Survey

Do you send out customer surveys?

There is only so much quantitive data can tell you. Sure you can scour Google Analytics, install heat maps and count your likes on Facebook but sometimes there is nothing more telling than hearing directly from your customers.

This is where running a customer survey can really help you to fill in the blanks and work out how your customers are truly feeling about your products, services and brand. It can also help you to fill in any missing pieces or discrepancies with your statistics.

There are many great tools that will help you craft a survey to your customers, however asking the right types of questions is paramount to making your survey a success.

In fact, asking the right kind of questions can help you to boost sales, improve your conversion rate and truly understand how to market to your demographic.

Asking your customers to fill out a survey is task enough, so if you are going to go to the effort to create one, you must ensure that your questions are straight forward, to the point and easy to answer.

One thing to keep in mind however, is that you may want to avoid checkboxes or predetermined answers, this is because it can sometimes skew the results of your survey and lead to biased replies.

If you do want to run a survey and tune into the inner-workings of your customers mind, here are the 9 most tried and true questions that you need to include:

1. Describe Yourself In One Sentence 

Instead of asking your customers to enter their name, age or other personal details, asking them to describe themselves in one sentence can sometimes be more effective. This way you allow the consumer to tell you what they want to tell you and it may also give you a deeper clue into what your demographic is truly like.

Most of your analytical software will be able to tell you the gender and age of your customers, so use the survey as an opportunity to gain different intel.

2. Where did you hear about us?

This is a great way to see how your marketing is affecting your customers and their behaviour.

It is likely that you advertise on different mediums and consumers may have to see you on a few of these mediums in order to take action. For example, they may see you on Facebook first, then Instagram and then finally order from you after seeing your PPC campaign.

Even if you are not earning the highest conversion rate from a particular campaign, you may be getting more exposure than you realise.

Asking this question allows you to see where your marketing is having the greatest impact and where you are creating the most memorable effect.

3. How Would You Describe Us to a Friend?

This question allows you to see how your customers are describing their experience and understanding of your brand. This can help you to really see how your customers feel about your services and what they are learning from your advertising.

It also gives you information on how your brand is perceived and may also give you some ideas on how to re-word your copy or even change up your keywords.

You may also receive some nice inspiration here to include in testimonials or in case studies for new customers.

4. What Has Been the Most Helpful or Rewarding Part of Using Our Brand?

The answer to this question will really help you to determine your strengths as a brand and what your consumers really appreciate about your products or services.

This question will also help you to discover the selling points of your product and may even give you some inspiration for a new marketing campaign.

5. What is One Main Thing We Could Improve On?

This question will help you identify any gaps in your products or services and will help you to better understand what your consumers are really looking for.

While you may not be able to take all of these considerations into action straight away, understanding where your shortcomings are as a brand can definitely help you to strengthen and solidify your business in the long run.

6. What Would You Say is Your Biggest Everyday Challenge?

Uncovering challenges for your consumers is a great way to come up with solutions, new products and services or even new marketing strategies. In fact, your consumers’ challenges should really be viewed as opportunities for your business to grow and develop.

Use these answers to tailor your copy, develop new products or even offer a new service that can remove or reduce the challenges being faced by your customers.

7. List 3 Things That Nearly Stopped You From Using Our Brand

This list can be interpreted as your barriers to conversions and engagement. This list can reveal a lot, not just about your brand but also about the mindset of your customers when they are in purchasing mode.

Use the answers to this question to improve your sales funnel and remove or improve on the barriers that could be standing in your way of making a sale.

Of course, this process may take some trial and error but if you notice a pattern or theme in responses, it may be best to try testing out a few new strategies.

8. List 3 Things That Persuaded You to Use Us

This list can be interpreted as your hooks or as your selling points to engage potential customers to get interested in your products or services.

Use these answers as a way to improve your copy, taglines, headings and campaigns to see if they boost conversions and enhance sales.

9. What Could We Have Done to Make Your Decision Easier?

Asking your consumers to suggest an idea that could have made their decision in doing business with you easier is a great way to gain new customers and boost conversions.

These suggestions will also help you to see where you can streamline your sales process and perhaps remove or replace some steps or protocols.

Surveys are a great way to get a deeper look into how your customers are responding to your business. Using these 9 questions as your guide, your surveys can help you to build a better brand, optimise your conversions and increase sales.