4 Tips To Improve Customer Satisfaction Online

The success of every business is decided almost entirely by its clientele. Customer satisfaction is one element that can make or break the very foundation of your business. It is in this view that it becomes imperative to use customer satisfaction online surveys as a means of understanding clients’ expectations and experiences about your business offering.

Today, while social media does play a key role in accessing clients and their views, its scope is limited in terms of reach and the extent of the feedback acquired. Customer satisfaction online surveys are carefully designed questionnaires that seek to collect and analyze information on your patrons and their experience with your business.

Typically, customer satisfaction surveys comprise questions that understand your client’s perspective on your business offering, service rendered, and delivery process, among other aspects. There are several ways of approaching clients for feedback, although online surveys are regarded as the most popular and effective way of reaching out to customers. No matter what method you deploy, the survey requires careful construction to ensure maximum response rate from the customers apart from providing accurate information on client expectations, experience, and perception of value. Here are a few of the best practices for conducting effective customer satisfaction surveys.

1) Be Sure of Your Objective

Clarity on the objective of your survey is undoubtedly the basis of an effective feedback mechanism. Your survey questions, response scale, and target audience can all be defined once you have a clear objective in mind. Feedback on a new product, the impact of the improvised process on delivery systems, quality of service rendered or overall customer satisfaction levels are just a few of the many objectives that can be addressed with a single survey if your objective is clear.

2) Ask the Right Questions

With an established objective, the next primary practice is to develop questions that comprise the survey. While too many questions may result in poor response rates, too few carry the risk of not obtaining a substantial response. Avoid repetitive questions. Be sure to put forth questions that are relevant to your business and significant in gaining important insights on client satisfaction.

3) Response Schemes

Questions that seek elaborate and descriptive answers attract few participants. Alternatively, asking closed-ended questions may not reveal true or accurate expressions of your client. The trick lies in designing a response scheme that is neither too cumbersome for your client, nor too limited for you. Further, you could give your clients a chance to express themselves freely, through add-on responses for appreciation, suggestions, and complaints.

4) Personalize It

Personalizing and branding are important simply because it adds more value to your relationship with your client. A little detailing, like adding your client’s name and expanding on your business relationship can help acquire more responses. Unsatisfied customers, too, are likely to give you a second chance when you value your relationship with your client in such subtle ways.

Studies have shown that 96% of unsatisfied customers do not vocalize their complaints. While 91% of these might never return to your business, you also face the risk of them spreading a bad word. Customer satisfaction surveys can serve as your golden chance to identify problem areas, reach out to unsatisfied customers, and prevent potentially bad publicity all at once.

Not sure where to start?

Pollfish has many helpful survey templates but two, in particular, target this topic: use the Customer Satisfaction Survey (NPS®) to decipher the customer journey and overall satisfaction with your company. Or use the Customer Loyalty & Relationship NPS® to understand how likely your customers are to recommend your business or product to their friends, family, and peers. In some cases, it is beneficial to work through a trustworthy market research agency.