When was the last time you filled out an online questionnaire for a business? For many consumers, the answer is “never.” Long surveys, essay-length answers, and difficult-to-find contact forms can make it almost impossible for your clients to give you the feedback you want. Ninety-six percent of customers with a complaint will never tell the company, but they’ll tell their family and friends. We don’t want that, and neither do you. So, what’s the solution?
How to Encourage Customers to Provide More Feedback
There’s a balance between what your clients want and what you need. The feedback process has to be as easy as possible: the fewest steps, the clearest instructions, and the knowledge that you genuinely want their opinions are all essential.
Make It Easy
Unless you’ve done something extremely impressive or extremely aggravating, it’s unlikely that someone will go out of their way to let you know how you’re doing. People using your service need to be explicitly asked for their feedback in as few questions as possible.
One-question polls on your website are a great example of this. Just let them know ahead of time how long it will be. Even the best intentions can turn sour when they’re 27 minutes into a survey they thought would take three. Add a progress bar or a counter for how many pages or questions are left.
Reassure Them They’re Helping
Nobody wants to seem rude. If someone at the front desk was distracted during their interaction, maybe your client doesn’t want to get her in trouble. Making it clear that you want and need their honest feedback is important to making customers comfortable with divulging useful details.
People don’t want to be forced into anything, but many will go out of their way to help out someone who has personally asked for their advice. Although we recommend keeping personal feelings out of survey responses, they’ll be much more honest if they know they don’t have to impact an employee’s work status.
Less Is (Usually) More
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to customer feedback, but there is a way to make your solution work for everyone. After you request for their opinion, make it clear that you’re always open to hear more!
Provide a convenient contact link or an optional, more in-depth survey they can fill out after the easy answers. Use open-ended questions here, such as “What’s something we can do better?” We bet they’ll have a response you wouldn’t have considered.
Keep It Simple
Make sure that when you ask questions of your customers, you aren’t confusing or distracting them with several questions at once. It’s also a great idea to follow up with them after, especially to let them know that you’ve been able to implement their feedback.
It’s important to remember that people might not want to spend a lot of time on this. Polls and surveys that are made of sliders, multiple choice, rankings, and open-ended comment boxes can feel cluttered and disorganized. Keep it simple and limit the types of questions in your feedback forms to one or two.
Candid and honest feedback is important to keeping your business the best it can be. Use these tips (and ask nicely) to see what your clients really think about you. Your survey completion rates will go up, and you’ll collect valuable consumer data.
The MSR Group specializes in helping our clients get the most out of their customer surveys. Learn more about our APECS Workforce solution and you’ll find the best ways to continue to grow your business!
