Published on December 27th, 2019 | by Bibhuranjan

5 C’s That Surveys Cover & How They Grow Your Topline

Isn’t it true that when you think of instances of customer satisfaction, you recall the unsavory ones more rather than the ones where you were indeed satisfied?

This state of mind is the result of many reasons.

The primary reason being when you purchase a service or a product, you expect it to be spot on. That’s why you’ve chosen to spend your hard-earned money on it. And with every passing day, fierce competition among businesses is only raising the bar higher and higher.

A report by Gartner states that 89% of companies are going to compete only based on the customer experience that they offer to their clientele. Hence, it is fair to say that delighting customers and attaining high levels of customer satisfaction in this competitive landscape is going to be even more difficult.

Why is Customer Satisfaction So Important?

Customers, when satisfied, generally come back to give repeat business to the company. Some even go a step further and recommend the business based on their experience with their family and friends. Customer service is the number one reason for a significant percentage of these customers to place more trust in a particular brand.

Understanding the importance of customer experience is vital for any business as statistics suggest that it only requires one-tenth of the cost to retain a customer in comparison to winning a new one. Hence, a smart business will always try to hang on to their loyal customer base.

One of the fundamental ways of ensuring that your customers remain satisfied with your brand is to conduct a customer satisfaction survey.

Are Your Customers Happy?

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The primary objective of circulating customer surveys is to gather the information that gives in-depth insights on what your customers want, needs, and expect from your brand. And a whopping 52% of customers from around the globe think that companies should take action basis the feedback that they receive from these customer surveys.

As it has been already established that it is way more expensive to onboard a new customer than retaining an existing one, developing a loyal relationship with your customers makes sense in the entire scheme of things.

Before advocating your brand, customers today also look to be more involved with the brand that they choose to do business with. A study by Vision Critical found that 87% of customers who take surveys want to have a say in the company’s future.

By making use of the data that is collected using these surveys can help businesses design better customer experiences. It helps in the process of validating decisions and demonstrating to the existing customers that as a business, you are eager to listen to them and take corrective measures to cater to their needs.

What Should Be Defined Goals of Using a Customer Survey?

It is for the business to define milestones and goals with their series of customer surveys. Send too few, and you may miss out on valuable feedback. Send too frequently, and you risk alienating them.

Developing a customer survey strategy is imperative. The ideal route is to be informative but not be too intrusive. A lot will depend on what you are hoping to achieve through them.

There are five basic components that your customer survey must be designed on. They are popularly known as the 5 C’s of surveys. Take a look.

1. Clarity: Whatever questions that you put in the survey, ensure that the communication has clarity. Breaking down your questions into easy to understand terminology will make your customers more inclined to complete the entire questionnaire.

Avoid using jargon that are too technical because that may be a definite put off for customers to leave the survey mid-way. This point can be driven home by OpinionLab’s report that states that 80% of customers tend to abandon customer surveys halfway through.

2. Content: Your questions should be aimed at triggering responses from your customers. Make sure that the questionnaire itself is precise and to the point. According to a study, when the survey crosses the 20-minute mark, the quality of data and the attention span of the respondent greatly reduces.

3. Conversation: Your questions in the survey should be able to trigger a conversation. Asking questions and encouraging them to share their expectations, needs, and wants are insights that should be generated from the survey questionnaire. If motivated in the right direction and the survey is well-executed, the response rates can soar past 85%.

4. Community: The objective of the survey should ideally lead to a bigger framework, which is to make your customer feel like he or she is a part of your community. By offering to give your customers a voice through the survey ensures that they are more invested and connected with the business.

5. Consistency: It is important to see to it that the tone of your survey matches with the overall brand communication. Asking the right questions in a customer survey in line with your overall business goals is key to getting the information you need to make informed decisions.

How to Use Different Customer Surveys?

In the current business environment where the focus is on customer acquisition, one of the most significant avenues of revenue available is via your existing customer base.

Despite the rising costs of new customer acquisition, a massive 44% of businesses concentrate on new leads as opposed to only 18% of businesses focussing on customer retention. To drive growth through customer retention is heavily dependent on customer surveys.

However, if you never sent out a customer survey before, then how do you know what to send at all? The best way to start the process is by researching survey question examples online. By browsing through sample templates, you will get some idea of what sort of survey will be effective with your audience.

Designing a survey template can be quite complex. But as technological advancement has taken the next step in the market, the problem of designing a survey template in minutes or even seconds has taken a backseat. You can find a number of easy Do-It-Yourself software that can simplify the process considerably.

Several of these platforms will allow free access or free trial periods. Check out the questionnaire templates and shortlist the ones that suit your purpose.

There are multiple survey types that you can choose from. Here are a few examples:

You can measure customer satisfaction with the product or service purchased, the delivery, or the onboarding experience with a post-purchase survey.
NPS or Net Promoter Score surveys can determine if customers are inclined towards recommending your brand.
Product or service development surveys can be used to gauge customers’ desires for future launches.

These specific types of survey may be utilized in multiple ways to collect vital customer feedback that will support the business to enhance and fine-tune their customer experiences.

Grow Your Brand with Customer Satisfaction Surveys

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According to Bain, a customer experience promoter has a lifetime value to a company that’s 600 to 1,400% that of a detractor. This is why gathering feedback has become so important in the last five years, with more than 50% of organizations aiming to redirect their investments to customer experience innovations.

Customer surveys collect data that include both positive and negative perceptions about your business. The manner of data interpretation and recognizing gaps in service can help in further enhancing your marketing and sales efforts.

By using the opportunity to accumulate data and action on it demonstrates that you care about your reputation as a customer-friendly brand that genuinely intends to serve customers.

Tags: customer data, customer service, report, sales, survey

About the Author

Bibhuranjan Editorial Officer, technofaq.org I'm an avid tech enthusiast at heart. I like to mug up on new and exciting developments on science and tech and have a deep love for PC gaming. Other hobbies include writing blog posts, music and DIY projects.