Market Surveys: Getting Inside the Minds of Your Readers

Have you ever been asked to complete one of those surveys after shopping from a store or getting a surgical procedure done?

If so, then you have most likely encountered the question “What did you like about our product and what can we improve on?” Surveys might have worded this question differently, but they are all after the same catch: to know what you think of how well a business or service provider is doing its job.

Surveys are essential to any business. They determine what customers really want and how you can keep them, because the number of sales made doesn’t necessarily translate to customer satisfaction. You don’t want to be a one-hit wonder in the business world, right?

The Purpose of Surveys

Surveys are done to gather customers’ feedbacks. The information collected will then be helpful for:

· Better customer service protocols

· Creating new products

· Creating new programs

· Offering new services

· Improved sales

Surveys, however, are difficult to accomplish on your own. This is when survey companies come into the picture. Survey companies conduct website surveys and polls, and evaluate the results for you. They will provide you a report on how well your business is doing based on the figures they’ve collected.

The rest will then be in your hands. Prepare a spreadsheet that lists all the choices for response. It is ideal to put a number of choices instead of merely putting a blank field where customers can scribble to their heart’s content. This way, responses can be gathered easily. Create a legend for each type of a response and assign a meaning to specific range of result. Use this as a framework for future surveys.

Reader Response

The success of conducting a survey doesn’t come overnight. With so many pop-up surveys on various marketing websites, it is hard to know if a survey is legitimate— most of them are just for show anyways. Not all companies take your opinions for granted, though.

Building relationship with your customers through tangible results comes into play here. Prove that your customers’ opinion matters by changing a thing or two on your product. Let your customers know that you listen to them— bring some attention to the improvements you’ve made. This way, people will take your surveys more seriously.

Run it down. Remember that the customer is always right— paying attention to them through their comments and suggestions will be helpful to your business. You can’t read their mind, after all.