This Article is Part 3 of a series of articles on the subject of client satisfaction surveys. Part 1 covered the early planning stages including project goals and reporting deliverables. Part 2 examined selection of a survey methodology, with emphasis on the availability and quality of the records list. Part 3 focuses on the use of online customer surveys.
Once it is established that there is an adequate email records list for conducting client satisfaction surveys online, it must be determined whether an online customer survey is still the best choice over other methodologies such as mail or telephone surveys. This decision will often rest on a choice between telephone and online customer surveys, although mail surveys can the best choice in certain cases. The survey vendor should be able to provide helpful advice in making this selection. Key decision factors include project budget and customer relations.
Generally, client satisfaction surveys that focus on b2c relationships have similar pricing for telephone and online customer surveys. These types of surveys might include retail customers or service providers such as accounting, personal banking, auto repair, or mortgage lending. The common thread is a non-enterprise product or service where the end user is typically an easy-to-reach survey participant. For these kinds of client satisfaction surveys, the best choice can often be a telephone survey due to higher response rates.
Cost Considerations and Online Customer Surveys
But where client satisfaction surveys are of a b2b nature (such as enterprise products, services or software), and/or the end user is a corporate executive, online customer surveys can often result in lower pricing than telephone surveys, and similar or better response rates given the difficulty of reaching the respondent by phone. In addition, given the ongoing business relationship with most enterprise products or services, the customer might have a strong interest in timely participation in online customer surveys. In the end, each business relationship is different, and should be examined based on its own set of circumstances.
Customer Relations and Client Satisfaction Survey
Cost issues aside, another key consideration that is often overlooked in designing client satisfaction surveys is the overall impact on client relations. At its most basic level, this means considering the type of methodology most customers are comfortable using. For example, if there are ongoing email exchanges between the company and its customers, online customer surveys might be a natural choice. On the other hand, if customers rarely communicate via email, then blanketing them with email invitations to online customer surveys might not be the best choice even if email addresses are readily available.
Another element that is often overlooked is whether reaching ALL customers should be considered for client relations’ reasons, even though sampling of a portion of the customers is less costly and/or adequate from a statistical standpoint. Put a different way, it can sometimes benefit client relations to ask customers for their feedback on how you are performing. In some cases, such as alumni surveys, it might be politically incorrect to survey only certain alumni to the exclusion others. If that is the case, online customer surveys can often provide the least expensive method of reaching all of the participants while placing your corporate brand in front of them.
Determining the best survey methodology is not always an easy decision. The starting point is typically the availability and quality of the records list. However, this alone is not necessarily the determining factor. Cost considerations and client relations must also be considered. For many client satisfaction surveys, this will boil down to a choice between telephone surveys and online customer surveys. Frequently, the price points are similar when the product or service is delivered b2c instead of b2b. But where enterprise products or difficult-to-reach executives are involved, online customer surveys are often the least expensive option for conducting client satisfaction surveys provided the participants are comfortable responding online. Lastly, and often overlooked, are client relations’ considerations, such as allowing all customers to participate instead of a select group.
Marc Tillman is a member of the professional services staff at Amplitude Research, Inc., a full-service survey company located in Boca Raton, Florida. Amplitude Research specializes in client satisfaction surveys including, mail, telephone, and online customer surveys.