Do you get the most from your survey? Doing a survey is only part of the process. Most businesses believe they don’t get value from doing a survey because they don’t action it properly. Here is a guide on how to do that. Step 1. What is the purpose or aim of the survey? Think about what your end game is. Define how you are going to use the information to grow your business. Two great starting points is thinking how your tribe (customers, clients, staff, suppliers and anyone else with an interest in your business) are filled with ideas on what you do well and what you could improve. Capturing that information in a survey so that you can grow your business will get you off on the right track. Don’t have more than 3 aims and make sure they are distinct. Otherwise your survey it will become very long. Doing this first step will emotionally involve you in the process so that you complete all the steps. Step 2. What questions do you want to ask? Develop a set of questions that cover each aim. Review the questions and see if you can combine a few questions together in a grid or matrix question. You don’t want a survey to have many of these, but one or two can reduce the survey length. Step 3. What is the best way to communicate with the people you’d like to participate? While an online survey is often the first choice, it isn’t always the best. Consider the best way to gain the information to grow your business and communicate with your tribe. A telephone or paper survey might be effective for your business. Step 4. What do the results say? Look at the feedback and uncover what the participants are saying about your business. What do they see your strengths are? What do they see you could improve? Are there particular subgroups saying the same things? This will highlight segments that you can customise aspects of your business to better service. Step 5. Can you compare to internal information? What do you collect while running your business that you can compare with the feedback received? A simple comparison that can be made for a service based business:
- Ask clients to rate the importance and satisfaction of: value for money, quality, responsiveness to enquiries, and value to the bottom line in their business. Another question is: “how likely they are to recommend your services?”.
- Internally collect how much time you spend with the client and how much they pay for your services. Include the quoting process in that calculation then you can gain an overall investment in the client. Then divide the income received by the hours invested.
You are then able to compare the profitability of the client and their views of your business. If those that are really happy are not profitable, then your business has an issue to resolve. Happy clients are great, but not if you can’t stay in business. Step 6. Have you scheduled a planning session? You need to take some time away from the everyday to evaluate and plan. Otherwise your survey will be stuck at Step 4 or 5 – which wastes the time of both you and those who have participated. Step 7. Have you drafted a calendar to add ideas you want to implement? You won’t have time to implement everything at once. Create a calendar to stagger the ways you’re going to drive change and a strategy to tell your tribe about when they will see the changes. Include it in a calendar with other aspects of your business. Don’t have implementations at the same time when you know you have peak client work as you won’t reach your targets. Step 8. Can you identify ways to communicate back? There are several advantages to communicating back the results
- Both participants and non-participants will know you’ve listened. It shows you appreciated the time they invested in your business. That feels good.
- Everyone will know what you plan to do with the results and will have a better understanding of your business
- When you ask them to participate again they know that you utilise the information so will be more likely to participate
Step 9. Have you decided when to start the process again? The feedback cycle isn’t static. Neither is business. Views change, needs change, products and services change. You need to keep seeking feedback, getting offsite to plan, and communicating back. The time frame of the feedback cycle will depend on your business. My business, Tribe Research, completes the feedback cycle twice a year. We have a planning session in January and July with the feedback survey before each planning session and we communicate back after each one through our newsletter and blog. How has a feedback cycle helped your business?
