Customer Satisfaction Surveys:
How to Use Web-Based Surveys for Better Results

By Jeffrey Henning, COO at Perseus Development Corp. (www.perseus.com)

   The reasons for organizations to perform a customer satisfaction survey are obvious:  to obtain feedback to improve satisfaction.  Dissatisfied customers can represent lost business.  Measuring the level of satisfaction felt by customers is the first step to improving it.  Businesses can discover what proportion is satisfied, identify problem areas that can be addressed and, if changed, could result in higher satisfaction and repeat buyer behavior.  As improvements are implemented, based on the survey results, one is able to measure changes in satisfaction by performing benchmark surveys at specified time intervals.

Web Surveys:  A cost-effective, efficient approach

   Why don't all companies regularly survey their customers? Using traditional paper-based methods, customer surveys are expensive and time-consuming. First, you need to design the survey. Then, because paper surveys are usually mailed, you need to print mailing labels and stuff envelopes. Once the surveys are completed, you need someone to key in the answers carrying a greater risk of inaccuracy. If the response rate is too low, it may be necessary to send reminder mailings, adding to the cost of your survey. These factors are why consultants typically charge between $10,000 and $20,000 or more to handle a satisfaction survey for a 1,000-employee company. You can save money by doing it yourself but the demand on your staff's time is high.

   Web surveys are an entirely different experience. You do not pay for printing the surveys, stuffing envelopes, postage costs, mailing out reminders and typing the answers into your database. As with everything else on the web, the cost of delivering information to the customers and collecting their responses is effectively zero. The only real costs are designing and publishing the survey on the web.

Today there are survey software packages (starting at less then $500) that make implementing a web survey easy and cost-effective. 

   Web surveys dramatically reduce the cost and significantly improve the quality of the results you receive. Response rates are typically higher on the web because surveys are easier to fill out and respondents can complete them at their convenience. Survey response options are controlled and validated while the survey is being completed eliminating data entry errors and ensuring a higher quality response. Web-based surveys save analysis time because the data is collected automatically and the results are immediately analyzed and charted.

So, how do you get started? 

1.  Identify your objectives. 
     1) Understand what you want to learn and write a survey that will get the information you need.
     2) Run the survey process so everything goes smoothly and you minimize the work necessary.
     3) Learn to interpret the answers you get, so you know what conclusions you can and cannot draw.

2.  Determine the survey population. 

Is the population opened or closed?  That is, do you want to survey your entire company or just certain departments?  How will you control or limit access?  There are several possible techniques including security codes, embedded URL coding, cookies, unlinked web pages, and password security. 

3.  Develop a strategy for attracting or inviting respondents. 

Today, most web-based surveys are completed by invitation. Typically you invite people to participate in the survey with an e-mailed invitation. The invitation is a very important element in the success of a web-based survey. When you develop your invitation it is important to keep it personal.  Keep the invitation short and get to the point quickly. Whether to include an incentive or not depends on the type of survey being conducted, the length of the survey and motivation of the customer to complete the survey.

4.  Identify the tools to implement your survey.

The recent introduction of inexpensive and easy-to-use web survey tools has made it much easier to create web surveys, collect responses and analyze the results. (SurveySolutions Standard by Perseus is an excellent survey tool.)  First of all, the latest Windows-based survey tools make creating the survey almost as easy as writing a letter in a word processor. Therefore, a marketing manager can create the survey on his/her own without getting their IT staff involved. Secondly, survey software has automated the process of gathering, analyzing and reporting the results. These tools, automatically collect each response, store it in a database table and offer pre-defined reports for presenting the results.

5. Design your survey.

Most survey software packages provide wizards to help design and create questions offering step-by-step guidance through the creation process of a single question. These wizards sequentially ask the user to enter a question heading, question text, question type and then create a custom or select a preformatted scale or response choice. Click Finish and the question is automatically inserted into the survey.

Tips for creating a web survey:

--Use the appropriate response icons. Radio buttons should be used for single choice (choose one of the following) selection questions. Check boxes for multiple selection questions (choose all that apply).

--Avoid the use of too many open-ended questions. Open-ended questions generate long responses and prove difficult to analyze.

--Keep it short and simple.  Single-page surveys are preferred.  Try to keep the survey between 25 and 35 questions and no more that 15 minutes. Ten minutes is ideal. Of course, this depends largely on the subject your objectives.

--Use section headings. Section headings make it easy for people to navigate a survey.

--Don't forget respondent feedback.  Add a customized thank-you page at the end of the survey.  Also, you need to decide if you want to share the results of the survey with employees. 

6.  Post Your Survey to the Web

After you have created your survey, you need to post it to your website and send out the invitation to your email list.  Wizards can be used to simplify the process of posting the survey to your web site and manage the survey response collection process. Usually survey responses are either stored on the web server or, as with the newer software, automatically e-mailed back to your workstation.

7.  Collect and report results. 

After the results are collected from the web or e-mail program, they are automatically loaded into a database. When selecting survey software make sure the results database is not proprietary, as you may want to export the data to other applications or append it to other databases for additional analysis. Select software that provides reporting capabilities such as automatically creating a frequency report or presentation of the survey results. You may also require the ability to create custom reports and charts so having the ability to access data on an ad hoc basis would be an important factor to consider.

 

  It has become as easy and inexpensive to execute customer surveys on the web as it is to provide product information to customers. The significance of this is now there is no longer any excuse not to be up-to-date on how your customers feels and what you can do to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Web-based customer satisfaction surveys let you keep your finger on the pulse of your business at minimal expense.