If you want to determine how to grow your customer base, you may want to broaden your survey horizons. "What about the other 90 percent of the world? That's your potential customer. That's how you grow," Terry says. Companies such as MarketTools and other market research firms can develop random sample populations and help compile lists for specialized market segments, such as women between the ages of 25 and 40 who live in the San Francisco Bay area, or people who have children or pets.
Dig Deeper: The Pulse of the Customer
Using Online Tools for Customer Surveys: Define Online Survey Questions
Fortunately for many small businesses and entrepreneurs, online survey companies have invested in labor and time in developing survey questions that you can customize. Several survey companies have templates that you can use to assess customer satisfaction, performance of customer-facing employees, or new products. You can also choose whether you want multiple choice questions, drop down menus, or rating scales.
If you want to customize your own survey questions, you should begin with demographics. "Determine what you need to know about each respondent to analyze results," Ambler says. "Your approach will largely be driven by whether your survey is anonymous. If so, you'll only be able to analyze survey data based on survey answers. If not, you'll be able to supplement your survey data with other customer data you already have."
Before writing key survey questions and their answer options, define the purpose of each question. "You won't use these purpose statements in the final online survey, but you will find that they help test if each question is really meaningful," Ambler says. "Purpose statements also enable productive conversations with stakeholders as you vet the survey with them."
Watch survey wording. As a company insider, you're familiar with company jargon, but customers probably are not. "Like any good marketer, you need to understand your audience," Terry says. "Don't talk over their heads. Don't use technical jargon. Keep it simple with something that's measurable. You're a small business owner and you want actionable intelligence. Ask questions in a way that provides enough specifics that you can act on them."
Before sending out surveys to customers or potential customers, validate your questions with key stakeholders in your business. Stakeholder feedback helps you 1) ask actionable questions, 2) provide complete answer options, and 3) not overlook potentially critical questions.
"To get the most meaningful input from stakeholders, keep the conversation focused on each question's purpose statement and how it achieves the research objective," Ambler says. "People like to wordsmith and introduce new questions, which are fine if they fit within your existing research objective. Just keep in mind that every new question makes your online survey that much longer, which ultimately reduces the response rate."
A survey is only as good as the replies you get. You want to woo potential respondents by writing a clever survey invitation. "Your goal is to get above the noise and convince people to participate," Ambler says.
Think about your survey sample: What moves and motivates them? "For some B2B audiences, a summary of findings is a strong enough motivator; others might need a more tangible incentive," he says. "In either case, make your case succinctly and avoid spam-like language and subject lines. Personalize the invitation wherever possible."
Before you go live with the final survey, launch a pilot version to a small population subset. A pilot allows you to test the effectiveness of your survey invitation, determine if there is a particular point in the survey where people drop out, and see if you'll be able to take action based on the results, Ambler says. Ask stakeholders to review the data; see if they think they'll be able to act based on what they see. Adjust accordingly.
After someone takes your online survey, it's important to follow up. "At the very least, you need to say 'thank you,'" Terry says. "You asked someone for a little bit of their day. If you captured their e-mail address, follow up by showing that you care. People like being listened to."
Survey tools can be used to generate automatic responses to participants. But there's nothing like a personal e-mail, especially if you took the person's suggestions to heart and made some changes in your business.
Dig Deeper: How to Make the Most of Customer Feedback
Using Online Tools for Customer Surveys: Additional Resources
A white paper on understanding how customer feedback interacts with other insight to create a compelling go-to-market strategy.
Use a single question to track promoters and detractors and produce a clear measure of your organization's performance through customers' eyes.
Using online surveys to rebrand or reposition your company.
Ten reasons for using online surveys to market products and services.
