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3 Tips to Create Effective Surveys in 2020

Written by Neticle | Feb 4, 2020 5:49:00 AM

Let’s face it: most people feel overwhelmed by filling out surveys and you can’t blame them. Being asked to give answers about their shopping experiences can be tiring. But it doesn’t have to be. If you want to know how to put cool and engaging surveys out there or get more people to fill them out, this article is for you.

Collecting feedback from your target audience is essential but, since you’re reading this article, you have probably realised that by now. Relevant groups’ honest and genuine opinion is the biggest help when it comes to improving customer experience. However, as people being asked to provide feedback about products and services on a daily basis, you need to create an outstanding survey to draw attention. Watch and learn!

How the "big ones" do it

A good way to get a grasp of the latest trends is checking out how the market-leading corporations doing it. They might be bigger but they are probably dealing with similar customer experience issues as you, so why not learning from their best practices (source for the following examples are here).

Apple

For example, we really liked Apple’s survey campaign which was created to support Epic Games’ product development. After introducing the Apple Customer Pulse button, they managed to keep the dialogue going with their users thanks to their short, direct questions. They collected answers about their products appearance and user experience as well. You might not know this, but in fact, this is how Apple got big data on how their audience wants  bigger screen on the iPhones because of the shift towards video content in social media consumption habits.

Fortnite

Fortnite creator Epic Games ran a massive campaign on social media where they offered them to test the game then give feedback about their experiences. It is a smart way to make customers feel like they get something out of completing the survey, so they won’t feel like they’re doing a favor for the company. No wonder they managed to become market-leading with Fortnite, since they adjusted the game according to user suggestions and needs. Now we can say they are not only literal game-changers, but also thriving in the field of innovative survey advertising.

Verizon

Before introducing Verizon Wireless, the company made a research to map out client needs. In fact, this survey was the one that showed them that most people want to keep their own phone number after changing provider. This is why the option to keep the number after changing was born as Verizon Wireless and the whole marketing campaign was built on fulfilling this long-hanging need. They won over lots of users with that.

3 tips to make an engaging survey

According to the latest trends and examinations, this is how you can nail customer experience measurement with a killer survey.

1. Phrase the questions well

This might be obvious but high turnaround rates prove the opposite. As we learned from Apple’s story, the short, direct questions always win. This is why you should phrase your questions clearly and effectively. You have to make people not thinking a lot about what you’re asking because that ruins the flow. With questions to the point, the answer will pop to them immediately.

For example, when you write something like “How would you evaluate your shopping experience with us, comparing to other stores?” It is long, it contains difficult words and also requires complex thinking. Instead, you should have three shorter questions: 1. Why do you like shopping in this store? What don’t you like when shopping in this store? Please describe why shopping in our stores is any different than in other stores! This way people’s thoughts are more driven but you can still get the answers you need.

There are three survey-efficient question types.

  • Go casual when you need short but detailed answers in specific topics. For example: How do the new self-service cashier desks shorten the checkout process?
  • Descriptive questions are the best for getting more direct responses, usually in a quantitative way. For example: Please rate the quality of the following products on a scale of 1 to 10...
  • Use exploratory questions in cases you don’t feel the need to drive the responders’ thoughts. It can be very convenient to discover customers’ opinion in general. It might reveal unknown perspectives and issues you haven’t even thought of. For example: What would you change in our stores?

2. Go digital

What appears in all the cases mentioned above is the emphasis on digitization. Yes, giving a pen and a piece of paper to your customers or calling them are lame and outdated now. This is why making online surveys is a better choice:

  • It’s easy to create. There are templates you can fill with the questions you want to ask, there are options to customize the layout of the surveys to fit your branding and other needs. Once you are ready with a list of questions what you want to ask, it will literally take minutes to make your beautiful survey.
  • People can fill online surveys anytime, anywhere in the world. It gives them the freedom to do it when they are actually free and not bothered by customer service employees after shopping, on the street or via phone.
  • You don’t have to be the only advertiser of the surveys. Since they are easy to share in social media, your audience can boost themselves for more and more filling. Of course, in these cases, some extra motivation like a coupon code in return always helps.

3. Accept the help of AI technology

Creating an engaging survey is just one part of the job. If you actually want to use the collected data efficiently, you will need help with coding the hundreds or thousands of answers you got. Did you know that we live in such a magnificent era that the whole analysis process can be done without human interference? That’s right.

Survey makers like Zurvey.io automatically register the answers into a database or platform. The responses are being analysed in real-time as they are coming in. It means you don’t have to spare working hours for either collecting the answers in person or reading, evaluating and summarizing them. All you have to do is create a good survey and wait for the results that will appear on dozens of different, stunning charts that show the key insights for you.

So, if you thought survey making and analysis is overwhelming, think again! Because you really miss out on the opportunity to get valuable feedback from your most relevant audience.

If you want to start making awesome surveys today, reach out to us and we will show you why Zurvey.io is the best partner in customer feedback analysis.