Have you ever filled out an online survey? Of course, you have. We all have. And we all know that some are quick, easy, and understandable. We’re happy to help a company get the information it seeks.
On the other hand, many of us have abandoned surveys that are painfully long, complicated, or not germane to our experience.
But for companies that want to truly understand their customers, those online surveys are a major tool.
Now, in an insightful post on Mark Growth, Ray Beharry — an adjunct instructor of mobile marketing at NYU and also the head of marketing for Pollfish — produced a list of top tips for firms that want to do a better job of constructing the kind of online surveys that get better rates of return and better results.
“In a perfect world, customers would tell you exactly how they feel about your product, and offer suggestions to improve its use,” notes Beharry. “Unfortunately, that’s hard to do when most people are bombarded with up to 10,000 advertising messages a day, according to today’s digital marketing experts.”
What to do? An online survey — but with some caveats.
For starters, what are the goals and objectives?
“Before creating your survey, it’s important to define concrete goals and objectives,” the Pollfish marketing chief explains. “Without direction, your survey will feel like it’s floundering and will not yield useful results. A few questions to think about when outlining your goals and objectives: Why are you creating this survey? Is it to improve user experience of your mobile app? Is it to find out how often people order take out? Whatever it is, have a clear answer to the “Why” question.”
The time element is critical. If it takes a customer longer to complete an online survey than it did for them to order a product from you, you’re doing something wrong.
Beharry’s advice? Keep it short and sweet.
“Most consumers have short attention spans, especially when you’re asking them to take a moment out of their day to complete your survey. Survey questions should be short, sweet, and to the point. Survey questions should be visually appealing too. What do we mean by that? The survey format should be inviting and easy to skim, making it simple for consumers to provide feedback.”
There are five great tips in the whole blog post. You can read them here.
