It is true that many customer surveys do not hit the mark. This is often because the questions are poorly formatted or are aimed at getting a response that firms want to hear. Some firms confuse the matter by offering competitions as incentives to complete surveys. This only leads to customers skewing the response in order to stand (in their mind) a better chance of winning the prize.
The best customer you have is the one who complains because they have just told you what is wrong with your business. Hopefully, of course, everything is great and their are no problems! It would be good to know this too though wouldn't it? Asking customers for feedback helps show you care about them, and offering the chance to provide anonymous feedback improves the quality of response. It is also important for customers to know that you care about what they think so publishing outcomes or finding some other way of feeding back after a survey helps.
Of course it isn't only customer satisfaction you can find out about. You can carry out research on current products, proposed new products or services and even what it is about your competitors that your customers like.
For more information on how we can help contact us. We can also provide a low cost solution for running your own surveys.
* From research published by the White House Office of Consumer Affairs and the Navy Installations Training Command