Recently I added an “email survey” service to my Constant Contact account. [Sponsored Link - Email Marketing and Online Surveys by Constant Contact make it easy to connect with your customers. Try it FREE for 60-Days. 
]. We were emailing clients updates on some legislative issues relating to our industry, and I was curious what the client perspective was on these issues. Further, I had never done a survey of client satisfaction about the services provided by my company or about the services provided by our vendors.
Needless to say, there were a lot of questions that were worthy of asking. My goal was to create a survey of fewer than 10 questions that covered the topics of interest. Some of these questions split into parts, but basically, I covered the issues:
- Are you satisfied with the services provided by your vendor (i.e. the vendor we set you up with)?
- How well do you believe you understand the services provided by your vendor?
- How would you rate our company’s service t you in general?
- How satisfied is your company with “ancillary service 1?” (This is an extra service that we may or may not be currently providing for the client.)
- Does your company provide “ancillary service 2?”
- How satisfied is your company with “ancillary service 3?”
- In regard to “legislative agenda item 1,” what do you feel is the most important?
- In regard to “legislative agenda item 2,” what do you feel is the most important?
- Have you ever participated in a remote meeting?
Getting the Most Out of a Response – Using Tiers
Depending on the question, the potential answers I provided gave direction for the response. For example, questions relating to customer “satisfaction” or quality of service there were two response tiers. One tier was strictly about the quality of service. The other addressed quality of service, but was also a intended to be a prospecting question. For example:
Response Tier One: Quality of Service Only
“Are you satisfied with the services provided by your current vendor?”
- Excellent – no problems.
- Good –only a few problem issues from time to time.
- Weak – we put up with it, but it’s generally a pain.
- Poor – usually very difficult to work with.
These responses are registered in a “radio button” fashion. The client simply clicks the button that most closely represents his or her reply. This tier has no cross selling properties or hidden agenda. It is a straight question – are you satisfied, and if problems occurring, how often? With Constant Contact’s tracking capabilities, I know who is answering the survey, so that if someone checks “weak” or “poor,” I can contact that client in a non-defensive manner, and say, “Hey! How ‘s everything? Is your service OK? Let’s see what we can do to get things going on the right track.” This provides an opportunity to roll up our sleeves and get this client’s problems fixed ASAP.
Response Tier Two: Quality of Service and Prospecting
“How would you rate “ancillary product 1?”
- Excellent – no problems.
- Good – only a few problem issues from time to time.
- Poor – frequent difficulties.
- Not using “ancillary product 1” currently, but would like to learn more about it.
- Not something we would consider at this time.
These responses help you understand how satisfied the customer is with a particular product. Because this is a general survey, it’s ok if this goes to a mix of prospects who are (or are not) buying “ancillary product 1” from you. It helps show the ones who aren’t buying this product that you do work with it. And, it helps identify interest in the product that you may otherwise were unaware of. This is one way a survey can not only help you preserve current sales, but also help you to make new sales. Again, because Constant Contact lets me know who is responding, we can get back to this customer with more information about the product or service in question.
Analyzing Response Rates
Understanding response rates is a lot like understanding political polling. Because everyone won’t respond, you’ll have to make some assumptions about how well the people who did respond represent the entire population of your survey. In the survey referenced above, I got roughly:
- 18.6% of all those who were sent the survey via email, to actually complete it.
- A 52% open rate. This means that 52% of those who received the initial email containing the survey actually opened the email.
- A 52% “click rate.” This means that 52% of those who opened the email “clicked” on the survey.
- 40% of those who “opened” the email about the survey to actually complete the survey.
By industry standards, these are some fairly strong response numbers. It is possible to include a link on your website to your survey in addition to emailing it as I did. However you proceed, a survey is considered to be “live” when it is available to be completed publicly. Once a survey is live, it begins tallying results and is therefore difficult to edit. The majority of the responses I received were received within a week (2 to 3 days) of sending the initial email.
Surveys and Email Marketing
Recently I added an “email survey” service to my Constant Contact account. [Sponsored Link - Email Marketing and Online Surveys by Constant Contact make it easy to connect with your customers. Try it FREE for 60-Days.
]. We were emailing clients updates on some legislative issues relating to our industry, and I was curious what the client perspective was on these issues. Further, I had never done a survey of client satisfaction about the services provided by my company or about the services provided by our vendors.
Needless to say, there were a lot of questions that were worthy of asking. My goal was to create a survey of fewer than 10 questions that covered the topics of interest. Some of these questions split into parts, but basically, I covered the issues:
Getting the Most Out of a Response – Using Tiers
Depending on the question, the potential answers I provided gave direction for the response. For example, questions relating to customer “satisfaction” or quality of service there were two response tiers. One tier was strictly about the quality of service. The other addressed quality of service, but was also a intended to be a prospecting question. For example:
Response Tier One: Quality of Service Only
“Are you satisfied with the services provided by your current vendor?”
These responses are registered in a “radio button” fashion. The client simply clicks the button that most closely represents his or her reply. This tier has no cross selling properties or hidden agenda. It is a straight question – are you satisfied, and if problems occurring, how often? With Constant Contact’s tracking capabilities, I know who is answering the survey, so that if someone checks “weak” or “poor,” I can contact that client in a non-defensive manner, and say, “Hey! How ‘s everything? Is your service OK? Let’s see what we can do to get things going on the right track.” This provides an opportunity to roll up our sleeves and get this client’s problems fixed ASAP.
Response Tier Two: Quality of Service and Prospecting
“How would you rate “ancillary product 1?”
These responses help you understand how satisfied the customer is with a particular product. Because this is a general survey, it’s ok if this goes to a mix of prospects who are (or are not) buying “ancillary product 1” from you. It helps show the ones who aren’t buying this product that you do work with it. And, it helps identify interest in the product that you may otherwise were unaware of. This is one way a survey can not only help you preserve current sales, but also help you to make new sales. Again, because Constant Contact lets me know who is responding, we can get back to this customer with more information about the product or service in question.
Analyzing Response Rates
Understanding response rates is a lot like understanding political polling. Because everyone won’t respond, you’ll have to make some assumptions about how well the people who did respond represent the entire population of your survey. In the survey referenced above, I got roughly:
By industry standards, these are some fairly strong response numbers. It is possible to include a link on your website to your survey in addition to emailing it as I did. However you proceed, a survey is considered to be “live” when it is available to be completed publicly. Once a survey is live, it begins tallying results and is therefore difficult to edit. The majority of the responses I received were received within a week (2 to 3 days) of sending the initial email.