The biggest pitfalls in customer satisfaction research

Customer satisfaction is critical for businesses and organizations. A customer satisfaction survey provides valuable insights that help increase your customers’ satisfaction. There’s a prerequisite for that, though: that you conduct the survey the right way and don’t fall into any of the many pitfalls you may encounter along the way. Find out what the biggest pitfalls are when conducting a customer satisfaction survey and prevent you from making the same mistakes.

1. Demanding too much time from your customers

A good customer satisfaction survey is short and simple. Don’t expect your customers to have oceans of time to participate in your survey. Therefore, make sure your survey is quick to conduct, whatever method you use. Are you calling your clients to discuss a questionnaire? Designate in advance how long the call will take approximately and stick to it. Similarly, if you have your clients fill out a questionnaire, name in advance how much time it will take to complete. Try not to let your survey take longer than five minutes.

Don’t expect your customers to have oceans of time to participate in your research.

2. Do nothing with the results

The most common reason for not participating in customer satisfaction surveys is because nothing is done with the results anyway. Many customers feel that their feedback is not taken seriously, and therefore do not bother to provide feedback. Doing nothing with the results of your survey is a waste in two ways: you get less response to your next survey and you throw away valuable information. So always make sure you analyze the results of your customer satisfaction survey and really do something with them. Link this back to your customers and employees.

3. Not measuring frequently enough

A one-time customer satisfaction survey is a waste of time. If you have made changes in your operations and services based on the results, you naturally want to know whether these have actually been improvements. Is customer satisfaction higher now that you have started working on the points of improvement that emerged from the survey? You will only find out if you conduct a follow-up survey. Even better: conduct continuous customer satisfaction surveys. That way you can keep your finger on the pulse and intervene immediately when satisfaction is declining.

Always make sure you analyze your customer satisfaction survey results and actually do something with them.

4. Mismatch with target audience

Make sure your research method suits the target audience. For example, older people prefer to be called while you can reach a younger target group much better through social media. Are your target groups very different? Then it is definitely worth developing different customer satisfaction surveys.

5. An anonymous survey

There is still a misconception that customer satisfaction surveys should be anonymous. The idea behind this is that people are more honest when they can give their opinions anonymously. However, an opinion is much more valuable when you know who it comes from. In addition, customers often don’t mind at all telling you by name what they think of your service.

Conduct continuous customer satisfaction surveys. That way you keep your finger on the pulse and can take immediate action when satisfaction deteriorates.

6. No support among your employees

Make sure your employees know about and support the customer satisfaction survey. Let them think about the questions and, if possible, help carry out the survey. For example, spend an afternoon together calling customers or have your employees approach customers in your store for a customer satisfaction survey. Don’t forget to feedback the results to your employees. That way you create support and enthusiasm for the survey.

7. Not being involved yourself

Customer satisfaction surveys are often completely outsourced to research agencies. Of course, such an agency knows a lot about conducting customer satisfaction surveys, but they don’t know your company as well as you do. In addition, customers are much more willing to cooperate with a survey if they are approached by someone they know within the company. Make your customer feel that you are truly interested in their opinion and show commitment. You will be rewarded for this with a higher response rate to your survey and more valuable answers.

Make your customer feel that you are truly interested in their opinion and show commitment.

8. Asking the wrong questions

Coming up with good questions for your customer satisfaction survey is the trickiest part. The questions should not be too complicated, should be easy to answer, should fit the target audience and should provide valuable answers. For example, beware of suggestive questions, where you’re subconsciously steering the customer in their answer, and keep the questions as open-ended as possible.

Want a good conversation about how to ask the right questions? Feel free to call us at 0971 50 884 6516.