Evaluating customer satisfaction: how to make a survey on the web?

Today, you can find a huge number of ways to promote a website, product or service, so it's harder to focus on one thing. There is a way out - use a variety of tools in one way or another and then assess how effectively they worked. We will consider an important method of sociological research on the Web. This is an assessment of customer satisfaction through a survey.

What is an online survey?

Surely many of you at least once saw on the site questionnaires devoted to the quality of service or goods, questions about the relevance of content, the design of the site or your attitude to any problem. Perhaps, some of you, such an internet poll came to the e-mail? Did you answer the questions in the questionnaires or did you have a waste of time?

In fact, customer questioning is a very effective way to get feedback from all corners of the world. Especially advanced companies organize skype conferences and focus groups to get to know their client base better . Not convincing? Then here are some important advantages of this method of research.

Advantages of Internet Surveys

• You can evaluate customer satisfaction in a short time, without waiting for him to contact you again for the purchase.
• It is possible to evaluate several respondents simultaneously using a single questionnaire, which will greatly facilitate the work and save the interviewer time.
• The Internet survey is much cheaper than the printed one and practically does not require financial investments.
• There is an opportunity to show various materials and presentations (videos, cards, photos).
• You can answer questions anonymously, without contacting the interviewer.
• Of course, like any method of research, assessing customer satisfaction through a questionnaire has a number of drawbacks.

Disadvantages of Internet surveys

• In some cases, one can find a low level of representativeness of the sample, i.e. Sometimes it is not clear in which status and financial situation the interviewed person is, and for this you will have to ask questions that can not always be answered honestly.
• The problem of interviewing people of the older generation, because Few of them use Internet technologies.
• Difficulties in carrying out in-depth studies, since there is no possibility of asking clarifying questions.

But despite the existing conditions, the assessment of customer satisfaction using the questionnaire is used quite often. The most important thing is to make the questionnaire correct so that the respondent does not have any questions during the filling process and he wants to answer honestly and to the end. We will analyze the main steps that help to do this.

Step one - motivation of the survey participants

Naturally, your audience can be busy with many other things and it will not solve your problems. Therefore, an effective means of motivation is needed. Offer a prize or a discount for filling, depending on what you are implementing.

Step two - the simplicity of the wording

The questions of the questionnaire should be simple, understandable and easy to understand. Do not use complicated formulations and complex sentences. It is unlikely that someone will reread the questions several times, and the meaning of the written may be distorted by the respondent, which means that the assessment of customer satisfaction will be erroneous.

It is much easier to answer simple questions with several options or answers "yes" or "no". Direct the respondents to the direction you need. Suggest the opposite options, let's assess this or that side of the activity on a ten-point scale.

Include open-ended questions, to which the respondent should respond independently, but do not abuse them.

Step Three - Building a Questionnaire

The questionnaire sent, especially if it is a customer satisfaction questionnaire, should begin with a greeting. It is better if it is addressed. Next, there should be a block of social issues, clarification of sex and age, if necessary. Then there is a questioning on the topic, beginning with closed ones (with suggested answers), ending with open questions. In the end, please thank the participant for the answer.

What should I avoid?

First, these are the moments that you can find out on your own. For example, how often does a user visit a site or what he has already purchased in a store. On the basis of data on his purchases, you can even form an opinion about what novelties he will be interested in and what dispatches he will receive.

Secondly, avoid questions about earnings and income, any personal moments (illness, intimate sphere, participation in anti-political activities), in other words, about those topics that a person is unlikely to answer frankly.

Thirdly, do not overload the questionnaire with questions, on the 15th point your respondent will get bored, and on the 20th, he will stop responding at all. The optimal number is 10.

Fourthly, do not forget about the targeting of your questionnaire. The respondent should understand what he is being asked about, otherwise the sense of the poll is lost.

And, finally, do not ask obvious questions, to which the person will respond positively to his own benefit. For example, would you like to get a discount or a gift?

In conclusion, I would like to note that customer satisfaction largely depends on your understanding of what he needs and what to offer him. Ignorance of requirements leads to the fact that you produce an unclaimed product, which means that you have no chance to get a satisfied satisfied customer. The second point is to adequately understand your own strengths and weaknesses, and you can do this only with the help of opinion polling, ie, Questionnaires.