Learn How to Write a Customer Satisfaction Phone Survey
Learning how to write a customer satisfaction survey for the phone can feel like learning fine art. From the type of language you use to how many questions you include on the survey—every decision can make a big impact on the success of your survey. There are many tips and tricks you’ll want to learn to get the survey just right. Check out our guide below to learn expert tips on perfecting your customer satisfaction phone surveys.
Why Are Customer Satisfaction Surveys Important?
Customer satisfaction surveys are a critical part of measuring your strengths and weaknesses as a business. They’re one of the key indicators telling you how you’re doing when it comes to customer service, product quality, marketing, and more. Once you’ve taken the time to gather this information, you can tailor your business to meet the needs of your customers. This will enhance your customer loyalty, increase sales, and grow your business overall.
Why Should You Conduct Customer Satisfaction Surveys By Phone?
In today’s busy world, many businesses’ messages are instantly dismissed by the audience they’re intended for. Your customers are quick to scroll through social media posts, send emails to their trash folder, and throw “junk mail” in the garbage can.
But a phone call is more likely to catch their attention and produce a higher response rate. Once you have your customers on the phone, you can ask follow-up questions, clarify their answers, and get a better understanding of how they feel about your business. The phone interview is immediate, it has a personal touch, and it can capture a wider customer base than email—since many of your older customers may not be comfortable using technology.
Steps in Writing a Phone Survey
Now that you understand the importance of customer service surveys and why they should be done over the phone, it’s time to start creating your own. Follow these steps to create the best possible customer satisfaction phone survey for your company:
1. Choose Metrics
The first step in writing a phone survey is determining metrics for measuring the success of your survey. What are you trying to accomplish with this survey? How will you know if you’ve done a good job surveying your customers? Choose metrics well before you start writing questions since these metrics should inform decisions about the rest of the survey.
2. Write Demographics Questions
Every phone survey should start by gathering basic demographic information about your customer. These questions will give you a deeper understanding of your customer base and help you better serve them. Here are some important demographics to gather from your survey:
- Gender
- Age
- Ethnicity
- Location
- Education level
- Marital status
3. Write Product/Service Feedback Questions
Now it’s time to get to the core purpose of your survey. You want to know what customers think you’re doing well and what you should improve. Most questions you write should be related to your product, your customer service, and transactions. Remember to draft questions several times before settling on a final question that is clear and concise.
4. Questions to Avoid and Include
Every company’s phone survey will look a little different, but there are some general principles to follow when it comes to what you should and shouldn’t ask.
- Do ask:
- For an overall company rating
- Open-ended questions
- Questions about how often they use the product
- Follow-up questions
- Questions that motivate the customer to action
- Don’t ask:
- Questions that touch on more than one subject
- More than 10 questions
- Questions that use complicated jargon
5. Write Instructions for Survey-Takers
No matter how clear you think your questions are, you’ll need to preface your survey with an introduction and some simple instructions on what you want your customers to do. Write a basic script so that the agents conducting your phone survey can inform survey-takers about privacy and how the responses will be used.
6. Test Your Survey
Conduct your customer satisfaction survey with a sample group before you send it out to the masses. It’s important to make sure every question is clear and that your survey can be easily conducted by your customer service agents.
7. Conduct Your Survey
Once you’ve worked out any kinks in your survey, it’s time to take it to a wider customer base. Make sure you have a deadline for the completion of the survey, as well as a plan for tracking and analyzing results. You’ll also want to have a process for following up with unsatisfied customers—you’ll build greater rapport by letting them know their feedback is valued and heard.
Creating Your Customer Satisfaction Survey
Creating your first customer satisfaction survey may require a few drafts, but you’ll gain valuable insights that will help your business grow. And once you’ve written one phone survey, you’ll find the process much more efficient the next time around. Good luck!
