Contact Shep (314) 692-2200

Guest Post: The Importance of Surveys For Improving the Customer Experience

This week we feature an article by Eralp Arslan, a digital marketing specialist at JotForm. He writes about different types of customer experience surveys and how they can help businesses gain customer loyalty. Did you know that customers who have a positive experience are 54 percent more likely to make another purchase and are five […]

This week we feature an article by Eralp Arslan, a digital marketing specialist at JotForm. He writes about different types of customer experience surveys and how they can help businesses gain customer loyalty.

Did you know that customers who have a positive experience are 54 percent more likely to make another purchase and are five times more likely to recommend your brand to others?

And one of the best ways to accurately gauge customer satisfaction is via surveys. Before we dive in, you might want to check this article about how to create a survey in order to start creating your surveys in the right fashion from the get-go.

Now let’s take a closer look at how you can use surveys to improve the customer experience.

What Are the Most Popular Customer Surveys? 

Measuring customer sentiment doesn’t need to be overly complicated or expensive. Some customer experience surveys consist of just one question. However, the way you deliver this question, as well as the metrics that quantify the response, determine the insight you’ll collect.

Here are three of the most popular methods of delivering customer experience surveys.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net promoter surveys ask how likely a customer is to recommend your company to a friend or colleague, on a scale of 1–10. This survey measures customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Responses are segmented into three categories:

  • 0–6: Detractors – Customers who are unhappy and at risk of turnover.
  • 7–8: Passives – Customers who enjoyed their experience but don’t love your brand yet.
  • 9–10: Promoters – Customers who love your company and will advocate for you.

To calculate your Net Promoter Score, subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. Alternatively, you could calculate an average score by adding all results and dividing the sum by the total number of responses.

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

The Customer Satisfaction Score measures the level of satisfaction a customer has with your product or service. They are typically delivered on a linear scale, such as 1–3, 1–5, or 1–10. Alternatively, you could use a scale of “Very Satisfied–Very Dissatisfied.”

A CSAT survey is ideally sent within 15 minutes of interaction to properly gauge how satisfied a customer is with an action your business took or provided.

To calculate a CSAT score, divide the total number of responses by the number of respondents who answered within the “Satisfied” or 8–10 range, and multiply it by 100. So if 100 people responded to the survey, and 70 of them were “Satisfied,” the CSAT score would be 70 percent.

Customer Effort Score (CES)

The Customer Effort Score measures the ease of the customer experience. This survey analyzes the effort a user expends to interact with services and products. In general, an easier task equals a more satisfying experience. These types of surveys typically deliver one question immediately after a customer completes an action, such as interacting with customer support or purchasing a product.

Those who take the survey usually choose between a linear scale of “Very Difficult to Very Easy” or a numeric scale of 1–5. When the average collected feedback falls within the “Easy to Very Easy” range, it indicates that customer satisfaction levels are quite high. If the feedback falls within the “Difficult to Very Difficult” range, you probably need to make improvements to make your service easier to interact with.

Once you’ve chosen a type of customer experience survey, you can begin reaping its benefits.

Understand Your Customers’ Perspectives 

If you think you have a handle on the customer perspective, consider this: 96 percent of unhappy customers won’t complain. However, 91 percent of those customers will stop doing business with your company and never come back.

Customer experience surveys offer a chance to discover how your customers actually feel about interacting with your business.

Gain Valuable Feedback 

By using a survey to determine your Net Promoter Score (NPS), you can gauge how likely a customer is to refer your brand to their friends. Your NPS can also tell you:

  • How loyal a customer is to your brand
  • How satisfied a customer is with your product or service
  • Which customers require additional incentives to become satisfied and loyal

Decrease Churn 

The customer churn rate is the percentage of customers that have stopped using your company’s products or services during a specific time frame.

Because you have a growing business, you should keep your churn rate as close to zero as possible.

Lower Customer Acquisition Costs  

In the past five years, overall customer acquisition costs (CAC) have risen by nearly 50 percent. Add that to the fact that customer acquisition can cost up to 7 times more than selling to existing customers, and it’s clear that decreasing your churn rate and improving your CAC should be two major priorities.

Luckily, customer experience surveys can help on both fronts. While they show existing customers that you’re actively making adjustments to improve their experience, these surveys can also serve as marketing materials for new customers.

Build Customer Loyalty 

Customer surveys can help increase retention and encourage customer loyalty. The reason is simple: Customers spend their hard-earned money on your goods and services. They want to feel satisfied with their experience, which means that the process should be either easy or very easy. If they’re spending their time and resources on your brand, they want you to pay attention to them.

Customer surveys like CSATs are a cost-effective way of letting customers know you value their business.

Provide a Competitive Advantage 

Surveys provide a method for you to discover how happy your customers are with you and what you can do to keep them satisfied. When customers remain satisfied, they’re likely to remain loyal. And in most cases, brand loyalty results in something called brand advocacy — a trend where existing customers become promoters and word-of-mouth advertisers for your brand.

This sense of advocacy offers a business an extreme competitive advantage.

By identifying common customer complaints and analyzing the insight you collect, a business can improve the experience for both current and future customers with customer experience surveys.

Eralp Arslan loves literature, cinema, music, and video games. He is a digital marketing specialist at JotForm. You can reach him at eralp@jotform.com.


FShep Hyken Guest Blog Postor more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com.

Read Shep’s latest Forbes article: 2019: The Good Old Days…Before Coronavirus

Want to receive Shep’s latest customer service and CX research?

Sign up for instant access to Shep’s research report on customer service and customer experience.

"*" indicates required fields

Name*
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

© 2023 Shepard Presentations, LLC.
All Rights Reserved.

Legal Information | Sitemap Legap

Site by: digitalONDA