How to Create A Survey To Collect Customer Feedback

The feedback that you need can be collected through online customer satisfaction surveys. It will give you an insight that helps you make better decisions and tells you what improvements you need to make. 

Such as, what are their likes and dislikes, are your prices too high, is your staff doing well, and so on. 

Also, if you are putting a new product on the market or updating the one you already have, the feedback is priceless.

Whether it is about design, functionality, style, or packaging, the customers may point out the problems you would otherwise miss.

 Accordingly, here’s how to create a survey to collect customer feedback. 

1. Construct the questions properly 

Every question you include in your survey should have a defined purpose and a strong reason why it is being formed. 

So, make sure to cut off unnecessary questions. Have the purpose of the survey in mind, so the questions are suitable for the purpose. 

For example, if knowing the customer’s name or how they found your site does not improve your product or brand, CRM, avoid that question when making a survey. 

Also, you will prevent the survey from becoming unnecessarily long and the risk of the customers simply exiting the site.

Another tip when it comes to constructing questions is to use open-ended questions.  As a box of text connected to the question may seem overwhelming to one filling in the survey, it surely gives you the most insightful feedback. Visually, multiple-choice questions seem like a better option. 

However, the customer will not have the chance to explain their thoughts and concerns. One of the best tactics is to provide a simple introduction followed by a question like ‘Why do you feel this way?’

In addition, try to include one question at a time. If the customer is hit with a series of questions, they might look to get over it as soon as possible. 

Focusing on one point at a time will make it easier for them to complete the survey. 

Moreover, take advantage of yes/no questions. The customers will appreciate the easy and quick way to respond, and you can follow it with an open-ended question.

2. Be Consistent

What is helpful to the survey takers is that they see consistency in, for example, rating scales.

If you previously told them to rate a claim about a product 1-5, where 1- ‘Strongly Disagree’ and 5= ‘Strongly Agree,’ it should stay consistent until the end of the survey.

The problem can arise if later number 1 is assigned as ‘Most Important’ and 5 the least, as it can become confusing. Consequently, some may miss this chance and give inaccurate answers.

3. Try not to assume

Unless your survey is targeted to a specific subset of people, try not to assume the customers know a lot about the subject in question. 

Avoiding assumptions will help you avoid problems such as the customer not understanding the terminology used in the question. Therefore, can’t respond to it properly. 

 It is advisable to stay away from industry acronyms or jargon. 

Also, try not to assume customers will answer with specific examples. It is better to ask them specific questions such as ‘How do you feel about (blank)? Feel free to be specific’. 

4. Choose the Right Software

Conducting surveys doesn't have to be a hassle if you use a survey maker. You can try a free tool like  Jotform Survey Maker to make collecting feedback easier. It has all the features you would need to help you create engaging surveys. Jotform's easy drag-and-drop interface is really intuitive and can save you loads of time because it requires no coding at all. If you are conducting research or gathering user feedback, letting your users come to you is a very efficient way to collect submissions.

Try their templates to get you started and use conditional logic to make the survey experience worth it for your users. Once your survey is ready, share it with a link or QR code or embed it onto your website. If you need extra features, don't worry because their many app integrations will let you streamline your workflow.

5.  Make it Short and Simple 

Try to find the shortest way to ask the question without drifting away from its intent. 

Accordingly, try to make the survey shot. Therefore, the customers will not quit the survey before they finish as they saw that it would take 30 minutes of their time.

6. Show Gratitude

What shows to be a successful way to entice customers to take the survey is to offer them some stimulus. For example, a discount or a giveaway.

As this may seem to spoil the customers and decrease the quality of the answers, studies show it is not frequently the case.

Of course, your gratitude should be something the brand can afford, which is why some go for free trials rather than gifts or extensive discounts.

Additionally, even though people can do surveys regularly, try not to survey the same customer more than once or twice a year.

It will show your respect to the customer as they won’t get tired or annoyed.

What’s important to remember

Keep in mind that the customer data proved by your survey might not be 100% correct.

Research has shown that a small number of people tend to lie on the survey if the questions include something about their beliefs or belonging.

Plus, there is a possibility that people give inaccurate answers by accident. Yes, predicting the future intentions of those buyers may be difficult in that case. 

What happens is that they cannot recall particular details or events or misplace the events in time.

As customers can take many actions to improve one’s memory and focus, one of the fun ones certainly includes jigsaw puzzles.

Conclusion

Whether you want to know how your new product is doing on the market or did the update of an old one do the trick, collecting the customers' feedback is crucial.

It helps you get the perspective of those who consume and support your product. 

Therefore, including the customers' opinions and making them part of your success story enables you to grow your business.

Pointing out the disadvantage of the product or service, whether that is about the design, style, or functionality, helps you reduce problems.

Therefore, follow these guidelines in order to create a survey to collect customer feedback successfully.