Customer satisfaction survey: what are they and what are they for?

Your business has repeat customers who have been choosing your services and products for a long time... and it also has others who buy once and forget about you forever. That's not a matter of chance; rather, it depends on the user experience you're offering them.

Do you want to increase the percentage of loyal customers with your brand? When we have a fixed flow of users, we can project in the long term with greater confidence. In addition, many studies show that people are willing to pay 16% more if they consider that the service they receive is of better quality. So, what are you waiting for to implement customer satisfaction surveys and optimize your brand? At Teipe Digital we tell you how to do it.

Knowing and analyzing your customers' feedback is very important for your business. It will serve as an indicator of how positive or pleasant their experience is. It will also help you understand the reasons behind these behaviors. This way, you will obtain valuable data about their perception of your products or services, the customer service, and how well your brand is positioned compared to the competition.

What are customer satisfaction surveys ?

Satisfaction surveys are what is called a "good practice" that you can implement to prolong and strengthen the relationship with a client. They are generally very reliable since respondents answer them without being in the presence of salespeople and can express themselves on different topics, depending on the type of survey chosen.

What is the purpose of conducting customer satisfaction surveys ? 5 key points

Knowing your customers' opinions and experiences is essential to outline the next steps of your project. They can help you understand your strengths and weaknesses, improve your work, and have more complete profiles of your Buyer Personas. The more comprehensive your customer profiles are, the greater your chances of retaining, delighting, and attracting them to make future purchases.

1. They reveal areas of opportunity

They say that we learn the most from our mistakes. And it's true! We always have something we can improve.

By surveying your customers, you will get accurate feedback that will help you provide optimal service. If you know how to interpret what they like and what they don't, you will be able to implement some specific recommendations in other areas of your company (such as sales, design, etc.).

2. They enhance successes

It's great to know that you're on the right track. Thanks to surveys, you'll know what aspects your customers like the most, you'll be able to create a guide to best practices and replicate your successes in other areas.

3. Enrich your buyer personas

Buyer Personas (fictional characters created as ideal clients) are not static: they change and adopt new interests. The more information we have about them, the more effective our communications and campaigns will be.

In addition, you may be able to detect new types of consumers through surveys, which will help you create increasingly precise customer service models.

4. They promote loyalty

As we mentioned earlier, many people consider their previous experience with a brand when making a new purchase. So, if you show a genuine interest in learning about their experience and working to improve it, your ties with your customers will surely be strengthened and so will your sales.

5. They differentiate your brand

How many brands make us feel really good? Few companies take the time to find out what their customers think and listen to their suggestions. Therefore, if you want to stand out from the competition, satisfaction surveys are a great option for you.

How to make a successful survey?

Although the evaluation stage is very important, it is our job to create an effective survey, whose information is useful to us and not too annoying for our users. It is not an easy task! So here we share some key points that can help you clarify the path.

1. Set your goals and the phases you will study

Before you start writing a list of questions, you need to define the SMART objectives of your search, in order to obtain measurable indicators that have a final meaning. Otherwise, you will obtain incomplete information, waste time and your clients' time.

For your reference, we share with you some survey objectives that may be useful:

• Find out the level of customer satisfaction regarding your e-commerce or website. Is its layout clear? Are products and services easy to find? Is the site fast?
• Analyze the online store's performance during checkout: are items easy to find? Are descriptions sufficient?
• Examine the satisfaction levels of buyers of a specific product line at the post-sale stage: does it deliver what it promises in the description? Is it really useful?
• Determine the key points of loyalty by studying repeat customers: what are the aspects that satisfy them the most? Would they recommend the product or service to others? Do they consider the customer service to be adequate?

2. Direct the survey towards a specific audience

The more narrow the segment of the public you decide to analyse, the more beneficial the results you will obtain. It is clear that your young users, between 20 and 30 years old, will probably highlight different things about your brand than people between 50 and 60 years old.

You can also segment based on different relationships between your brand and your users, and thus survey those who have purchased more than twice.

Or you can also compare the experience of those who bought in the online store and those who preferred to go to the physical store and find there points to improve in both modalities.

3. Select the best questions

Once you have defined the two points above and have a clear objective and your audience segment selected, you can begin to outline and write down the questions you will specifically ask in the survey.

Questions should be direct, simple and worded in a clear and concrete manner to avoid misinterpretation and ensure that everyone who receives the survey fully understands it.

Depending on how much control you want to have over the interpretation of the answers and what data you want to collect, you can create open-ended or closed-ended questions, with options, that can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.”

That said, we suggest you don't go overboard with the length of your survey to ensure that as many people as possible respond to it. You should therefore be very careful and strategic when choosing each question.

Giving priority to customer retention instances will be one of the keys to the success of your business. One of our functions as an agency specialized in ecommerce is to provide you with all the advice you need to make your online store successful. Contact us now !