Good small businesses listen to the concerns, suggestions and demands of their customers. The best small businesses take that feedback and make the essential changes needed to meet the needs of customers.
During this presentation, Rebecca Sprynczynatyk, Infusionsoft's director of product marketing, will touch on six steps for crafting a customer survey that gets the information you need while ensuring a good experience for your customers. From writing questions to analysis, this presentation will give you the tools you need to create meaningful surveys-and get meaningful results.
3. Learn How To:
• Structure your survey to optimize participation
• Choose the right type of questions to get the
information you need
• Avoid common pitfalls in question phrasing that
can affect your results
• Meaningfully analyze your results
@infusionsoft @rebeccasspry #surveyeasy
8. Step 1: Set a Clear Goal
• Great way to gather info to
make better decisions
• Can be used to:
– Gather feedback on new
products/services
– Measure customer satisfaction
– Identify key traits of most
profitable customers
• Effective surveys:
– Clearly defined objective
– Questions related to the
overall goal
@infusionsoft @rebeccasspry #surveyeasy
10. Step 2: Ask the Right Questions
• Objective Facts
– Age
– Gender
– Education Level
– Marital Status
– # of Employees
– Annual Revenue
– Industry
– Geography
• Subjective States
– Satisfaction
– Opinions
– Ratings
– Rankings
– Behaviors
@infusionsoft @rebeccasspry #surveyeasy
11. Step 2: Ask the Right Questions
The type of question you ask
can impact your results:
• A/B Question
• Radio Button
• Drop Down
• Multiple Choice
• Ranking Scale
• Interval Scale
@infusionsoft @rebeccasspry #surveyeasy
14. Step 3: Pay Attention to How You Ask
• How you ask a question
impacts results.
• Questions must be:
– Clear
– Direct
– Unassuming
@infusionsoft @rebeccasspry #surveyeasy
15. Step 3: Pay Attention to How You Ask
@infusionsoft @rebeccasspry #surveyeasy
Avoid Example Alternative
Combining two questions
in one
“How satisfied are you with
the cost & speed of our
service?”
Separate into two separate
questions.
Asking a question that
implies or suggests a
correct answer
“On a scale of 1 to 5, how
great was the movie?”
Rewrite in a neutral tone.
Overly general questions “How would you rate our
company?”
Be specific.
Overly personal questions,
unless they are directly
related to the survey goal
“How old are you?” Eliminate or provide a
“prefer not to answer”
option.
17. Step 4: Test & Retest Your Survey
• Always test your survey before
sending to customers
• Share with co-workers, friends
& family for wide range of
feedback
• Check for spelling & grammar
mistakes, leading questions &
responses not mutually
exclusive
• Identify and correct errors
before you deploy
• Remember: “You can’t take it
back.”
@infusionsoft @rebeccasspry #surveyeasy
19. Step 5: Motivate, Reduce Friction
• Incentives for
participation can greatly
increase motivation (i.e.
free gift or raffle entry).
• Friction is anything that
makes taking the survey
hard.
• Survey should only take 5
to 7 minutes to finish
@infusionsoft @rebeccasspry #surveyeasy
21. Step 6: Avoid Analysis Paralysis
• Once data is gathered:
– Crunch numbers
– Create reports
• To keep it simple, start
with an overall analysis
that includes data from
all survey respondents
• 4 common report types
@infusionsoft @rebeccasspry #surveyeasy
22. Pie Chart
• Great for showing the
percentage contribution
of a segment to the
whole
• Often used to display
demographic
information
@infusionsoft @rebeccasspry #surveyeasy
23. Bar Graph
• Great for making
comparisons and
illustrating differences
between groups
• Commonly used for
showing responses to
multiple-choice questions
and rating scales
@infusionsoft @rebeccasspry #surveyeasy
25. Crosstab Report
• Shows you how data
from two questions are
related.
@infusionsoft @rebeccasspry #surveyeasy
26. Step 6: Avoid Analysis Paralysis
• Segment your data to
identify trends
– Industry
– Annual Revenue
• Don’t extrapolate too
much—numbers only
tell part of the story
• Stay focused on your
original goal
@infusionsoft @rebeccasspry #surveyeasy
Hinweis der Redaktion
The most effective surveys have clearly defined objectives with questions that can be tied back to the overall goal. This ensures the research is actionable and prevents the survey from becoming bloated with unnecessary questions.
Surveys are great at gathering two types of data – objective facts and subjective states. If your goal is to identify your most profitable customers, you’ll want to gather both objective demographic data (age, marital status) as well as more subjective information including behaviors, interests and opinions.
A / B Question (ex.True / False) Quick and easy. Good for dividing people into clear groups. Multiple Choice (Radio Button or Drop Down Menu)What is your annual revenue? Under $49K, $50k - $99K, $100K - $249K,Over $250 Great for segmenting people into mutually exclusive groups.Make sure you offer options to capture all possible responses. Limit the number of categories to under 10 to avoid annoying respondents. Make sure answer options don’t overlap or you can confuse people. Multiple Choice - CheckboxWhich of the following magazines do you subscribe to? (Check all that apply.)Great for gathering info about traits or behaviors that are not mutually exclusive.Can be used to find correlations or relationships between two or more things. Limit the number of options to avoid annoying respondents. Include an “other” option. Interval ScaleHow would you rate the quality of our customer service? (Scale of 1-5)Great for measuring sentiment and intensity of an opinion or attitude. Can also be used to measure the frequency of a behavior. Limit the number of options to avoid annoying respondents. Be consistent in how you use the scale across your survey. Ranking ScaleSort the following items in order of preference, with the first item being your favorite and the last item being your least favorite. Great for understanding the relative value or importance of options. Keep the options simple and the list short (under 7 options). Open-Ended TextboxWhat is the primary benefit you get from our product? Good for gathering open-ended feedback. Limit these questions because they are time-consuming to answer and analyze.
The way a question is worded can have a big impact on results. Questions must be clear, direct and unassuming. Confusing, poorly worded or misleading questions can turn a promising research project into a mess really quickly. Here are a few pitfalls to avoid.
The majority of surveys today are conducted online. There are a lot of affordable, easy-to-use online survey tools you can use to setup and administer your survey. Each option has advantages and disadvantages, but regardless of which solution you use—always test your survey before distributing it to customers.Once you have tested your survey and are confident the questions are clear, it’s time to start gathering feedback from your target audience.
There are two primary factors that impact the number of people who will complete your survey--motivation and friction. Offering an incentive for participation, such as a free gift or raffle entry, can greatly increase motivation, as can simply explaining the purpose of your research. It also helps to set a deadline for participation to create urgency. Friction is anything that makes it difficult to take the survey, such as length and the difficulty of questions. Keep the survey as short as possible to prevent fatigue. Remember, as your survey gets longer, the number of people who complete it gets shorter. A typical survey should take no longer than 5-7 minutes to complete. Don’t make your respondents think too hard which taking the survey. Limit the number of open-ended essay questions and complex ranking questions. Also consider limiting the number of required questions, which will increase your overall response rate.
Once you’ve completed your overall analysis, identify two or three possible ways of slicing your data for further review. For example, you could segment your data by industry or annual revenue to see if there is a difference in behaviors between the groups. Avoid the temptation to extrapolate too much from the data. While it can be really exciting to uncover findings in your data, remember that outliers can skew your data in unexpected ways. Know your margin of error (link to calculator) and keep that in mind when comparing groups. You generally need at least 100 respondents in one group for the analysis to be meaningful or trustworthy. Finally, don’t lose sight of the original goal of your survey. Charts and graphs are fun, but stay focused on the data that can support into your research objectives and provide insight into the bigger questions. Data and statistics can supply you with numbers, but only you can make sense of them in the context of your business.