Here are some quick, simple tips to use when evaluating your customer satisfaction survey design. This is Part 1 of 3 that covers ideas on What to Ask and How to Ask It.
WHAT TO ASK
You should seek information that you can act on. Think about what you will do with the information you receive, and then frame the question to get you that information. Try to avoid asking questions that make you say “that would be really interesting to know but I’m not sure what we’d do with it.” Your customers are busy so show them that you value their time by only asking what you plan to act on.
Make sure you’re only asking about one thing at a time. Your question shouldn’t tackle two issues at once. Be clear and concise, and only ask about one specific thing in a question. For example, if you ask “Was the representative knowledgeable and courteous?” you are really asking two questions: “Was the representative knowledgeable” and “Was the representative courteous?” They are different so decide which you want to measure.
Make sure there is only one interpretation of what you are asking. You don’t want one customer thinking you mean something totally different than another. Ask people around your office for their interpretation of your question if you think it might be too vague. Too many different answers mean you should consider rephrasing and testing again (unless it’s an open-ended question, of course).
Don’t ask anything you should be measuring internally through operational KPI’s. I see this on surveys time and time again. If there is something that you can specifically measure through your operational metrics, consider not asking the customer to provide you with that information. For example, “Did our service person arrive on time?” If you have the technology to measure that, then measure it! And hold your teams accountable to the standard. You should be able to match up your survey data to your operational data and check whether there is a correlation between being on time and customer satisfaction. However, the reality is that not everyone has the reporting capabilities and resources to do so. If that’s true for you, try to minimize the number of things you ask that you should already have access to.
HOW TO ASK IT
Walk the customer through the experience in an order that makes sense. Think about the experience that you’re evaluating with the survey. Try to recreate the experience in the customer’s mind with your questions. In other words, don’t ask about various aspects of the experience out of sequence.
Don’t ask leading questions. Make sure your questions are not directing customers to a particular answer. You are seeking honest, unbiased feedback, right?
Use appropriate lingo. This one is tough sometimes. When you’re an expert on how a process works internally, it’s hard to differentiate internal jargon from layman’s terms. You want to avoid using internal terms and abbreviations that won’t make sense to the customer.The best test here is to grab a friend from outside your department or company to proof-read the survey. See if it makes sense to her. Now, sometimes it makes sense to use industry lingo. For example, if you’re surveying someone about a technical process, the recipient could be an engineer and he might think it’s silly for you to be using non-technical terminology. Ultimately, evaluate your recipients and make sure they’ll understand the words you use.
Next up in Survey Design Part 2: Standard Questions, Question Scale, and Survey Length