An Introduction to Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Jo N. BergBerg Research, Singapore

www.berg.com.sg

Why Customer Satisfaction Surveys

• Customer satisfaction surveys is a powerful tool for collecting customer feedback.

• By acting on customer feedback it is possible to improve the customer experience.

• A better customer experience will lead to more loyal customers.

• To create more loyal customers is a way to grow a business in a profitable and sustainable manner.

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What Loyal Customers Will Do

• Loyal customers will return and buy more.• Loyal customers will in many cases buy additional

product and service lines.• Loyal customers will recommend your products and

services to friends, colleagues and contacts.• Loyal customers will provide constructive feedback for

learning and improvement.

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Different Types of Customer Satisfaction Surveys

• There are two main types:

• Relationship surveys • Transactional surveys

• A relationship survey focuses on the customer’s overall experience with your company.

• A transactional survey focuses on a specific recent event involving the customer such as the recent purchase of a product or service.

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How a Customer Satisfaction Survey is Carried Out

A customer survey is made up of several elements:

• Questionnaire design• Sampling• Survey format• Collecting data• Data analysis• Acting on the survey results

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Questionnaire Design

Three main aspects: • Wording of questions, including deciding on the number

of questions to be included in the survey.• Selecting rating scale(s).• Designing the layout of the questionnaire.

It is important that the survey is short and easy to complete. Be respectful of your customers’ time.

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Sampling

It is not always possible or realistic to ask all your customers to take part in a customer survey. A suitable sample will therefore have to be selected.

The sample will have to be large enough for the results of the survey to be reliable.

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Survey Format

Several survey formats are available including:• Face-to-face interviews• Telephone interviews• Interactive Voice Response (IVR)• Written surveys delivered by e-mail or by regular mail• Online

Each of these has advantages and disadvantages.

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Collecting Data

For the results of the survey to be reliable, it is necessary to obtain a good response rate.

A good response rate would typically mean around 60 percent for business-to-business (B2B) markets and around 40 percent for business-to-consumer (B2C) markets.

It is therefore important to look carefully at strategies for maximizing the response rate

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Data Analysis

The purpose of data analysis is to make sense of all the data collected, both numerical scores and text.

Tools like correlation analysis, root cause analysis, and text analytics may be used to achieve this.

The primary focus in a customer survey is to better understand the aspects of the customer experience that influence or drive customer loyalty.

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Acting on the Survey Results

The real value of a customer survey is the potential for earning loyal customers by learning from survey results and then taking action to improve the customer experience.

These actions can take a number of forms including the following:• Follow up action on specific complaints made by

customers.• Initiation of service recovery and/or customer recovery

processes.

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Acting on the Survey Results

• Improvements of products and services.• Improvements of company processes and policies, and in

particular those having direct impact on the customer experience.

• The development of new products and services.

Constructive customer feedback can also serve as a valuable source of inspiration and motivation for employees.

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Note

This presentation is based on an article. It can be found here:

www.berg.com.sg/articles.html

Thank you!

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