How to design questionnaires to receive customer feedback and suggestions to always receive the most accurate data

All of us have gone through them. And all of us couldn't make it to the end. Poorly designed, incomprehensible, overly specific, or overly general service quality surveys. We opened the survey with good intentions, ready to transfer our knowledge to an organization that we thought was interested in our opinion, only in order to find leading questions aimed at obtaining only positive feedback... Surveys of this kind are annoyed by respondents half-way or go through thoughtlessly, providing meaningless data. Make sure this doesn't happen to you. Consider the right (and wrong) ways to design a customer feedback questionnaire that will provide you with the valuable information you need.

5 ways to compose wrong service quality survey

1. A limited set of answer options. If among the options for answering a question there is no option that the respondent needs, this puts him in an unpleasant position. Now the respondent has a choice: to answer inaccurately, to skip the question, or to stop taking the survey altogether. This is not conducive to obtaining the desired results. Try to add “Don't know” or “Other” to multiple-choice questions, or consider how the respondent adds his or her own answer.
2. Two-part answers with only one choice... “Did you like our service and assortment? Yes or no?" What if your service was impeccable but the assortment was incomplete? If the respondent is unable to accurately answer this question, be prepared to receive missed questions or, worse, inaccurate answers. Make sure you ask for one separate answer for each question. See our blog for an article on getting the most out of your multiple choice or follow-up questions.
3. Requiring an answer to every question. Yes, it would be great if every single question in the QoS survey was answered thoroughly and completely. However, this simply does not happen in real life; people are too busy and unable to concentrate. Sometimes the questions are skipped randomly, sometimes the respondent is reluctant to provide relevant data, and sometimes the question just confuses him. If you are asking for an answer to every single question (even the smallest), be prepared for a high percentage of unfinished surveys. Keep the number of required questions to a minimum and allow respondents to skip over as they see fit.
4. Too many questions. Please do not annoy your kind respondents with an endless number of pages with very detailed questions about every aspect of your business. Make your survey as concise as possible for customer feedback and suggestions, and your chances of getting useful insights will be greatly increased. Sometimes a simple one-question survey, such as the Net Promoter® Score questionnaire, is sufficient. Remember that you can conduct follow-up surveys at any time and learn more with each opinion survey you conduct.
5. Forgetting the goal. It is very easy to ask a lot of questions to get as much information as possible. However, each survey should pursue a specific goal, the achievement of which should be facilitated by each individual question. Do not forget about your goal and you will receive valuable information.

Easily get your business data

Find out how we can tailor the right surveys for your business and automate your surveys across all your customer touchpoints.

5 ways to design great surveys to get customer feedback and suggestions

1. Be impartial. It's hard to be objective when you think your customer service is excellent. Forget what you know for a while and let your customers express their opinion. Avoid embellishing the questions with qualitative ratings, for example, "What is your opinion of our friendly customer service representatives?" This is a leading question that is unlikely to bring accurate results... Instead, ask a focused question about an aspect of your customer service, for example, “How quickly did our customer service representatives help you?”
2. Avoid hypothetical questions. Most people find it difficult to determine exactly what they can and cannot do in a hypothetical situation. Do not make up “what if” situations in customer service that the respondent may never have experienced. Focus on situations that accurately represent the real aspects of customer service. Use Likert questions to help clients rate their experience.
3. Use clear questions. If respondents have to reread questions several times to understand them, or if they are required to provide essay-sized long answers several times, this can lead to a large number of unfinished surveys. Write questions that are understandable and that don't take a lot of thought to answer. A question like "How responsive is our company?" is much easier to read (and answer) than asking “If you have used our website, phone system, or help system in the past. e-mail did our customer service representative contact you on time? "
4. Don't ask unnecessary questions. You may want to get the most a large number of information from each survey, but don't be tempted. Customer service surveys that go astray and contain seemingly unrelated questions can annoy or confuse respondents, and in some cases can even raise suspicion.
5. Try to use questions beginning with the word "how much." You can ask questions like "Is our company professional?" That require a "yes" or "no" answer. However, positive and negative responses have a range of connotations of meaning. To make the obtained data even more accurate, try to ask questions starting with the word "how much", for example: "How professional is our company?" with options such as "very professional", "professional" and "completely unprofessional." This will give you a better idea of ​​what aspects of your customer service need to be improved.

Examples of online service quality survey templates

SurveyMonkey has developed a range of methodist-approved QoS survey templates to help you get started quickly and easily. Naturally, you can adapt the questions at any time to bring the survey in line with your needs.

• Customer Satisfaction Survey Template
  Using this customer satisfaction survey template, you can measure customer satisfaction with your company, products and services. By using skip logic, your customers will be able to answer questions about the product or service they actually used, and you will be able to see your potential for improvement.

Sales Generator

We will send the material to you on:

If you are faced with the task of obtaining feedback from buyers, the most effective and popular way is a survey. Customer survey can be carried out both on your own website and in social networks. And how to organize everything - read below.

In this article, you will learn:

1. The main types of surveys
2. The most common ones
3. Step-by-step instruction correct conduct online surveys
4. 5 tips on how to formulate questions correctly
5. What the questionnaire should look like
6. 3 free services to post them on your website

Why do companies conduct customer surveys

By using customer surveys, the company is able to establish a strong connection between the brand and the audience and understand how consumers feel about it. Using the results, you can further improve the proposed product or service.

Consequently, a customer survey helps to obtain real data, on the basis of which the business strategy is adjusted in the future or optimal management decisions are made.

Customer survey can be applied to a variety of purposes.

Get free and factual product reviews

Obtaining customer feedback on the proposed product is one of the difficult tasks. In response to a direct request, buyers are either silent or get off with standard replies in the spirit of "I'm happy with everything."

This problem can be solved by volumetric marketing research, for which you need a considerable budget and the involvement of specialists, or simple free customer surveys on the website or in social networks.

The second option is the most preferred, since it does not require special efforts and high costs.

Identifying the needs and motives of customer behavior

All information about what the audience expects from your product and what else they would like to see in it can be obtained through customer survey. This information can become the basis for the creation of new products or services, as well as for adjusting business processes. Being aware of customer needs will help protect your business from mistakes.

Promotion

Customer surveys help attract new users and motivate them to participate in discussions. Such communications with the company become two-way, thanks to which customers increase loyalty, and the survey location turns into a group for live communication not only with brand representatives, but also with each other.

By using a survey, you show your customers that you are interested in their opinion. For further development, it is necessary to publish the results and the decisions taken as a result.

Content creation

Conducting a customer survey generates three types of content:

• justification of the reasons for holding the vote and a description of its conditions;
• publication of survey results;
• discussion of the results (the so-called user-generated content).

Increase in traffic

By using customer surveys, you can increase the traffic to your community page on social networks. To do this, it is necessary to motivate users to disseminate information about voting on their pages and in other communities.

Main types of customer surveys

Exists two types of customer surveys, each of which has its own functions:

1. Interview.
2. Questioning.

In addition, the following groups of surveys are distinguished:

• personal conversations (face-to-face polls);
• apartment (conducted directly at the place of residence of the respondents);
• street (carried out on the streets, in shopping centers);
• variant with a central location (hall-test).

To obtain information remotely, there are remote polls, which can be divided into:

• internet polls;
• telephone conversations;
• self-filled questionnaires.

Let's take a closer look at each of these types of remote customer surveys.

Telephone survey

This type of survey is used in research, as well as, if necessary, to study the opinion of the population living in areas significantly distant from each other.

The customer survey by telephone is also divided into interviews with legal entities and interviews with individuals.

The algorithm for conducting a telephone survey is as follows. At the first stage, a base is created phone numbers candidates for respondents, which must include absolutely all available contacts.

The next step is to select several random numbers from the collected database. Their owners subsequently become participants in a customer survey by phone.

The advantages of this type of research include:

• execution speed;
• relatively low selling price;
• inclusion in the database of people living in a large area;
• the opportunity to attract customers from different groups;
• no need for quality control of filling out questionnaires by interviewers.

However, in this method there are also disadvantages. For example, there is a significant limitation in the duration of each interview. In addition, conducting such a survey from the outside looks like an imposition of something, so people often, without listening to the end of what they are talking about, hang up.

Nevertheless, a telephone survey of customers today is the most operational. With its help, you get the opportunity to find out the opinions of different groups of the population on all issues of interest.

Such studies are focused primarily on determining the opinion of the population regarding certain brands, goods or companies. They demonstrate market changes and consumer responses.

Submit your application

With a customer phone survey, you can find out how effective an ad campaign has been by conducting research before and after it. The financial costs will be minimal.

However, the disadvantages of this method (restrictions on the degree of complexity of the questions and the time of conversation) do not allow collecting in-depth material. Therefore, this type of survey should not be used when researching a company's income or analyzing the work of management personnel.

Internet survey

The involvement of a significant part of the world's inhabitants in online community makes questioning through the Internet a very effective and efficient type of research. It can also be attributed to operational methods customer survey.

In addition, such a study is not costly in terms of financial and human resources... The resulting data are of high quality.

And the respondents save time, because when filling out the online questionnaire, they are not distracted from their current affairs, they can immediately view the entire questionnaire and have the opportunity to see and evaluate intermediate results testing.

After the end of the study, the developers receive individual feedback, which motivates the respondent to further participate in similar customer surveys. Such loyalty allows attracting people who are included in the circle of communication of the respondent to participate in such tests.

However, Internet polling has one major drawback. The heterogeneity of the attendance of the sites on the basis of which the research is conducted does not allow the developer to control the respondent's actions, which ultimately has a negative effect on the final results of the survey.

Depending on the location of the Internet survey, several paths can be distinguished.

1. Polls on the site.

This is a convenient option for posting your survey. However, for greater efficiency, it is necessary to use other sites, since in in this case the event will be attended only by those users who have visited the site and decided to be tested.

1. Social media polls.

This is by far the most popular way to distribute customer surveys.

1. Polls sent by email.

Allows you to customize the survey for the client.

1. Polls in messengers.

Customer surveys in messengers are carried out using mass messaging.

1. SMS polls.

Using this type of survey, you can also include those who do not have an Internet connection in the list of respondents. It is recommended that the customer send a response message free of charge, otherwise you can scare off potential respondents with paid participation. This customer survey method is not highly effective.

Most common customer surveys

Customer service quality survey

Customer service quality survey may be conducted different ways: using a questionnaire on the website, by phone, by sending a link to an online survey, with the involvement of interviewers.

Quite often, the CSI (customer satisfaction index) methodology is used for such an assessment, which helps to determine the degree of customer satisfaction. The downside to this customer service survey is the number of questions, each of which reduces the response rate. As a result, the reliability of the results of the questionnaire also falls.

Customer service quality surveys are increasingly conducted through regular monitoring using keypads. Similar devices can be found in the branches of many banks. Researching customer satisfaction in this way involves not only taking readings, but also following certain rules.

Customer marketing survey

With customer marketing surveys, you get reliable data about how your audience thinks about new products, services or features. The launch of new proposals must be accompanied by such research. This will allow you to immediately respond and adjust the course if deficiencies are identified.

Surveys like this can be done when beta releases are launched. mobile applications, for preliminary assessment carried out advertising campaign or to investigate the impact of new bundled proposals. The results obtained on their basis should become the foundation of a new strategy.

Customer Satisfaction Survey

Customers' opinions, as well as their level of satisfaction with your brand, are very important criteria for evaluating in a competitive market. An online social media customer loyalty survey will give you the feedback you need to help you adjust your business strategy and increase the positive attitude of people towards the company.

The results of the customer satisfaction survey will help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your product from the perspective of consumers, as well as find opportunities for improvement. For example, you can find out:

• how an ordinary consumer estimates the cost of your product or service (overpriced or not);
• whether the staff effectively serves clients and cope with possible complaints;
• Whether your company is familiar with the growing needs of customers;
• are there any gaps in the customer relationship system that may scare away, etc.

It might be worth sending a customer survey sheet to those who stop business relationship with your company to find out how to get them back and how to prevent similar situations in the future.

Potential customer survey

Every online store is familiar with a situation in which a customer puts an item in the cart but does not purchase it. It is necessary to understand what is the reason that prompts the consumer not to complete the purchase in order to correct this problem and motivate the client to pay for the product.

There may be several reasons, for example, the absence or too high cost of delivery to the region where the buyer lives, or a complicated money transfer system. Maybe the customer didn't complete the purchase just because they got distracted and forgot to pay. Such situations need to be analyzed and given appropriate attention.

You can send that customer a couple of emails suggesting a small discount on this or their next purchase. Then invite the consumer to take a survey to find out why he decided not to purchase the products of your online store.

Customer survey on the example of "Alibaba"

Alibaba Group's sample of customer survey includes active Android users mobile internet... The sample was quota by region, the development of the questionnaire was carried out by the company's employees, who then circulated it on the news site.

In just 24 hours, marketers from Alibaba Group determined the presence of potential demand for a new mobile browser and the willingness of the Russian audience to install the new product.

As it turned out, the most preferred features of applications by consumers are stability and speed. Any novelty will be favorably accepted by the audience if it is fundamentally different from other browsers.

Conducting online customer surveys correctly: step-by-step instructions

Step 1. We formulate the purpose and topic of the survey

The goal of a customer survey can be defined as the desired outcome, that is, what you strive for, what you want to know or get. The end result formulates the topic of the questionnaire and defines the target audience.

For example, the monthly level of attendance of the Okay retail chain was chosen as the goal of the survey. Based on this, the topic of the questionnaire will be the assessment of traffic in a chain of stores, and the target audience will be its customers.

Step 2. Determine the sample of respondents

It is from target audience the final results depend. If you are aiming to obtain the most representative results, it is necessary to correctly define the characteristics of the respondents who will participate in the customer survey. The description of the target audience can be based on 3-4 criteria from the list below.

1. Stages of interaction with the product:
   • direct consumers (those who make one-time, periodic or permanent purchases);
   • people who are in the process of making a decision to purchase a product;
   • people who can become potential consumers, but do not yet have complete information about your product or service.
2. Relation to a specific market (for example, owners of mobile devices with iOs installed).
3. Region of residence (an important criterion for a business based in a specific region or for those with representative offices in different countries companies).
4. Socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, income level). Needed to determine the target audience of goods with age and sex, price restrictions.
5. Interests (for example, used for items in the Hobby category).
6. Habits, values, character traits of the respondents (used in cases where a brief description of a typical representative of the target audience is not enough).

Step 3. Schedule tasks, draw up a plan and questions

Client survey objectives are defined as the set of actions that lead to the achievement of the research objective. They answer the question: "What to do to get the desired result?" Now it is necessary to determine the stages of work, topics of questions, their sequence in the questionnaire (in blocks or mixed).

Quite often the developers of the questionnaires think about what is better: to use ready-made template customer survey or create it yourself in the editor. If a unique product or service is involved in the research or it is of a specific nature, without independent work not enough. In other cases, it is allowed to use a ready-made template.

Step 4. Testing the survey

When the draft version of the questionnaire is ready, you should try it yourself, filling it out yourself and inviting employees to do the same. Such testing will help to check the functionality of the links, the correctness of the graphic display in different browsers, etc.

Answering the questions contained in the questionnaire, you will understand how long it takes to fill it out, whether it is understandable for all categories of target audience respondents and how useful these formulations are.

Step 5. Distribute the questionnaire

Questionnaires can be sent in several ways:

Customer surveys that are not sent through the online panel are recommended to be posted on the corporate website. You can attract respondents using a letter or advertising message by briefly describing the essence of the survey and offering a bonus for completing it.

5 tips on how to write the right customer survey questions

When drafting the questionnaire, avoid qualitative assessments, for example, "What do you think of our friendly customer service representatives?" Answers to such a leading question will not be accurate.

The question needs to be refreshed, focusing the customer's attention on some aspect of your service department, for example, "How quickly were you able to get an answer to your request from our customer service representatives?"

Thinking about what buyers might do in a hypothetical situation baffles many people. Avoid “what if” questions on your customer survey sheet because you cannot know if the respondent was in a similar position.

It is necessary to consider those situations that faithfully reflect the real aspects of the company. You can use the Likert scale to formulate questions to measure customer experience.

During testing, check how clear the questionnaire questions are for all categories of customers. This will help in the future to avoid repeated re-reading of the questionnaire by respondents.

You should also not use questions, the answers to which will require a detailed and detailed description in the form of a short essay. Otherwise, you run the risk of facing a large number of unfinished questionnaires.

It is much easier to understand and answer the question "How responsive is our company?" ? "

Sometimes a customer survey sheet designer seeks to obtain maximum amount information, so there is often a desire to add additional points. This can lead to unnecessary enlargement of the questionnaire, as well as to disorientation (and even annoyance) of the respondent, who is confused by unrelated questions.

Tip 5. Try to use questions starting with the word "how much"

Such formulations help to determine as accurately as possible the level of client's attitude to this aspect of the work of your company. Instead of asking “Is our organization professional” with “yes” or “no” answers, it is better to use “How professional is our company?”

In the second case, several answers can be used, reflecting the entire spectrum of shades of meaning. For example, "very professional", "professional" and "completely unprofessional." Such a rating scale will help to pinpoint gaps in the customer service system.

What a customer survey questionnaire should look like

1. Introduction is a request to a respondent to take part in a customer survey.
2. Screener. This section contains a block of questions, the answers to which allow you to weed out those respondents who are not included in this target audience.

If there are several groups of clients differing in socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, field of activity, etc.), the screener should contain clarifying questions that will help to subsequently divide the data and study them separately.

1. The main content. It contains blocks of questions, which are divided according to the meaning of the group. The customer survey sheet should be logical and not mislead the respondent, forcing them to re-read the topics already covered in other blocks.

Key questions should be formulated at the beginning of the questionnaire, less significant - at the end. Be prepared for the fact that while completing the questionnaire, the client may become impatient or tired, so the last questions will remain unanswered.

1. Passport is a block of personal data about the respondent (full name, contacts, place of work and position, marital status, income level). The client must agree to fill out this block. If you do not have permission, do not insist.
2. Gratitude... The client spends his time on filling out the survey sheet. free time... Be sure to thank the respondent for both this and the effort. If filling out the questionnaire takes a long time, in addition to the usual thanks, offer a small bonus, such as a discount on your next purchase or gift.

Where to place a customer survey on the web

Exists specialized services customer surveys to save time and effort:

3 free services to host a customer survey on your site

SurveyMonkey

Quite a good customer survey service, which has its own free version. It offers a fairly wide range of popular functions (anti-cheat protection, detailed statistics, flexible settings). Owners of the paid version get the opportunity to remove the company logo from the survey window and customize the form parameters.

SurveyMonkey has special application for smartphones on Android base or iOs, which broadcasts customer survey results to the screen of a mobile device.

To create a survey in this service, you must click the appropriate button after passing the authorization. The next step is header generation.

Then you need to enter a question with answers, and at the bottom of the standard form enable the option "Add" Other "answer option or comment field". This will allow respondents to write their own answer instead of the suggested ones. Now you need to click the "Save" button.

The next step is to choose an option for placing a customer survey on a website page or in a pop-up window, after which you need to decide on the size of the window (usually 500 x 430 pixels). If there is no need for additional settings polling options, click Next.

When all the preparatory work is completed, the service generates an embed code to be placed on the site where the questionnaire will be located. All that remains is to copy and paste it into the HTML page.

It is imperative to check the result by loading the page and checking the presence and correct placement of the survey window.

Poll Service

This customer survey service is also quite effective. It does not require payment or registration (although it is desirable). By going to home page, select the "Create poll" button and write down the questions with multiple answers.

The standard set of functions allows you to add a free answer option and set additional parameters in the "Settings" and "Anti-cheat" menus.

It remains to click the "Finish" button and get the code for embedding into the HTML page. After refreshing the web page, it is necessary to check the correct placement of the questionnaire. By answering one of the questions, you can see the statistics for this customer survey.

Survio

This customer survey service offers to register, after which you need to click on the "Create a profile" button and select the "New survey" option.

You can find customer survey templates in the menu, but it can be difficult to find the right one that has the questions you want. Now you need to enter the name of the survey in the appropriate field and click "Continue".

The next step is to enter multiple choice questions. It remains to press the button "Complete the questionnaire". If a customer survey will be posted on a website, you must select the “Site survey” link in the “Site” block. Copy the generated code and paste in the desired place in the HTML pages.

If you plan to place a customer survey in a pop-up window, you must select the appropriate option. This option is available in all three services.

How to calculate customer survey results

How to calculate the sample

Sampling is the most important item in any survey and is the number of questionnaires that are received. Sample calculation forms the basis of customer surveys and questionnaires.

The reliability of the results is substantiated by the laws of statistics, according to which a conclusion about the behavior of the majority can be made on the basis of an analysis of the actions of individual units from this mass. For example, the consumer interest of a city with a population of 500,000 can be estimated based on a survey of 400 citizens.

The narrower the chosen niche, the smaller the number of respondents will be included in the sample. For example, for 500 clients of a company, the sample will be 200 people. If less than 200, you should try to interview everyone or most of them. The accuracy of quantitative results is proportional to the number of completed questionnaires.

If you have a small pool of eligible respondents, do not abandon the customer survey by reclassifying the results obtained as qualitative rather than quantitative. In this case, emphasis should be placed on identifying the needs, behavior patterns, and difficulties of the respondent, without focusing on their exact number.

Special sample calculators available on the Internet can help you calculate the required number of customer survey sheets, saving you time and effort.

How to count indicators

This very tricky part conducting customer surveys and questionnaires can be done manually using many mathematical laws, or you can entrust this work special programs statistics for data processing.

You can use Excel to calculate indicators. Based on two key metrics, “% of customers surveyed” and “% of respondents to a specific question,” you can present your results in a chart or table.

When you have difficulties with placing a customer survey on the site or you are not satisfied with the results obtained, you can turn to the professionals. They will help you cope with the problems that have arisen, starting with a free site audit.

When a crisis hits, the market is filtered. Weak companies leave, strong ones remain.

Pre-assembled customer base- one of the tools that make the company more resilient to fluctuations in financial weather.

Because you already know “by sight” customers who have already bought something from you or who have been interested in your products at least once, and you can quickly and effectively restore contact with them.

Moreover, it does not matter if you have a wholesale, a service or a store - a customer profile and the formation of a database through it is necessary for everyone.

base formation. Why is this?

Just don't say right away that it is impossible to conduct customer surveys with you. At one time, we collected contacts and customer reviews even in a butcher's shop.

Where people most often go after work, tired and with a great desire to get home as soon as possible, and not to do some scribbling, moreover, for an ordinary counter.

You can collect contacts anywhere and anytime. And first of all, you must decide what information you will collect.

You need to think and decide what information about the client will be useful for you and bring practical benefits, and which is just for show.

The questionnaire is just a shortcut before your further actions, in which you will use this information.

If we take as a basis the minimal marketing package: calls, mailings, birthday greetings. Then you definitely need to collect the following items:

1. Company name (only for B2B);
2. Birthday;
3. Cellular telephone;
4. E-mail.

Further points you take from your needs. For example, in a store, you can also find out the birthdays of loved ones.

This is necessary in order to make your buyer special. sentences with the text: “Your wife / friend / mother’s birthday is coming soon.

You can buy a gift from us for them with a 30% discount ”. By the way, we have successfully practiced this for a flower salon.

In the B2B segment, you will need to sweat a little more, since there the more information you collect, the better.

Examples of a questionnaire in action

There is a big difference in collecting data on the trading floor and by phone, now I'll tell you more.

In the case of a telephone, you can say that you fill out the questionnaire yourself and most often weave in additional questions to identify the client's needs during the conversation.

Based on the results of communication, information is also already entered not on a printed sheet of paper, but immediately into, in order to simplify further work with data.

Therefore, this section will be most interesting for shops or companies where the client fills out the questionnaire himself.

In addition to the fact that you only need to collect useful information, you also need to know that the fewer fields in the questionnaire, the more willingly they will fill it out.

Don't assume that extra fields add credibility to your questionnaire. No, they only irritate the client. Therefore, the “colder” the client is, the shorter the client's profile should be.

Below you can see the template of the survey questionnaire (not a formatted version). This is the smallest version of the new customer profile that you can create.

It is not difficult to supplement it, but we first need to implement this fundamental part according to the rules and laws of marketing, and only then move on.

Sample questionnaire

1. Name. We specifically emphasize that this questionnaire is only for special people.

   This flatters the client and eliminates the reluctance to fill it out, because everyone wants to belong to the category of VIP clients.

2. The purpose of the collection. Under the heading it is necessary to write why you are collecting contacts.

   In our example, it is no coincidence that the beginning is “Closed sales”, this once again emphasizes the status of the client and shows his future benefit, that this is a questionnaire for receiving various bonuses.

3. FULL NAME. This item combines three components - name, surname and patronymic.

   You also don't need to split it into several parts, because each answer is an additional field that visually makes the questionnaire more massive.

4. Birthday, phone number and e-mail. We help the client to understand in what format to enter his data so that he has a minimum of thoughts and a maximum of actions.

The printed questionnaire must contain consent to receive mailings and data processing (below).

This is very important point! Do not even launch the questionnaire “to the people” without it. The fines are now huge, and people who will take advantage of your omission are waiting for it.

Therefore, we received a signature on the questionnaire and put it in a distant box (do not throw it away).

Important. The base needs to be constantly updated. People leave, lose their phones, change mail, and if you don't track this, then you can jump to conclusions about efficiency and generally work idle.

WE ARE ALREADY MORE THAN 29,000 people.
TURN ON

Additional feature

Remember I said about collecting the dates of birthdays of friends and loved ones? This is a very useful feature.

But I have an even more advanced mechanic for you, where the client leaves, instead of dates (after all, they are not so easy to remember) the contact details of your potential customers who may be interested in your product.

The mechanics are very simple. You promise to make a gift to three people whom he will indicate in the questionnaire.

To do this, you just need to write their names and contact numbers / emails. Moreover, you can also give him an additional gift for leaving these contact details. This will be the second motivation.

Another example of a questionnaire

And then attention. After receiving a completed questionnaire with the contacts of three friends, you need to contact them with the words: “Your friend Ivan Ivanovich has prepared a gift for you s_____, you can pick it up at the store s_____ at the address: s_____”.

The phrase is not literal, but just an idea for thought, that you need to refer to the person recommending and do it as if he was a fine fellow, and not just handed over your contacts.

5 motivations for filling out the questionnaire

It is not enough to do and put the questionnaire near the cash register. It will remain there and no one will fill it.

You also need to motivate people to complete it. Moreover, you should come up with additional motivation even for those who somehow contacts you, and not only buys from you.

To do this, I have prepared for you 5 of the most popular methods for collecting and forming a database.

Base collection methods

1. Proposal for informing customers about new products. This method is especially relevant in the wholesale.

   Almost all wholesalers like to receive SMS about new arrivals of goods and, accordingly, be among the first to purchase them, because they think that new items on their shelves are the key to the chest of money.

2. Application form for receiving a bonus card. In Russia, they still like discounts and willingly fill out a questionnaire if you offer a discount or bonus card instead.

   And there is a little one more little trick. You can not give the cards right away, but take the completed application form from the client and call him in 2-3 days, invite him to pick up the card. T

   Thus, the client will appear with you at least 2 times, or even better - leave with the purchase.

3. A small gift in exchange for filling. Everything is simple here, the client fills out a questionnaire and receives a gift in exchange.

   A gift must be valuable (mind you, not expensive, but valuable). In each niche, valuable gifts can be different products, but as a rule, this is what you always need, but it is a pity to buy yourself.

4. Lottery. You run win-win lottery, where to participate you just need to fill out a questionnaire (not even bought).

   The lottery can be instant and a person will immediately receive a prize, or you can schedule it for a specific day and time, if the gift is significant and you are sure that people will come for it.

5. Personnel competition. An effective way if you run it at the same time as the lottery.

   The meaning is simple - the seller / manager who will bring the most completed questionnaires for certain time will receive an award.

   As a reward, trips to the camp site or trips to a beauty salon for women are well dispersed.

In order for the potential client's questionnaire to be filled out well and the database to be collected, there must be some kind of pretext.

And this excuse should be valuable to your customers. Don't just put the questionnaires next to the salesperson / sales manager, but post relevant information signs.

Run lotteries and staff contests at the same time. Trust me, a customer base is not something worth saving on.

Important. You don't need a customer satisfaction questionnaire right away. First, collect the database, and only then use it to conduct a customer survey on quality.

Your gifts from partners

Briefly about the main thing

Every day, people are less willing to leave their data. I myself am a confirmation of this. Therefore, do not rely on 100% filling and collection in the “as it goes” format.

You need to approach this systematically and a little creatively, especially if you have a lot of competition.

But I assure you, when you collect your customer base and she will help you out at the right time, you will never underestimate this process again.

Just don’t rejoice early. Collecting the base is only half the battle. It is not the quantity of questionnaires that is more important, but the quality.

And this indicator is measured in how positively your base reacts to promotions and offers.

This is not easy to achieve and will require other work from you. But no one said it would be easy.

In conditions of fierce competition and surplus in the market of goods and services of your company it is necessary to "keep the brand" because it won't take long for dissatisfied customers to find a replacement for you. Monitor the level of satisfaction of your customers, take timely necessary measures in case of a problem, customer surveys will help to take into account the wishes of consumers. Online customer surveys are one of the simplest and most effective feedback methods, and there are many uses.

Online customer surveys
-

Customer satisfaction. You can ask the client to rate your product, service, or company as a whole. Is he satisfied with the quality of the purchased products? What did he like about the service provided and what did not? How did the client feel about visiting your company? Answering these and similar questions will allow you not only to instantly correct shortcomings in your work, but also to understand in which area you have potential for improvement.

Determination of the Loyalty Index. An effective way to measure customer satisfaction is (NPS - Net Promoter Score). With its help, you will understand how the client is “loyal” to your company.

Customer satisfaction with the service. Employees who directly contact the customer and represent the entire company in their person have a huge influence on the attitude of the client to your company. Ask the customer if they are satisfied with the service? Was the attendant courteous? Did he provide comprehensive information about the product / service? Did you help solve the problem? Make sure your company representatives are competent enough to make a good impression on your customers.

Corporate customer surveys. Sometimes corporate clients need more close scrutiny from your company, because the needs of each of them are unique, and the loss of a corporate client is always painful. Ask your corporate clients about their satisfaction with the level of service and the professionalism of the employee working with them.

The efficiency of the front line staff is very important. However, personal performance is relatively easy to measure only for workers involved in active sales... Usually this is the fulfillment of the sales plan, the average size check, less often - conversion. For all other front line workers (clerks, cashiers, client managers, etc.), the indicator of personal efficiency is customer satisfaction, which depends, first of all, on the quality of service. Therefore, in order to manage the personal performance of front line workers who are not involved in active sales, it is absolutely necessary to control the quality of customer service. In addition to this, it is desirable to monitor the emotional loyalty of customers (how much they are generally satisfied with the purchased goods or services and whether they are ready to recommend the company to their friends) and be able to quickly diagnose the root causes of their dissatisfaction and low loyalty.

Monitoring the quality of service is a difficult task, and only by installing red and green buttons at the checkout counters or workplaces of client managers and collecting statistics, which button was pressed how many times, this task is not solved.

First, most customers are reluctant to click and rate something. If no special measures are taken to motivate customers, no more than 30% of customers will evaluate the quality of service, and the general population will be represented in it with strong distortions. This means that the statistics obtained in this way will not correspond to real customer satisfaction.

Secondly, if the information received from the EFM-system (Enterprise Feedback Management, service quality assessment system) is incomplete or unreliable, its use to motivate staff will lead to an effect that is exactly the opposite of expectations, namely, to complete demotivation of staff. The fact is that not all factors influencing the assessment of the quality of customer service can be influenced by the front line personnel. The cash register system hung up, the air conditioner broke down, an unexpected influx of visitors - there can be many factors. Therefore, if the service quality monitoring system does not allow us to determine in which cases the client's dissatisfaction is caused by bad job personnel, and in which factors beyond the control of personnel (something broke, long queue etc.), such a system will do more harm than good.

EFM systems can be good and bad, but even the most efficient system will not be able to cope with the task of managing quality of service if it is not complemented by an effective methodology. This article arose as an attempt to summarize and systematize practical experience our company, as well as the experience of our clients and partners in the field of service quality management. It's five simple rules which can be called best practices (best practices) in the field of assessing the quality of service in the retail and service sectors. We do not pretend to be the ultimate truth, but nevertheless.

Five rules for monitoring the quality of customer service in retail and service industries:

1. Motivate customers to evaluate the quality of service;
2. Measure the number of silent people (customers who refused to rate the quality of service);
3. React to customer dissatisfaction in real time;
4. Ask clients clear questions, ask clients different questions, ask questions not only to clients;
5. Link service quality assessments to employee incentives, but distribute responsibilities fairly.

Let's consider these rules in more detail.

Rule # 1. Motivate customers to rate service quality

Figure 1. Source: anketalog.ru

Most clients are reluctant to evaluate anything. Studies show that no more than 30% of customers click on the buttons for assessing the quality of service installed at checkouts and at workplaces of client managers ( Picture 1). This is not much, but even worse, the desire to give a rating correlates with a number of factors: satisfaction with the service, education, income level, and even the gender of the client. This means that the final picture of customer satisfaction obtained from this sample will be highly distorted, and therefore cannot be considered reliable.

To avoid all this, you need to either correct the sample (which seems impossible), or motivate each client to answer the question about the quality of service. You can do it different ways... The main and most effective is to ask him directly about it. The client manager, when finishing (or starting) the service, invites the client to rate it. If the client is satisfied, in the overwhelming majority of cases he will not refuse.

It is important to observe three conditions. First, the frontline workers themselves must be motivated to conduct interviews (see. Rule # 5). Secondly, the client should be aware that his refusal to assess the quality of service will be regarded as dissatisfaction with the quality of service (see. Rule # 2). Thirdly, one of the answers to the question about the quality of service (for example, “How did you like it with us?” Or “Rate our work”) should be: “It is difficult to answer” (see. Rule # 4). For details, see the descriptions of the respective rules. If, when all these conditions are met, the client nevertheless refuses to evaluate the quality of service, then this is also an assessment ( Rule # 2).

If there are relatively few customers or the customer service process takes a long time, then the above approach works great. If the flow of customers is large, and the average service time, on the contrary, is small, then the workload on the front line personnel will significantly increase. The problem can be solved if the invitation to evaluate the quality of service is not made by the employee himself, but by the computer, playing a sound or video file: “It is very important for us to know your opinion. Please [what needs to be done]. " An employee launches an invitation by pressing the Seller Button (we'll talk about it in Rule number 2), or it can be done automatically, for example, when a certain operation is performed by the cash register system. In the second case, the cash register system should be integrated with the service quality monitoring system.

To diversify the process and additionally attract the attention of customers, you can beat the service quality assessment, for example, by presenting it as a competition for best employee... Jury - clients who vote (or not vote) for the employee serving them. The prize for the best employee can be valuable gift, amount of money, a ticket to the warm sea, etc. The prize should be somewhere in a conspicuous place. Displaying the current rating of each employee on a large screen in real time will also help.

Rule # 2. Measure the number of silent (customers who refused to rate the quality of service)

A customer who has used your service, but is still dissatisfied with the quality of service, most likely will not press any buttons, even if asked to do so. As practice shows, dissatisfied people prefer not to press anything, but “vote with their feet”. Therefore, in order to have complete and reliable information about the quality of service, it is necessary to measure not only the number of positive and negative reviews, but also the number of customers who did not want to take part in the survey. Let's call them "silent". Information about the number of silent people is no less important than information about the number of positive and negative reviews. it is the number of silent people, in most cases, that characterizes the level of customer dissatisfaction.

Counting the silent is, first of all, a new understanding of the process of assessing the quality of service. The client should not press the button on the keypad whenever he pleases. Pressing the button must be preceded by a prompt (see. Rule # 1), after which the client has a certain time to evaluate the quality of service, for example, 3 minutes. Any estimates made after this time will be discarded. If the client has voted several times in the allotted time, then it is considered that the client has chosen the "Difficult to answer" option. Service quality assessment is tied to the act of service itself, and this allows you to determine how many customers abstained from voting. We call this practice Resolved Window Method.

To count the silent ones, one button panel is not enough, you need a special button on the employee's side - the Seller's Button. The Vendor button has two uses and two modes of operation. If an employee wants to report an abnormal situation, then he must hold down the Seller's Button for about 3 seconds. In this case, the Seller's Button performs the function of the Force Majeure Button (About this in Rule number 4). If the employee presses and immediately releases the Seller's Button (does not hold it down), then, in this way, he fixes the fact and time of the start of the survey. In this case, the Seller's Button performs the function Poll Buttons.

The employee, starting (or ending) customer service, invites him to evaluate the quality of his work and presses the Poll Button (short press of the Seller's Button). The invitation can be recorded in a sound or video file, in which case it is played when you press the Poll Button, see. Rule # 1(and the employee himself does not need to say anything). The client has a certain time (Allowed Window), during which he can evaluate the quality of service. If during this time the client does not press any of the buttons designed to assess the quality of service (red, green, gray), then such a client qualifies as silent. By measuring the number of clients who did not press any of the buttons during the allowed window time, we determine the number of silent. If at the same time Rule # 1, then in fact we determine the number of customers dissatisfied with the quality of service. Therefore, quality managers need to know that the number of unhappy customers is the number of customers who clicked the red button plus the number of silent customers.

Rule # 3. React to customer dissatisfaction in real time

If the majority of customers who are dissatisfied with the quality of service do not press the red button, but vote with their feet, then what does it mean for the client to press the red button? It means DEMONSTRATION of discontent. The client wants to show you: “Although I also use your services, but know that I don’t like it here,” or maybe he wants to see the manager and express his dissatisfaction to him.

You should try to listen to a client who shows dissatisfaction, and most importantly, show that he is heard. A listened and reassured client will not only save to you good relationship, but can also turn into a promoter (distributor of good word of mouth). If you leave the demonstration of dissatisfaction unattended, then with a high probability the client will no longer appear and may even become a peddler of bad word.

Keeping track of the number of clients showing discontent without even trying to listen to them is like keeping track of the number of patients and not trying to treat them. Someone may be doing this, but this is bad practice. Better not to rate the quality of service at all.

Client demonstration of dissatisfaction should be treated as an incident that should be diagnosed and, if possible, investigated and closed (appropriate action taken). The first line in solving this problem should be the administrator (manager) of the point of sale. In order for the administrator to be always aware of events, when the client presses the red button, he must receive an alert - by a special pager, by e-mail or by phone. The notification is sent directly by the keypad (to the pager) or by the service quality monitoring system ( emails and sms).

After receiving the message, the administrator should try to get in touch with the client showing dissatisfaction, and, at a minimum, provide him with the opportunity to "blow off steam", as a maximum - try to eliminate the cause of the dissatisfaction. If organized correctly, each pressing of the red button should be recorded (for example, in the Service Desk), and the point of sale administrator should report for each such incident (indicating the cause of the incident and the actions taken to eliminate it). If there are few red clicks, this will not be hard work... (If there is a lot, this is already a systemic problem.) If the root cause of customer dissatisfaction lies outside the area of ​​responsibility of the administrator, the corresponding information should be reported to the quality manager and above.

Rule # 4. Ask clients clear questions, ask clients different questions, ask questions not only to clients

To get a clear answer, you need to ask a clear question. If the question or answer options are ambiguous, the answer is of little value. Let me give you an example. Most often, wishing to assess the quality of service, the client is directly asked: "Rate the quality of service." But what does it mean quality of service? One interprets this as a proposal to evaluate the work of a particular employee, the other - the office as a whole. If, at the same time, several high-quality assessment options are still offered, for example, good, satisfactory, bad, then problems arise with the interpretation of the answers. Grade satisfactorily- is the client satisfied, the client is dissatisfied or the client finds it difficult to answer?

So to really know what your customers are thinking, ask them questions that are non-ambiguous and offer answers that are unambiguous. Don't ask customers to give qualitative assessments: good, bad, etc. Clients are not experts, so they should be asked whether they liked it or not, are they ready to do something or not. In this case, it is absolutely necessary that one of the answer options be: "It is difficult to answer." This significantly increases the reliability of positive and negative assessments.

Another important recommendation. To get objective information about the level of customer satisfaction and their attitude towards the company, you should not be limited to any one question. Instead of one vague question, ask a few precise ones. This will allow you to look at customer satisfaction from different angles and, by comparing the responses received, localize the subject of dissatisfaction.

But to ask each client a few questions is to kill any desire to answer them. Therefore, each client should only be asked one question, and the overall picture is obtained from the fact that different clients are asked different questions. On this moment this appears to be best practice. If a question is accompanied by playing a sound or video file, questions can be selected automatically at random. If the question is formulated on a push-button panel (for example, on an acrylic insert), then the questions can be changed periodically. For example, in the first ten days of the month, customers are asked one question, in the second - another, etc. For more details, see the Questionnaire Button.

Several questions to include in the rotation:

1. Please rate my (our) work. specific employee. The measured indicator is the ratio of the number of red clicks and silent people to the total number of polls. The indicator characterizes the professionalism of employees.
2. How did you like it with us? This issue focuses on performance evaluation Total office, restaurant, beauty salon, shop, etc. The measured indicator is the same as for the first question: the ratio of the number of red clicks and silent people to the total number of polls. The value of the second question is in comparison with the first question. If the first question characterizes the work of a specific employee, then the second question characterizes the work of a specific employee, and business processes, and the work of the office as a whole.

   Comparing the results of indicators on the first and second questions, you can find out who is responsible for the negative from clients - staff or other factors (business processes, office comfort, etc.). If, when answering the second question, the ratio of the number of red clicks and silent people to the number of surveys is significantly higher than when answering the first question, then this is a reason to think about the organization of business processes, the comfort of the office and other factors. If approximately the same, then the bottleneck is the staff, since if the client is dissatisfied with the quality of service, he will give a negative assessment both when answering the first question and when answering the second question. If he does not like the office environment or the time he spent in line, then only the second question will be negatively assessed.

3. This is an adaptation for the service industry key issue Net Promoter Score concepts. The main measured indicator in this case is Emotional Loyalty Index (IEL), which is calculated as the proportion of green clicks (positive answers) minus the proportion of red clicks and silent people (negative answers and those who refused to answer). The share of the silent is taken with a coefficient, for example, 0.8. The value of the coefficient depends on the type of business and is determined by conducting special research... When benchmarking, subtract 80% from the share of the silent (i.e., if the total is 30%, then subtract 24%) to ensure LPI comparability.

Questions How did you like it with us? and Would you recommend us to your friends? you can ask not only clients, but in general all visitors, regardless of whether they used your services or not. Indeed, only those who have been served can fully assess the quality of service. But there are always those who left unhappy. How many are there? Why did they leave without using your services? Maybe you are doing something wrong? This is very important information, and with the help of the Loyalty Button you can at least figure out the number of "refuseniks". It is better to use for this not desktop consoles, which a person may not reach, but floor consoles, and install them in a conspicuous place near the exit. This will make it possible to collect a certain minimum of statistics on "refuseniks".

Rule # 5. Link service quality assessment to staff motivation, but distribute responsibilities fairly

For frontline workers who are not actively selling, customer evaluations of their performance may become the main an indicator of personal effectiveness. I think it is unnecessary to talk about the importance of this task. It is advisable to link at least two indicators with the personnel motivation system:

1. Customer Discontent Index (CI). If the Index of Emotional Loyalty (LPI), which was mentioned above, is the main indicator positive customer, then the Customer Discontent Index (CI) is an indicator of negative client in relation to the item being assessed. INC is calculated as the sum of the share of red clicks and the share of silent people in total number surveys in which clients are asked the question: "Please rate my (our) work" (or a similar question). The share of the silent, as for the IEL, is taken with a coefficient. The standard value of the coefficient is 0.8. INK characterizes the quality of work of the front line personnel, therefore, by linking it with the personnel motivation system, you will motivate the personnel to work better. Red clicks and refusals that are the result of force majeure circumstances confirmed by an expert are excluded from the calculation (more details below).
2. Personnel Activity Indicator. The Personnel Activity Indicator characterizes the activity of personnel in conducting surveys, and is calculated as the ratio of the number of surveys to the number of visitors. Number of polls - the number of times the Poll Button has been pressed (see. Rule # 2). The number of visitors is measured by a visitor counter. By linking this indicator with the staff motivation system, you motivate staff not to underestimate the number of surveys, i.e. number of service quality assessments (see Rule # 1). If the number of polls is measured automatically (for example, when integrating a monitoring system with a cash register system), this indicator is not used.

The service quality assessment system, linked to the personnel motivation system, is an effective Motivator. However, if you do not take special measures to protect staff from liability in cases where customer dissatisfaction is caused by reasons beyond the control of the staff (force majeure), such a system can become a Demotivator. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to implement protective measures, which can be conditionally divided into three groups:

1. Minimizing the possibility of false presses on the evaluation buttons. The most effective solution, in our opinion, is Resolved Window Method... The allowed window is the time interval during which the client can evaluate the quality of service. If a score is made outside this window, it is not taken into account. For more details see Rule # 2.
2. Possibility of assessing the reliability of button clicks performed by an independent expert. For this, the Expert Monitoring technology is used, which allows an independent expert, based on video recording and information about the time of pressing each button, stored in the database, to evaluate and qualify all events and button presses for reliability.
3. Fair distribution of responsibilities. Provides the ability for staff to quickly report events (force majeure) that may affect the quality of service, but which are outside of their area of ​​responsibility. To do this, use the Force Majeure Button, i.e. upon occurrence force majeure situation the employee presses and holds down the Seller's Button for about 3 seconds. By doing this, the employee, as it were, relieves himself of responsibility for possible subsequent customer dissatisfaction. The reliability of information about force majeure circumstances and the terms of its validity are established using the Expert Monitoring technology.

Instead of a conclusion

Support for the above 5 rules allows you to:

1. Receive COMPLETE and RELIABLE information about customer satisfaction with the quality of service. This is ensured by the simultaneous execution of Rules: No. 1, No. 2, No. 5... Complete and reliable customer satisfaction information can be used:
   • To create on its basis effective SYSTEM MOTIVATION of the front line personnel;
   • As an indicator of the efficiency of business processes at the point of sale.
2. Show customers the value of their opinion for the company and, thus, enhance the image of a CLIENT-FOCUSED company. This is ensured by the simultaneous execution of Rules: No. 1, No. 3... Customer focus is an important competitive advantage.
3. Receive OBJECTIVE information about the emotional loyalty of customers and at the same time study their tastes and preferences. This is ensured by the simultaneous execution of Rules: No. 1, No. 4

   Tags:

   • EFM
   • efm systems
   • service quality assessment
   • service quality monitoring
   • best practices
   Add tags