Because of that, I\u2019m not even going to bother with trying to convince you to run customer surveys. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You already know that you have to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What you may not know, though, is how to run customer surveys that people want to respond to and share their insights with you, right? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, keep on reading to change that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What we\u2019ll cover:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a lot to cover so let\u2019s get right to it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n The term – customer surveys<\/em> – is pretty self-explanatory, isn\u2019t it? It refers to a strategy of soliciting customer feedback through surveys. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But \u2026 there is a tiny bit more to that, actually. <\/p>\n\n\n\n First of all, when we speak of customer surveys, we don\u2019t talk about just any survey you send to customers. Sure, it might seem so based on the term, but that\u2019s not the case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Typically, customer surveys refer to the feedback we collect from customers to evaluate specific information:<\/p>\n\n\n\n We can also use customer surveys to learn more about the people who use our products or services, discover their demographic characteristics, profile customers, and more. <\/p>\n\n\n But in general, think of customer surveys as your gateway to uncovering what customers think about your product and how well it delivers on their expectations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ve touched on this briefly above, but I believe the topic warrants a deeper exploration, and so, here it is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Typically, companies launch several different types of customer surveys:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are a couple of examples of these customer surveys. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is an ideal customer survey to use when you want to find out how indispensable your product is to users. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Note – In this guide, you can learn more about running NPS surveys<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n A customer survey helps you evaluate whether customers are satisfied with your product or its specific functionality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Learn more about running CSAT surveys<\/a> from this guide. <\/p>\n\n\n CES survey lets you uncover whether customers find your product challenging or effortless to use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Learn the core differences between CES, NPS, and CSAT surveys<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n This customer survey type, on the other hand, lets you gauge your users\u2019 interests and identify which product capabilities to focus on in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Learn more about using surveys in product discovery<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n We\u2019ve covered what customer surveys are. You also know why you absolutely must run them and what survey types to use when collecting customer feedback. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s left for us to discuss is how to do it, exactly. And below, I\u2019ve outlined some of the best practices for running customer surveys in general, as well as ideas for various specific survey types (i.e., NPS, etc.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overall, the process of launching and running a survey includes several phases:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s look at all those steps in detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The challenge with running customer surveys is that there are so many different types and survey objectives that you could aim for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n NPS or CSAT helps evaluate customer satisfaction. You use product market fit or roadmap validation surveys to uncover what customers think about your product, and so on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, there\u2019s the fact that you can run almost any customer survey to evaluate your brand or product in general or focus on a specific aspect of your business<\/p>\n\n\n\n All this means that for any survey, you have several (or more) different variations to choose from. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The only way to know which one to use for sure is to begin the project by defining what you want to get out of the survey.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Few things to remember here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please note – In this context, when I talk about the target audience, I mean the recipients of your survey. It\u2019s obvious that these would be your existing customers, but, and this is where it gets important<\/em>, depending on your survey, you might not be collecting feedback from all of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some research projects will require you to segment the audience<\/a>. Perhaps you\u2019ll want to evaluate what your longest-running customers think about your product. Or discover how new customers perceive your signup process, and so on. And needless to say, each of these audiences will require a different survey, different survey questions, and so on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, as the next step, clearly define which of the audience segments is best suited to deliver the insights you seek.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n The key to running a successful survey is positioning it in front of your desired audience segment when these people are the most likely to respond. In practice, this means using a delivery method that\u2019s the most relevant to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This could be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier on, I named this step an activity that\u2019s often the most problematic part of the process, and I did it for a reason. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You see – Questions can make or break your survey. Ask the wrong question, and you\u2019ll collect irrelevant insights. Phrase the question wrong, and customers won\u2019t know how to reply and will, most likely, avoid completing the survey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The same goes for using the wrong question type. Ask an open-ended question instead of a multiple-choice one, or vice versa, and you\u2019ll, most likely, only confuse your audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, writing survey questions is a topic of its own, far too exceeding this guide\u2019s content. That said, I wrote several guides that focus specifically on different types of questions to include in customer surveys. Use them to learn how to write the best questions for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
What are customer surveys?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
![\"Customer](\"https:\/\/refiner.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/ex1-1024x538.png\")
Most popular types of customer surveys<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Net promoter score<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"NPS](\"https:\/\/refiner.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/NPS.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nCSAT score<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"CSAT](\"https:\/\/refiner.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/CSAT.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nCES survey<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"CES](\"https:\/\/refiner.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/CES.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nRoadmap validation survey<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"Product](\"https:\/\/refiner.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Feature-research-survey.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nHow to Launch (and Run) Successful Customer Surveys<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
Step 1. Defining survey goals<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
![\"Customer](\"https:\/\/refiner.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/step1.png\")
Step 2. Identify the target audience<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Customer](\"https:\/\/refiner.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Step2.png\")
Step 3. Decide on the delivery channel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
![\"Survey](\"https:\/\/refiner.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Step3.png\")
Step 4. Writing survey questions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
![\"Setting](\"https:\/\/refiner.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Step4.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Survey](\"https:\/\/refiner.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Step5.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Survey](\"https:\/\/refiner.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Step6.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n