Customer surveys — an overview

There isn't one single customer survey. There are several, and they differ in occasion, length, and sensitivity.

The customer is at the center of all of a company's marketing activities. Because it's clear that a company can only survive in the market if it keeps its customers satisfied. The quality of its products and services has to be right. If a company loses its customers, its sales collapse and revenue is lost. In the worst case, insolvency looms.

That's why the most important question every company has to ask itself is not "how do I get as much money as possible?", but rather "what can I do to satisfy my existing and potential customers and bind them to my company over the long term?"

So anyone who truly knows their customers, their wishes, and their needs has a clear advantage over the competition.

Customer surveys help companies understand their customers better, because they shed light on how products, services, communication, and all other marketing activities can be optimized in a customer-centric way.

Does that sound too general? Let's look at the matter in a bit more detail, so you get a better sense of the topics you can — or should — survey your customers about.

When do companies turn to which surveys?

By surveying your customers, you can learn a great deal about them. So which questions should you ask them to get the information you need? Here I'll list the most common reasons why companies run customer surveys:

Companies survey customers about their attitudes and perceived importance regarding products and services, willingness to pay, buying habits, reasons for visiting the website, loyalty and willingness to switch, the image of the company and its competitors, their purchasing experience, which advertising they can recall, their age, gender, income, and even their lifestyle, and much more.

But which questions should you ask, and when? To answer that, we need to understand the following:

Customers come into contact with a company in various ways. For example, they see advertising, visit a store or the website, test the product, talk to the salesperson, buy the product, use it, contact the hotline, talk with friends and relatives about the company... Each contact is an experience for the customer that shapes their attitude toward the company, its products, and its services — and ultimately their willingness to buy and their loyalty. The company's goal, then, is to satisfy the customer/consumer as much as possible at every touchpoint and to impress them positively (that is, to meet their expectations and even exceed them).

It's precisely from the combination of this goal and the specific touchpoint that both the type of survey and the questions themselves — the ones you should ask your customer — ultimately emerge.

In this article we'll look at one of the most important types of customer survey, namely the customer-satisfaction survey.

Customer-satisfaction survey

Because customer satisfaction is so enormously important for companies, the most widespread type of survey is the customer-satisfaction survey.

What is it about?

Marketing scholarship defines the term customer satisfaction as the result of a complex comparison process in which the consumer measures the product or service they subjectively experienced (actual performance) against the expectations they formed ex ante (in advance) (target performance). If, in this comparison process, the actual performance is worse than the expectation, the customer is dissatisfied or even annoyed. If the two are roughly equal, they are neutral or somewhat satisfied. If the performance exceeds their expectations, the customer is very satisfied or delighted.

Delighted customers are loyal and willing to pay a higher price for products and services. As a rule, they buy more often and buy various products from a single provider. They also tend to recommend the company and its products to others. Dissatisfied, annoyed customers talk about it with others too — but in the opposite direction.

Satisfied customers help you recognize your strengths.

With customer-satisfaction surveys, then, one aim is to identify the delighted customers. Because they're a welcome target for communication measures: newsletters, advertising, announcements of new products, communities, social-media groups, and so on. Such customers tend to respond positively, engage more intensively with your topics and — importantly — they tell others about it and actually buy from you.

Once a delighted customer has been identified as such, it's worth asking them about the reasons for their satisfaction. From the answers to this question you learn your success stories: What do customers particularly value about your product or service? Which of your qualities do they place a lot of importance on, and what sets your company apart from your competition (unique selling point, a.k.a. USP)? These are all valuable points that you should highlight in your communication measures, to convince your neutral customers of your offering and to appeal to potential customers.

Dissatisfied customers reveal your weak points to you.

On the other hand, customer-satisfaction surveys are used to pinpoint the dissatisfied and, in particular, the annoyed customers. You should ask these customers too about the reasons for their dissatisfaction. Their answers help you understand where your weak points and potential for improvement lie, so that you can work in a targeted way on optimizing your offering. Once the weak points have been eliminated, this fact can in turn be used in communication measures aimed at neutral and dissatisfied customers. That way you may be able to win back lost customers and convince them to give you a "second try."

It's important to respond to dissatisfied customers as quickly as possible. Ideally, the responsible manager should learn of the customer's dissatisfaction and its reasons immediately after the customer has completed the questionnaire. They should look for a solution right away and offer it to the customer. And not just to minimize the negative consequences that can arise from a possible spread of an annoyed customer's reputation-damaging opinion, but because of the so-called service recovery paradox, thanks to which many dissatisfied customers can be turned into loyal ones.

In marketing, the service recovery paradox refers to a situation in which customers, after their problem with the product or service has been resolved, are more satisfied than if the problem had never occurred. The successful recovery of a faulty service also increases loyalty and trust in the company.

Marketing scholarship also states that only 5% of dissatisfied customers actively complain to the company. Most prefer to vent their frustration in conversations with friends and acquaintances, and thus spread their negative opinion. That's why it's of enormous importance for companies to run customer-satisfaction surveys regularly.

Survey invitation: as soon as possible after contact, but not always.

With the help of online surveys and customer relationship systems (CRM), this is really easy to do these days! All you need is your customer's email address or mobile number, and you can send them the link to your survey right after they've had contact with your company — whether it's a visit to your store or a call to the hotline. If the visitor is on your website, you can link the survey directly from the website or show it in a pop-up.

QR codes let you survey customers whose data you don't have but who are in contact with your company (e.g., in a restaurant). The customer just has to scan the QR code and can give you their feedback. The QR code can be placed discreetly on any kind of printed material: flyer, business card, poster, menu, beer mat, receipt, or a small sticker on the seat in front on a train.

The survey invitation, however, should be sent no earlier than when the customer has actually been able to form an opinion about the matter you're interested in. If, for example, you're interested in satisfaction with delivery times or with the product purchased, then hold off on the survey until the customer has received their delivery or has been able to use the product.

Don't just ask about satisfaction per se — what matters are the aspects that you, as a company, can influence.

Customer satisfaction is multifaceted. How satisfied a customer is with a company emerges from the sum of many "smaller" satisfactions: Did the customer reach their goal? Did they find the product they were looking for? Was the atmosphere appealing? Were the staff competent and polite? Did the delivery arrive on time and undamaged? Did the food taste good? ... All of that and much more ultimately leads to the customer's judgment about their satisfaction with the contact with the company, as well as with the company as a whole.

Because of its complexity, researchers describe customer satisfaction as a "latent construct" — that is, a variable that cannot be measured directly, but that emerges from a multitude of measurable indicators.

That's why it makes sense, in a customer-satisfaction survey, to ask for information about all the aspects that, on the one hand, determine the satisfaction judgment and, on the other hand, that you as a company can influence. The latter is also important because the survey should be kept short and snappy so that as many customers as possible answer your questions. There are aspects of customer satisfaction that you can't influence (e.g., the customer's mood or their business situation). So why would you ask about them?

It goes over well with customers when they notice that answering the questions actually helps them, or that they can help shape their contact with the company to their own benefit.

The table below summarizes, by way of example, the topics you could ask about in a customer-satisfaction survey. Of course, not all the points have to be taken up — only the ones that help you understand your customers better and that you can actually influence in order to make your customers more satisfied. This list of topics can be extended as you like — ask everything that helps you!

Possible topics for the customer-satisfaction survey, plus recommendations on communication channels and on the timing of the invitation

Satisfaction with...

Date: 04/09/2020
Author: Dr. Paul Marx