What is it about our organization that satisfies the needs of your customers and therefore focuses on improving your company and perhaps, more tightly focusing in on your position? These surveys allow customers to directly provide feedback based on their experiences interacting with your company, and that first-hand feedback is always one of the most valuable resources. Insight from customers can give you a good idea of how your company is perceived from the outside – what does and doesn’t work between your products or services – and how to overall improve the customer experience.

Customer satisfaction surveys also help establish accountability to your customers. If your customers have a bad experience, customer satisfaction surveys give them a direct line to tell you about it, providing an incentive to do a good job which will in turn build trust with them. Utilizing feedback from customers allows your company to take productive actions to rectify any bad experiences and implement changes or provide a better understanding to customers to ensure that a similar situation doesn’t unfold. The challenge in conducting these surveys is in asking the right questions, the right way. Research can be tricky because with the wrong questions, the takeaways can lead to a cascading list of incorrect decisions.

They may not have the time to spare to offer feedback, or they just might not want to deal with the hassle, which is why making the survey as convenient as possible for the customer goes a long way in maximizing the amount of feedback that you get.

We work side-by-side with our clients to get to know their companies and customers better so we can help them conduct customer satisfaction surveys in a manner that fits each customer base. Once a survey is developed, we test it with small sample groups to ensure that the survey elicits feedback on the focus areas around which the survey was created.

Here are a few types of customer satisfaction surveys. Each provides input from a different time in a customer’s buying or transaction cycle:

• Transactional Survey: this is conducted at purchase while the interaction is immediately fresh in the customer’s mind. This gives feedback on your company’s first impression, which also connects back to your position and how it’s dramatized in the market.
  
  
• Post-Service Survey: this takes place after a service is provided. It gives time for the customer to react to and reflect on their interaction with your company but is shortly after the product or service was received.
  
  
• Relationship Survey: this type of survey is periodically sent to customers. The benefit of doing this over time is that it tracks how their experiences and perception of your company have changed over time. It also is a good brand touch and continues to build a relationship with your customers.
  
  
• Product- or Service-Specific Survey: like a focus group, this format allows you to ask for feedback on a certain product or service directly from a customer who has purchased the product or service. This can give insight into what specific areas need improvement.
  
  
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) Survey: this survey uses a range, typically from 1-10, that asks customers how likely they are to refer your company and its products or services. This is designed to give a blanket overlay on whether or not your customers are satisfied with your company, but not necessarily with what they are or aren’t satisfied.
  
  
• Website Survey: this is a common survey format. It is conducted on a company’s website and seeks to gather feedback on the quality of the website experience, such as navigational ease, interactivity, design, and content. In some cases, it can be broadened to include questions about the products, services, or brand perception, but in this case, the website is simply the delivery mechanism for one of the other survey types listed above.

Each survey seeks to gather a different type of information and feedback in a different method tailored to the customer. Having quick and convenient customer satisfaction surveys available makes you much more likely to receive valuable feedback on your company and what it does best, which can help you establish or refine your position and help you stand out from the crowd.