Empowering Surveys: Unleashing the Power of Customer Feedback

Picture this: You're standing at a crossroads in your business journey, unsure of which path to take. You need a compass, a guiding light that reveals the preferences, opinions, and behaviours of your target audience. That's where surveys come in, your trusty ally in the pursuit of success.

Next, you create a survey and send it to your customers. They complete it and share their experience. Your business listens, takes notes, and uses that feedback to make meaningful changes. It's a collaborative dance between the business and the customer, where both sides have a voice and their needs are met.

But this is a situation where everything is perfect and goes the way you want, and that rarely happens. In real-life scenarios, the customer response rate to such surveys is a real concern among business owners and top executives. As per research, survey response rates in the 5% to 30% range are far more typical. A response rate of ~20% or higher should be considered excellent in most circumstances. So, what factors affect these response rates & how do businesses go about it?

Prominent Reasons behind low response rates

1. Survey Fatigue: With the increasing prevalence of digital surveys, individuals may receive survey requests frequently, leading to survey fatigue. 40% of respondents stated that they only take surveys if they receive too many requests. Over time, this can result in decreased motivation to participate, resulting in lower response rates.

2. Survey Timing: Considering the customer's lifecycle or touchpoints with the business is beneficial. For example, sending a survey shortly after a customer interaction or purchase increases the relevance and recency of the experience and increases the likelihood of a timely response. Most of the time, this factor goes ignored. 

3. Channel of Survey: The choice of survey channel can significantly impact survey response rates. Choosing between online surveys, mobile surveys, in-person surveys, and phone surveys is a must. Even the consumer’s channel of a transaction can be chosen as a mode of survey. By carefully considering the preferences and convenience of respondents, businesses can optimize their survey channel selection, leading to higher engagement and more valuable feedback.

4. Lack of Incentives: If there is no clear benefit or incentive offered to respondents, they may be less inclined to take the time and effort to complete the survey. Offering incentives such as discounts, rewards, or entry into a prize draw can significantly increase response rates by 50%.

5. Survey Length and Complexity: Lengthy or overly complex surveys can be off-putting to respondents. Average survey completion rate drops by 30% for every additional question beyond 10. People may not have the patience or time to complete lengthy surveys, leading to abandonment or incomplete responses. Keeping surveys concise, focused, and easy to understand can help mitigate this issue.

6. Lack of Personalization: Generic and impersonal survey invitations may not capture the attention or interest of recipients. Personalizing survey invitations, addressing recipients by name, and clearly explaining the purpose and relevance of the survey can increase the likelihood of participation. Personalized email subject lines can increase open rates by 26%.

7. Lack of Trust: Concerns about privacy and data security can impact response rates. 64% of respondents worry about how their personal information is being used when taking online surveys. If respondents are not confident that their personal information will be handled securely, they may be hesitant to participate in digital surveys.

There is no doubt that taking surveys from customers provides them with a platform to voice their opinions, concerns, and feedback, making them feel heard and valued. When businesses actively seek customer input through surveys, it sends a powerful message that their opinions matter. Customers appreciate being given the opportunity to share their experiences, preferences, and suggestions, knowing that their feedback can directly influence future decisions and improvements. So, how can businesses enhance the response rate of these surveys?

Using digital survey tools has become one popular way for businesses to collect customer feedback. Not only are these tools convenient and cost-effective, but they also help businesses get better response rates. Digital survey tools like SurveyCXM allow customers to provide feedback at their own pace and convenience, which makes it more likely that they will complete the survey. These surveys are interactive, user & respondent-friendly, mobile-optimised, customisable, personalised, and whatnot! Additionally, digital surveys can be distributed through multiple channels, such as email, social media, and SMS, which increases the chances of reaching a wider audience. By using digital surveys, businesses can collect valuable customer feedback that can help them improve their products and services.

How do Businesses Enhance Response Rates on Surveys?

Now that digital surveys have become already become popular & convenient way, businesses further ensure working on the following and enhance their response rates:

Visual Appeal, Gamification & Sensational Features: Ensure that your surveys have intelligent design recommendations based on best practices and industry standards, and optimal question formats, survey length, and question order to keep respondents engaged and improve completion rates. 

Gamification elements, such as progress bars, rewards, or badges, add a part of fun and motivation for customers. Sensational features like visual aids, sliders, or interactive rating scales make the survey visually appealing and encourage active participation. By incorporating such features, businesses can captivate customers' attention, enhance their survey experience, and ultimately increase response rates.

Smart Counter Questions: Organisations that make sure that the survey isn’t too long & yet get good insights are winning the game. By carefully deciding on the questions, businesses can reduce  survey fatigue by keeping it short. Adaptive questions that reduce repetitiveness are also commendable. The questions should be concise & crisp, yet probe better into the user’s mind. Research questions can also be added to gauge customer expectations and expectations for the future. This will also help the organisations to plan their coming actions in favour of customers & business. 

Personalization: Personalized surveys create a sense of relevance, increasing respondent interest and willingness to participate. Users can easily survey invitations and questionnaires based on respondent attributes or previous interactions. Organisations can generate personalised follow-up questions based on previous responses, creating a more engaging and tailored survey experience.

Multilinguality: Digital surveys facilitate multilingual features, enabling businesses to reach regional customers and eliminate the need to depend on any one language. This adds to the user-friendliness of surveys, enhancing the chances of getting more customer responses.

Real-time Updates & Expectation Setting: Instant notifications or progress indicators help respondents understand their progress, motivating them to complete the survey allowing them to validate their input, and ensuring the accuracy of their responses. In addition to this, setting clear expectations for respondents before they begin the survey also helps. Through personalized invitations or introductory messages, businesses can communicate the purpose, duration, and potential benefits of the survey. 

Regular Reminders & Quarantining Customers: With busy schedules and numerous commitments, respondents may forget or overlook survey invitations. According to a study, sending consistent reminders can increase response rates by up to 30%. Furthermore, regular reminders sent to an isolated group of customers help maintain engagement and motivate them to respond, despite being segmented from the general customer population.

Waterfall Approach: Precisely switching between different touchpoints for non-respondents can help achieve higher response rates on surveys. This helps businesses achieve higher response rates & also identify the channel of communication comfortable for customers. For example, if a customer did not respond by SMS, send the survey by e-mail. If that also doesn’t work, take the response on call. 

There’s no doubt that AI's ability to personalize surveys, adapt the survey flow, and provide real-time feedback enhances respondent engagement and increases the likelihood of survey completion. This, along with an organisation’s persistent efforts can make the response rates better and surveys can become a powerful way to attain an unprecedented CX score!

Source: QDegrees, Media