesses.
• Share with your team
  If you have people that you employ, share the survey results with them!  It’s important for them to understand how they impact the client.
• Survey not just your customers, but also those who pass you up
  It’s important to know if you’ve serviced your clients well.  But, it’s also important to know why people have chosen to do business elsewhere.  (In the wedding industry, it’s a one-time sale.  There is no opportunity to get that customer back.)  Keep in mind, that sometimes it simply is “not a match”.  (Be true to your niche!)  But, if you start to see patterns of negative feedback, this could be a sign that your sales approach needs work.
• Mix it up
  If you aren’t getting enough of your surveys back… or, if you aren’t getting the information you want… change your surveys.  Find a formula that works for you and gives you the power to make decisions.

So, there you have it!  Go for it!  Make a survey… get into your clients’ heads!  See you back here tomorrow for an AWESOME industry insider!