CSSL advises clients considering a customer satisfaction survey to tread carefully.  We include here some helpful tips.

In our experience, a well-designed and successfully administered customer survey should follow these rules (a partial list):

• Focus on attributes of products and services that bear most directly on customer satisfaction.  Rank attributes on a continuum starting with "essential to customer retention" (core product/service requirements) and ranging to "likely to spark repeat business and referrals."     

• Clearly define objectives using pre-survey testing.  This testing determines threshold values for satisfaction attributes on the continuum.  

• Keep it simple.  Your customers should easily understand what you are trying to achieve in the survey.  

• Make it relevant to your customers.  Do not load up the survey with esoteric questions.

• Focus on determining services and/or products of highest perceived value to customers.  

• Ask what they like and dislike about your company, and ask for improvement suggestions.  

• Not too long.  If a consumer telephone survey, limit it to 10-12 minutes.  For executives, 25 minutes should be the max.  If a mail survey, do not expect to keep people's attention for more than 5 minutes (especially if you want reasonably honest responses).

• Offer incentives.  Survey respondents must have a compelling reason to cooperate.  Cash incentives (including drawings) work best with consumers.  Executives respond well to offers of information. 

• Use highly professional interviewers, if a telephone survey.  Make sure to train interviewers in technical terms.   They should not sound scripted. 

• Carefully test all survey instruments.   Make sure all skip patterns are smooth and logical.

• For open-ended questions, interviewers must record responses verbatim.  Code and tabulate these written responses with specialized clerical staff.

• Highly skilled analysts should examine survey data and identify product/service areas in need of immediate remedial attention for customer retention, areas where minor improvements will bring significant customer repeat business and referrals, and areas relatively unimportant to customer satisfaction and retention.  

• Analysts should present detailed action recommendations, including improvement suggestions.

• Consider outsourcing the survey.   Use of an experienced market research firm builds credibility among customers and enhances data reliability and value.   

If you are considering a customer satisfaction survey, we invite you to contact CSSL for discussions. 

In search of more information on customer satisfaction surveys?  See Why Survey and Next Steps.  Also examine our suggested Reading List.

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