How many times have you filled out a survey for fun? Maybe it was a personality quiz, a general knowledge survey, or questionnaire that helped you pick the best career path. Regardless of the type, there is an element of fun about surveys, and the results can be rather illuminating. Surveys can also be a highly effective tool for businesses to use.
When used correctly, customer surveys can provide the types and amounts of information businesses use to guide their direction and help set milestones. In honor of surveys, let’s review their history and examine why businesses use them.
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Customer Surveys Looked Very Different When They Were Introduced
If you think about today’s customer surveys, you likely picture doing one online. The internet has made customer surveys a breeze, quick, and accessible to all. But when surveys were first introduced, the internet didn’t exist. Companies would print surveys on respondent cards or in letter form, send them in the mail, and hope people would fill them out and send them back. As you can imagine, this entire process took much longer. Even so, many customers took the time to share their thoughts and send them back.
However, mail-in surveys weren’t the only option. Some companies would also conduct customer surveys by phone. They would call customers on their landline and ask them a series of questions. The survey would typically last a few minutes, and the person conducting it would be responsible for noting all their answers.
Compiling Customer Responses Was Time-Intensive Before the Internet
Gathering all the feedback and information was a huge job. All the notes would be handwritten, which already slowed down the process immensely. Then there was the issue of using that information to determine and analyze trends, both good and bad, regarding the number of people who responded in the same or similar ways.
If a company had more than one location, all the comment cards and feedback would be sent back to a central branch. This made it a little easier to sort through the data. From there, a company would parse out the data further and start to use it to create goals, milestones, targets, and future launches and offerings.
The Internet Transformed Surveys
It wasn’t until the internet came along that the landscape of surveys dramatically changed. What was once a time-intensive process was simplified and streamlined. The internet also made surveys more accessible to customers, which translated to even more responses.
By their very nature, computers are meant to compute and crunch numbers, and in the realm of surveys that was very welcome. Suddenly data analysts could go through large amounts of information, plot trends, make graphs, and more.
Email marketing was the first form introduced in the mid- to late 1990s. An email was sent to a person with a link to a survey, and the recipient would fill it out. In the late 2000s, a new tech device was introduced that changed the landscape once again. Smartphones suddenly gave people access to the internet in a portable user-friendly device. As you may expect, this meant that even more people started filling out surveys.
Today, you can use specific software to quickly create a professional-looking survey with no prior experience. Many of these allow you to customize the way the survey looks, and you can even make things like polls and questionnaires. SurveyMonkey is one of the most popular tools, but it’s far from the only one that exists.
Surveys Can Shine Light on Product Launches
As a company grows and evolves, it’s natural for it to offer new products and services. But even though diversification may seem like a natural next step, it doesn’t mean that customers will automatically be on board and embrace the changes with open arms. This is why it’s important to do customer research before creating a new product and again when you’re getting close to launching it.
A great example is an online casino that may conduct a survey to see if it is viable to launch Sweet Bonanza 1000 demo slot by Pragmatic Play before actually doing it. It’s highly beneficial for a business to know it’s delivering a product that will excite customers and drive purchases.
Increase Survey Completion Rates With Incentives
One issue companies may face is a low survey response rate. If you don’t get the necessary customer feedback, it’s hard to use that information to shape the future of the company. A good tip is to offer incentives for people to fill out the survey. You could frame it as a contest or give everyone a perk for filling out the survey.
Some of the most popular ways to incentivize people to fill out the survey are to offer free shipping, a discount code, first access to an exclusive product, a gift with a purchase, and so on. Go ahead, get creative with the incentive. You’ll be surprised at how big of an impact it can have on the survey response numbers.
Customer Surveys Have Stood the Test of Time
Customer surveys aren’t new, but they don’t always get the attention and respect they deserve. The fact remains that they are a relatively simple tool to use with results that can have a massive positive impact on a business. Business owners like to think they are in touch with their customers’ wants and needs, but until you take the time to ask them, you can never be sure.