Customer data is a valuable asset to any business. From measuring customer satisfaction to cleansing your current data, surveys can help you gain more insight about your customers.
“Data is king.” Data can tell you everything you need to know about the people who are most important to your business – customers. From collecting through to analysing and then using it, customer data is a valuable asset to any business.
With this in mind, a business is only as good as the data it has and surveys offer a great platform to gain that data and insight directly from the source – whether to learn about individual prospects or to gain the collective sentiment of an audience.
Customer responses aren’t always simple to extract, though by using the right medium, at the right time, you’re far more likely to increase the chances of receiving an answer, and one that tells you exactly how the customer feels.
Use developments in tech to gain insight
Technology may have changed the business landscape, but it hasn’t changed our business goals. We still want to know how to make our customers happy, what makes them tick and the way they prefer to do business with us. It is estimated that 87% of customers want to have a say in the future of a company’s product or services (Source: Vision Critical) and a correctly planned survey adopting the right technology, can help initiate that. According to SurveyGizmo, response rates can soar past 85% when the respondent is motivated by a well-executed survey.
As the percentage of online surveys completed via mobile continue to grow from 40% (Source: customerthermometer) the opportunities represented by mobile to gather the data to make your business king is huge, particularly when paired with key touch points during the customer’s journey.
Send a prompt following a purchase, a few days after a trial has been taken or following an interaction point to gather fresh data right from the centre of the action.
While a frustrating part of surveys can often come from the low response rate often yielded, we’ve seen customers boost their own response rates from 3% to 47% offering faster results and even quicker decision making.
Sharing data between systems adds the personal touch
The ability to share data between two applications not only saves time but ensures accuracy.
94% of businesses claim that personalisation is critical to their success. With Esendex SMS Surveys, using data straight from your CRM you are able to customise and personalise questions using meta titles or dynamic fields which can help you achieve a much better response rate. Rather than asking about a general experience, use your knowledge about recent purchases, bookings or customer experience taken from your CRM to tailor your questions.
Responses can then be relayed back into your CRM. Create direct actions and follow up tasks and ensure insight is up to date.
Track satisfaction over time
It is estimated that a business only hears from 4% of its dissatisfied customers. (Source: “Understanding Customers” by Ruby Newell-Legner) If you only plan to serve your customers once, you’re ignoring future interactions. Tracking satisfaction levels over time will make or break your efforts in measuring and improving.
By exporting your SMS Survey data you can easily see improvements periodically and keep track of your Net Promoter Score. To do this:
- Download “Standard Report” with Answers Received option selected for the months you want to analyse.
- Put both reporting data months on the same spreadsheet.
- Create a table with the columns “Type of Response” and “Number of Responses.”
- Labels for the Types of Responses are “April Promoters” “April Detractors” etc. and “May Promoters” “May Detractors” etc.
- In “Number of Responses” column, use the countif formula to count the number of times “Promoter” “Detractor” “Passive” appears for each month in the appropriate column.
- Create bar graph highlighting both columns.
- Add a title.
The possibilities SMS Surveys hold to learn more and improve your business are vast. What feedback method is your business using and is it producing the results you need? If you wish to trial Esendex SMS Surveys or have any questions, get in touch with a member of our sales team on 0345 356 5758.
