Log onto any shopping website, and you are more than likely to have a pop-up appear asking you to take a quick “customer satisfaction” survey. Some take it, and some do not. As a business owner, these can be great tool to gauge how well your business connects with your customers. However, what happens if those taking customer satisfaction surveys are not honest? While these surveys seem like a great way to learn more about your customers, they are not always accurate.
Try Googling “Do customer surveys work”, and you will come up with a plethora of opinions. Some business owners love them, and believe that they help better their businesses. Others do not like them, and believe that opinions can be ill placed. While that may be the case, making sure that dedicated customers fill out surveys may be a help to your business.
According to econsultancy.com, only about 10% of customers actually fill out customer satisfaction surveys. That leaves you in the dark about the thoughts and feelings of almost 90% of your customers. While it is always okay in a brick and mortar store to say, “Could you please take a minute and fill out our customer satisfaction survey”, customers usually want to take their purchase and leave. With online customers, you cannot actually gauge the person who is taking the survey. It could simply be someone browsing, who has never been to your website before, let alone purchased anything. While their first impression is valuable, it does not lend the data that a response from a dedicated customer could.
However, filling out these surveys after every visit (be it an online visit or brick and mortar visit) can lead a customer to feeling burned out. In addition, it is hard for customers to believe that there are not being tracked. These days there is so much unwanted spam and excessive sales strategies that customers are often hesitant to give information that may lead to more sales calls in the future. Without ample assurance that the survey will not be used to target them directly, it may be hard to get the responses you want.
Customer satisfaction surveys are a double –edged sword. They can help your business with their feedback, but the feedback might not be 100% accurate. While it is common for businesses, both online and brick and mortar, to use these surveys, you might want to steer clear of them. In case you are curious, you can simply ask loyal customers for their “honest” opinions about your business.
