Power of Online Surveys

The Power of Online Survey

Copyright © 2009 Constant Contact Inc.

How to Best Use Surveys and Polls to Keep Existing
Customers and Attract New Business

Our Agenda
 

1.  Using Surveys & Polls for
growth
•  It’s about your customers
•  The value of online
feedback

4. Distributing your Survey
•  When to Survey
5. The Right Content
•  Survey Examples

•  Improvements to expect
6. Taking Action on the Results
2.  Using Polls & Surveys
3.  Creating an Effective Survey

7. Your Next Steps

•  Defining Objectives
•  Creating Questions
•  Overall Design
Copyright © 2009 Constant Contact, Inc.

2

Using Surveys & Polls for Growth


It’s About Your Customers

Your customers are
the reason you’re
in business
Your current
customers are
your best path to
growth.


4

Your current customers, best path to growth
Your current customers are your best opportunity for profitability & growth
  They cost less than gaining a new customer
  They spend more money
  They promote your business with positive word-of-mouth
It's 6-7 times more expensive to gain a
new customer than it is to retain an
existing customer.
- Bain and Company

A 2% increase in customer retention has the
same effect on profits as cutting costs by 10%.
-"Leading on the Edge of Chaos", Emmett C. Murphy and Mark
A. Murphy

Repeat customers spend 67% more.
- Bain and Company


–  52% of consumers would feel encouraged to
spend more with a company if it were to
improve its overall customer experience.
–  50% of consumers will always/often pay more
for a better customer experience.
–  53% of consumers will recommend a
company to someone else because it provides
outstanding service.
Customer Experience Impact Report, by RightNow Technologies
and Harris Interactive

After 10 purchases, a customer has already
referred up to 7 people.
- Bain and Company

5

Your customers are talking!

Do you know what your customers are saying
about you?
 

Face-to face feedback and gut feelings aren’t
enough to have a real view of what your
customers are thinking
•  What about non-vocal customers?

The average business loses
50% of its customers over
the course of 5 years.
 

- Carlson Marketing
 

Each detractor (customers
unlikely to recommend you)
accounts for the loss of 1.3
new customers through
negative word of mouth.
- Net Promoter Economics: The Impact of
Word of Mouth, study by Satmetrix

Before: A happy customer
tells 5 people, an unhappy
customer tells 100.
Now: “59% of people use
social media to ‘vent’ about a
customer care experience.”
- The Society for New Communications
Research study

6

Keep an Open Dialogue with Customers

Your best path to growth and profitability is:
  Keeping in tune with your delighted customers to ensure
they continue to be delighted
  Moving satisfied customers to delighted, loyal customers
  Managing unhappy customers quickly
The Tools: Online Surveys & Polls
Easily keep an open dialogue with your customers and
quickly get balanced, actionable feedback.
  Regularly find out what customers like and don’t
like about your offerings
  Make changes based on their feedback
  Have delighted customers that will spend/donate
more and bring in referrals

7

Value of Getting Feedback Online

Why Collect Feedback Online?
  Easy, fast method to collect feedback from many customers at once
-  Online surveys can be made available to customers instantly by email invite, e-newsletter, website, blog,
social media site, etc.
-  Get a representative view of your audience that you don’t get face-to-face
–  Automatically capture and tally responses. Use reports to make decisions in real time

  Get more honest and rich feedback
–  Customers aren’t limited by face-time so they can think of more to say
–  Customers feel more comfortable sharing sensitive issues they think you might not want to hear
–  Spend time/money on what you know will have the most impact

  Least expensive type of research and more environmentally friendly than paper surveys
–  Avoid the cost of printing and postage
–  Can promote being green


8

Improvements to Expect from Customer Feedback

Offerings
  Know how you should improve existing products, services, programs, and events
  Know what new products, services, programs, events are worthwhile
 

Website
  Increase traffic, improve navigation/conversion, increase purchases/donations
 

E-newsletters
  Know the topics that stimulate your audience, and the ideal frequency to send to
customers, clients, members, donors, and volunteers
 

Promotional Efforts
  Attract new customers, clients, members, donors, volunteers with the right
testimonials, reviews, and ratings
 

Contact List
  Update your contact database with new or missing contact information
  Segment your audience in order to target their interests
 


9

Using Polls & Surveys


Polls: To Improve Website and Emails

Have interactive, fresh and engaging
content with polls
■  Immediately engage visitors/readers
■  Identify their interests
■  Show audience you are in tune with the
industry and their challenges
■  Create awareness of products/services
■  e.g. Which of our new products do you like best?
■  e.g. Which membership benefit is the most
valuable to you?

■  Immediate results encourages regular repeat
visits to website
■  Visitors come back to see latest results and vote on
next new topics


11

Using Polls: To Let People Rate your Content

1.  How useful did you find this content?
Vote Here.
2.  Link to a poll after your content:
• 
• 

}

After e-newsletter articles
End of blog entries

• 

After website sections

3.  Use instant results!


• 

Gives your audience a voice and instant
gratification of what others said

• 

You know what content your audience values

• 

Use the lessons to improve the content in your
newsletters, blogs and website

12

Polls: To Improve Newsletters and Strengthen your Brand

SourceAuthority.com
 

Web-based retailer for manufacturing businesses
 

Challenge: "We wanted to make the newsletter more
interactive and to show our customers that we
care about the issues that are important to
them.”
 

 

 

 

Solution: Include polls in their newsletters and on website
 

Results:
■  Engaging/interactive newsletter
■  Interesting newsletter content – the results
from previous week's polls are highlighted in
each issue of the newsletter.
■  Increase customer confidence -

"Polls help us to build our customers and potential
customers' confidence in us by showing that we
are in tune with the industry. The topics we
cover tell them that we understand their
business challenges and are developing solutions
to help them achieve their goals."


13

Using Surveys: To have a Web-Based Suggestion Box

  Give your customers an easy way to give you feedback at any time
  Great ideas from customers will allow you to do more with less

Have a Suggestion Box link
anywhere people can
connect with you online:
  Employee intranet
  Website for customers,
prospects, or vendors
  Blog
  Social media sites
  Email newsletter

14

Using Surveys: To Improve Customer Satisfaction

Dockside Restaurant Group
 

Successful restaurant group known for showing big games
and serving large portions of high quality food at
affordable prices.
 

Challenge: Getting Honest Feedback from
Loyal Customers
 

 

Solution: Quarterly Satisfaction Surveys
 

■ Lets customers rank a variety of

aspects – quality of food, caliber of
staff, variety on the menus, etc.

Results: New Menu Items, Improved Customer
Experience, Increase in Customer Traffic
 

 

 

“Many customers comment that the use
of surveys makes them feel important
and that their opinion is valued.”
 


15

Using Surveys: To Improve Customer Satisfaction

Jennifer Barley
 

Personal life coach working to help people achieve their
goals.
 

Challenge: Tailoring services to meet the needs
of customers
 

 

Solution:
 

 

Uses online surveys to determine
customer needs
■  Make sure customers are satisfied
■  If not, learn how to adjust services

before it’s too late

“If you want to find the pulse of your
customers, and be able to meet their needs,
the survey is the quickest, most efficient
way to get that done.”

Results: Services designed by customers’ needs
 

“I am a smarter businessperson because I use
Online Surveys. I am much more efficient and
my customers really feel heard, listened
to, and they get what they ask for.”

16

Using Surveys: To Improve Events/Programs

Community Business Partnership
NPO that helps women, minorities and veterans
start - and grow - their own businesses

How feedback impacts the organization:
 

  Continually improve offerings, which increases
satisfaction and attendance of events
  Know which workshops and trainers were
most beneficial in helping clients grow their
businesses
  Gain suggestions for future workshops,
names of potential keynote speakers, future
conference ideas
“When we sough to expand the offerings, clients told
us through surveys that they wanted several
services that we hadn’t even thought of
offering.”

  Helps gain future funding by being able to
report program ROI with data collected

17

Using Surveys: To Improve Website and Products
Ford’s Gourmet Foods
 

Retailer of gourmet foods whose products can be found in 40
countries worldwide
 

Challenge: Standing out in a crowded market so
they can find new customers and
remind their existing clients of their
tasty goods.
 

 

 

 

Solution: Include flyer in shipments with link to
online survey asking their biggest fans
for ideas of how to best differentiate their
products.
 

 

 

 

Results:
 

  74% Response Rate
  Discoveries include:
■ 
■ 

Need a social media presence

■ 

■ 

Need to improve web navigation and online
shopping cart
Customers wanted new products: e.g., chips

Feedback helping build customer loyalty:

“Our customers are grateful for being given the
opportunity and the forum to
provide feedback.
Then, they get to see that feedback
being acted
upon… They like feeling as if they
are a part of
building the brand.”
• 


18

Using Surveys: To Get Ratings & Reviews
Let your customers review your
products/services/events
 

66% of online shoppers use other purchasers’
recommendations when buying online.
77% of the online population find reviews more
useful than just company email.
20% of online buyers post an average of 9
product reviews a year.
-JupiterResearch/Ipsos Insight Consumer Survey Sept 2007

Highlight reviews and quotes on website and in
promotions to influence purchase decisions:
“Top Customer–Rated Products”
“People who use this service give it
4 out of 5 stars”


19

Using Surveys: To do Target Marketing
Target Marketing Gets Results
58% of consumers say they unsubscribe or
simply stop reading emails because
“emails weren’t relevant to me.”
– MarketingSherpa, September 2008

50% of email users unsubscribe
when offers don’t match their interests.
– Return Path 2008

56% of consumers consider marketing
messages from known senders to be spam if
the message is “just not interesting to me.”
– Q Interactive, 2007 Spam Complainers Survey

How can you know who in your
audience is interested in what?
Easily segment your audience with one
survey:
Step 1: Send a survey asking about their interests
Step 2: Use the results to create targeted, “specialinterest” lists of people with similar interests

20

Creating an Effective Survey


Defining the Objective

Keep it Short for Higher Participation
Response rates drop rapidly
as length increases.

Real world example: Constant Contact’s post webinar surveys
  9 question survey = 15% response rate
  6 question survey = 32% response rate
How long should my survey be?
  Don’t impose too greatly on your customers’ valuable time
  Keep it to 10 minutes or less: (about 10 questions)
  5 minutes or less for best results!
 

Tip: To know how long your survey will take to complete, take it yourself.


22

Defining the Objective
Identify the Right Participants
  58% of people unsubscribe because emails
are not relevant to them*
  44% of people unsubscribe because they
receive too many emails from the sender*
Tip to Avoid Burnout & Get a Good Response rate:
 

Segment your list and send your surveys only to the people
who will be interested and can provide accurate answers.
 

List (Segmentation) Ideas:

* Marketing Sherpa 2008

  Why do they come to you?
–  Don’t send a survey to them if they don’t buy the product you are analyzing

  How do they purchase?
–  Don’t send an online shopping satisfaction survey to them if they only buy in the store

  How long have they been a customer?
–  Newer: lighter survey; Established: more in-depth survey

  Randomly divide audience into segments
–  If survey is appropriate for your whole audience
–  Split the audience into 4 groups and send the survey to one group each quarter

23

Creating the Questions

 

 

Good Questions Help Meet the Objective
Use the Objective
  Ask what you need to know, not what you want to know
  Resist the temptation of… “Just one more question”
  Every question should support to your objective

 

Objective: To explore what attracts customers and separates us from competitors.
Do include: Pick the offers/features that makes us unique from competitors.
Do Not include: How likely are you to purchase X if we began offering it?
Objective: To test the feasibility of a new product
Do include: What attributes would make you more or less interested in purchasing?
Do Not include: Please rate your satisfaction with our website.


24

Good questions: what you need to know to meet that objective
Example: I need to understand where I should improve my business
Objective: To identify the needs of my customers and what’s most important to them
Need to Know:
  What behaviors/services/products make my customers/members happy?
  What behaviors/services/products cause them dissatisfaction?
  What is most important to them?

Example: There are not enough people attending our events
Objective: To learn what I can do to improve the attendance to our events
Need to Know:
  Is there a topic / speaker of interest?
  Is there a preferred location?
  Is there a day / time that is preferred?


25

Save Time and Effort:
Use the Survey Templates

  Prewritten questions
for several objectives
  Best practices built-in
  Edit/remove
questions
  Add additional
questions
  Add your brand


26

Creating the Questions: Well Crafted Questions

Use the right question type to get the answers you need
 

■  What will you need to do with the results to make a change?
■  Can you create a baseline to measure future progress?
Tip: The majority of close-ended questions make it easier to
analyze, spot trends and create a base line.

Tip: Get the best of both worlds
Use a closed-ended and include a
comment area so respondent may go
into more detail if they wish!


27

Creating the Questions: Which question type should I use?
Closed–ended Pros & Cons
•  Easy to answer
•  Responses are easy to analyze and
allow for great comparison
•  Answer options need to be
comprehensive

Open–ended Pros & Cons
•  Not limited by answer options
  Gain customer voice – their words,
new ideas, testimonials, service issues

•  Harder to answer =
respondent fatigue

Avoid a common mistake: Using
too many open-ended questions.

•  Harder to analyze
•  Time-consuming to evaluate
•  Limits comparison

28


Keep Things Simple
 

■  The less words the better
  Questions should be short and easy to

■  Avoid biasing the response with
leading questions

understand
Wrong: Don’t you agree that our staff is

■  Stay away from acronyms and
techno-jargon
■  Avoid double-barreled questions
How satisfied are you with our online
ordering process and customer service?

knowledgeable?
Right: How would you rate the
knowledge of our staff?
Wrong: Are you very satisfied or just
somewhat satisfied with us?
Right: Overall, how satisfied are you
with us?

  Respondents may be satisfied with one and not the
other
  Ask only one thing per question


Words like “always” and “never”
will bias the response
in the opposite direction.
29

Effective Overall Design

Make the survey easy to
read and complete
To brand your survey:
  Include your logo on every page
of the survey for recognition
  Leave the rest of the branding
for where you distribute the
survey (website, email, etc.)
Recommendations:
–  White Background
–  Black Text
–  Times New Roman, Arial
or Verdana

30

The Order of Your Questions Matters

Easy to re-order
your questions
■  First Question (s)
  Make the first questions easy to answer. Get them off and running…
■  Most important questions up front
  Prioritize your questions based on what’s most important & what you can act upon
■  Profile/demographic questions at the end
■  Explain why you need the information: Improved service, Customized offerings
■  Typical demographic questions: Marital Status, Age, Education, Income Level.

31


The End: Where do you want respondents to go?
 

 

Once respondents complete your survey, decide where they land
Two options:

1) Respondents land on a website where
they can:

2) Respondents are brought to a closing page
where you can:

  Access an incentive

  Thank respondents for participating

  Register for your next event

  Remind participants what will be done
with the results

  Review customer testimonials

  Provide access to an incentive
32


Test your online surveys before sending
 

Re-visit your objective, then take the survey yourself (it won’t affect your results)

 

Let others who weren’t involved in creating it test it: share the Test URL

Checklist:
  Is the survey easy to follow and complete?
  Was any part confusing or difficult to answer?
  Is the survey leading respondents to answer in a particular way?
  Does the skip logic work correctly? (Are all questions relevant to different groups?)
  Will you be able to take action on its results?
  How long did it take to complete?

Tip: Pilot it to 10% of your list if
you’re unsure about your
audience’s response


33

Distributing your Survey


Three Distribution Options

1.  Use the Survey URL to put the survey on your website,
social media site, in transactional emails, or printed collateral
2.  Use a Constant Contact Invitation to create a
professional looking, personalized email invitation and be
able to track it’s success
3.  Insert the survey into any of your Regular Constant
Contact Emails such as your newsletters, promotions or
event communications

35

Question: Which distribution option should I use?
Answer: What kind of results do you want?
Anonymous

Know the Identity

Reward:
Completely honest feedback, no bias in
answers.

Reward:
You know who said what, can do Follow up
with people that answered a particular way

Risk:
You do not know who is having problems
to reach out and help that individual

Risk:
Answers might not be completely truthful
because of the link to the respondent

Method:
Post the Survey URL on your website,
social media site, include in your
personal email or give the person the
URL at time of interaction

Method:
Send a Constant Contact Email Invitation
or use the Insert Survey Link in your
newsletter or other Constant Contact emails

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Common for employee surveys

36


When Do You Need the Results?
Typical Timing of Responses
  Over half of the survey responses will come in within the
first day
  7 out 8 responses arrive within the first week
  One week is sufficient if time is more important than
maximizing response
  Two weeks is the recommended run time (enough time to
send a reminder)
-People Pulse Survey Response Rate Study


37

Distributing your Surveys: When?
Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

1

3

Gift Idea
Email

Newsletter

9

10

Sat

Sun

Weekend
Sale
SpecialsPM

8

7

2

Fri

Mother’s
Day Gift
IdeasExtended
Hours

4

5

6

11

12

13

Last day
for
delivery

Mother’s
Day

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

Memorial
Day
Weekend

Memorial
Day
Weekend

Summer
SpecialsExtended
Hours

28

29

Memorial
Day
Weekend

Memorial
Day
Weekend

30

31

Tip: Have a regular way for people
to submit feedback (like a
suggestion box.) Your audience may
have feedback well before/after
your scheduled surveys.

Regular
Communication
Holiday/Event
Effecting
Business
Promotional
Communication
Date Deadline
Communication

Action-Driven Survey

New customer (How did they find you? Interests?)
Satisfaction with purchase/event/project
Change in the customer base (New location)
Change in service/product offerings
  Make available when the action occurs
or soon after so experience is fresh

Periodic Survey

Long term customer satisfaction
New product/service ideas
Pulse on marketplace/competition
  Coincide with your calendar
–  Avoid days before/after holidays and
major industry events
–  Send when planned communication is
light
–  Avoid busy times for target audience
E.g. Employee surveys for sales people
should avoid end of month

  Get feedback monthly/quarterly
–  People can’t remember their engagement
with you well when it was 6 months ago
38

Distributing your surveys: When?

 

Experience-Driven
■  Events, transactions and engagements
Satisfaction
■  How people found you
■ 

■  Ideas for immediate improvements
■  Ongoing to very specific audiences

2. 

Planning-Driven
■  Relationships, overall satisfaction, product direction
■  Results drive strategy and planning
■  2 to 4 times per year


39

The Right Content for your Audience


The Right Content
Content That Will Get your Audience to Take Your Survey
Content directly relates to
your response rate.
Keep it short & sweet and
make it about your audience!

■  Consistent brand: color palette and logo
■  Personalization - avoid general salutations
like “Dear Customer” , include first/last name
–  Personalized emails can increase response rates
by nearly 60%

■  Clearly state the topic of your survey and how
participating will benefit them
■  Specify the time it will take to complete

■  Clearly display the call to action
– 

Place URL in preview pane. Don’t make
respondents scroll down to see it.

■  Inform of confidentiality: Is it anonymous?
■  Include a closing date
– 

If not enough responses, could always extend

■  Include a thank-you statement from
recognizable entity upon completion
41

The Right Content: Email Invitation Example

  Branding
  Personalization
  Purpose
  Incentives
  Deadline Date
  Confidentiality
  Clear Call to Action
  Signed by person
perceived powerful


42

The Right Content: Email Invitation Example

Benefit Oriented
All about the recipient
“We strive to make
your experience
better every time
you visit.”
“Your feedback will
help us to better
serve you in the
future.”


43

The Right Content: Newsletter Email Example

Help fulfill needs

“We are grateful for any
insights you can
share…so that we can
continue to evolve and
grow and deliver an
experience that fulfills
the needs of our
guests.”
  Personalization
  Purpose/Benefit
  Incentives
  Deadline Date
  Clear Call to Action


44

The Right Content: Promotion Email Example

Rate & Review Your Favorites
 

“Loyal customers like you”
 

“With the launch of our product
reviews online, we invite you to
be among the first to share
your thoughts on our products.”
 

  Feel like part of a select
group
  Plenty of white space
  Clear calls to action


45

The Right Content: Social Media Website Example

Research Study Request
 

  Brand
  Great reach
  Clear incentive


46

The Right Content: Blog Example

Reach &
Audience Segmentation
 

  Fun!
  Interactive
  Far-reaching


47

The Right Content: Company Website Example

Understanding customers’ needs and concerns
 

  Brand
  Great reach
  Clear call to action


48

Using Survey Results


Taking Action on the Results

The Results are In!
Response rate is affected by:
 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Your relationship with survey audience
The invitation/greeting page/webpage
Survey length
Survey design
Survey topic
Incentives
Reminders

Marketing Research Association
average response rates:
 10-15% for telephone surveys
 Mail surveys even lower
 20-50% for online surveys

Did you receive enough responses to
reflect your audience as a whole?
 

•  Sample size
•  Larger the audience = higher confidence
in the results


50

Taking Action on Results

Step 1: Review the overall results to get a snapshot
 

 

Results can be reviewed as soon as they are submitted, charts can help
you identify trends

Step 2: Analyze your results
 

 

Export results to share with others, use filtering for deeper analysis, take
testimonials from open-ended text results

Step 3: Plan and take follow-up actions
 

 

Use findings to create an action plan based on changes
you know customers want: a.k.a. prioritize resources

The most important part of creating
online surveys and polls!

Step 4: Follow up with respondents
  Easily create lists of people with similar responses, target future
communication based on interest, share insights and actions
 

Step 5: Survey again to know if your action plan is working!
  Use the results of your first survey to measure the impact of your actions
 

Use the same questions in your next survey to be
able to accurately measure your results over time

51

Taking Action on the Results: Polls

The Poll Results are In!

And the next free webinar is…
 

“With 71% of the vote, the next
free webinar from Constant Contact
is Growing your Email List. Thanks
to everyone who voted! Register
now to reserve your spot.”


52

Taking Action on Results: Survey

Survey results say: create
a loyalty program to win
new business

Follow up email
says…
“During our latest
survey you
indicated that you
would recommend
our salon to your
friends and
family…and we’d
like to take you up
on your offer!


53

Taking Action on Survey Results

Andover Liquors
“I run a series of tastings with themes based on different wine growing regions.
 

Attendance was inconsistent and beginning to drop. Through surveys, I discovered that
 

people were not satisfied with themes about regions and grapes. They wanted information
about matching wines with meals.
I changed the focus of my e-newsletter and my tasting themes.
 

Attendance has increased.”
Andrea
Wine Manager
Andover Liquors
 

 

 


54

Your Next Steps
Try it, free!
 

■  Sign up for a 60-day trial of
Online Survey and Polls

Ready to learn more?
 

■  Visit the Constant Contact
Learning Center and join the
weekly, live Survey Tour
■  Watch on-demandTutorials
■  Read Product Guides

Let others help you expand
your knowledge
 

■  Join the ConnectUp! online
community:
community.constantcontact.com

2008

55

Your Turn!


Questions?

Thank you for your time!


Power of Online Surveys

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