How can you create customer satisfaction surveys that work?

Having 29+ years experience in customer handling, it's obvious I have great passion to create customer experience... Will post my views

I agree. Defining goals is very important when designing surveys or feedback forms. Most companies use a generic format which confuses customers many a time. Also, such formats do not give precise learning aspects to the company. A CSAT form should always be clear, crisp, and most importantly quick. It should be custom made classifying at least three different categories that include feedback on the product/service, feedback on the company, and feedback about the agent/interaction. Only then the feedback can help the company grow. Improper or inaccurate feedback tools will lead the companies in the wrong direction.

That’s true the first principle in CS world is ‘understand goal & objectives’ which gives a sense of perspective how to build an effective customer metrics system which is completely tailored depending on the customer business goals. Following CSAT, NPS, Health-score, etc will not help in long run unless its not been define based on customer preference, effectiveness & needs

This is a very vital aspect. A lot of companies ask for feedback post 24 hours or a few days. 50% of the customers ignore it since the work is already done. Also, sometimes the customer query/interaction needs a specific time frame to be resolved. A lot of times companies ask for feedback before the work is done. In this case, the customers would either avoid sharing feedback or end up giving negative feedback. Hence, Timing plays a vital role. The feedback needs to be hit at the right time in order to collect accurate data. Each customer is different hence, you should keep at least 2-3 survey methods and depending upon the type and profile of the customer choose one that fits best to the purpose.

It's also important to create an atmosphere within the revenue department that encourages the customer to provide feedback. A good way to increase customer engagement is to add a section to the Quarterly Business Review and provide personalized follow-up with every development.

Don't think of them as survey questions, think of them as extremely rare opportunities to prove or disprove your most important hypotheses. Make a list of the things you need to know, want to know that you either don't know or that you think that you know and need to validate. List out for each what you your hypothesis is about how the customer might answer the question and what action the answer will drive.

We have done surveys with and without this and there is a difference in results. Incentives get you better scores, so people use them when NPS/CSAT is their KPIs and bonuses are involved. But the people who are unhappy still leave those negative comments for the company to work on, so if you are looking for these negative comments you can still use this strategy

Very important. Nothing comes for free. To increase participation, companies need to incentivize the feedback program. Gone are the days when people participate in feedback for free. They need some motivation. The feedback is taken to improvise and increase the profitability of the company at the end of the day. discounts, vouchers, etc can be game-changers with respect to collecting feedback.

Companies need to balance the pros and cons of this approach. You may get a large proportion of respondents responding just to get the incentive and you've collected information that will not be useful for decision making.

No! Analyze and act on your questions first. Nearly always you will have too many questions to include, so the key to a successful survey comes not in the answers but in the questions you prioritize from the available options and how you word them. Prioritize your questions based on the impact the knowledge obtained from each will be and your ability to take action to de-risk innovation investments, improve an experience for customers or employees, or other desired survey outcomes based on the responses.

Surveys like NPS (Net Promoter Score) and CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) help businesses gauge customer loyalty and satisfaction. NPS identifies promoters, detractors, and overall sentiment, while CSAT measures satisfaction with specific interactions. Both aid in improving products, services, and customer experiences, leading to enhanced growth and retention.

Use tools which help unlock qualitative insights (e.g. NLP driven sentiment analysis) as this helps you to keep your surveys significantly shorter; even as simple as a 2 question survey: 1 questions that measures the quantitative metric like NPS, CSAT, etc. and the open ended question which asks the respondent to either explain the rating or advise on how they feel their experience could be improved.

Creating effective customer surveys involves careful planning and consideration of several factors. Remember, the key to creating effective customer surveys is to make them easy to understand, engaging, and valuable to both you and your customers Clearly define the survey's objectives: . Keep it concise: Shorter surveys are more likely to be completed. Use simple language: Write clear and straightforward questions . Avoid leading questions: Make sure your questions are neutral and unbiased to get honest responses. Set realistic expectations: Inform customers about the survey's purpose and the estimated time required to complete it. Provide an incentive: Offer to get back to them. Analyze and act on feedback!