Market Research Surveys
Using Questionnaires to Find out What your Customers Think of you
Surveys are a quick and easy way to obtain information on what customers think of you and your company. This article shows you how to get started with them.
Market research surveys are a great way to get information quickly. They can help identify what customers think of products, company and service levels as well as providing comparisons. Now you can know whether they would prefer your product in red or blue without the time and expense of producing both and waiting for sales.
Types of Surveys
Online, mail or telephone are the main methods available, unless you commission a market research agency to carry out what is known as field or primary research. This is the market research most people are familiar with, from being stopped in the street by someone with a clipboard.
All surveys allow you to find out the views of a large number of individuals. The more individuals researched, the more reliable will be the results.
If you use telephone or mail, you’ll need to factor in the time and costs of contacting each and every single person in your list, whereas with online you can set it up practically the same day as you decide to do it and then do nothing else until you get the results.
Online Surveys
Visitors to your web site can be presented with a pop-up box inviting them to take part in the survey. Results can then be gathered to provide a picture of what visitors think about something. You could also email your customer database with a link asking them to compete the survey, or include it as part of a regular newsletter. (Read Sending Large Volumes of Email if you want to know more about emailing large groups of customers.)
The downside with online surveys is that only those with internet access can take part. Unfortunately, many businesses don’t operate that way, e.g. builders, plumbers, electricians etc. Even car garages or other workshops are unlikely to spend long periods on a computer.
Making Surveys a Success
The secret to a successful survey lies in the questions. Make sure you ask each respondent exactly the same questions and try to avoid any which are leading or ambiguous. For example, any questions that say ‘and’ should probably be broken down into two questions. Ask people to rank or score different statements to give you a comparison or to know how strongly they feel about something.
Repeat the questions after a period of time, e.g. a month, quarterly or annually so you can track how feelings and perceptions are changing. This is a great way to assess whether customers think you are getting better or worse.
If possible, provide tick-box answers to every question rather than asking the respondents to type or write anything. Make it easy for them to answer. Also, try it out on a few people before it goes live, to make sure you've eliminated as many confusing questions as possible.
Legal Requirements
Don’t forget that your own country or state will have laws covering market research. For example, in the UK you cannot attempt to sell or generate leads under the guise of market research - it’s called sugging. The Market Research Society has more details on how to keep research legal in the UK, together with providing general principles and ESOMAR provides the details on a worldwide basis.
There are other types of research which may also be useful for you. For example, In-depth Customer Research provides some great ways to find out what was behind the answers they gave in a suvey.
