If you’re already a Pauley Creative client you’ll know that we like surveys and tend to use Survey Monkey which is an amazingly easy-to-use online survey service. There’s a free version for just a few questions and answer choices, but even if you want bells and whistles it’s not expensive (Pitch over – don’t mention it Survey Monkey!). A survey is a very good way to generate statistics and these make great PR – as long of course as the results are something you want to shout about!
But surveys also tell your customers – current and potential – that you care about their opinion. That’s a very important message to get across. If your customers feel that they are contributing to the development of your products and services, that you value their input and feedback, then their loyalty to you will be increased. From your point of view a survey will help you quantify the ‘known unknowns’. If you leave space at the end for general comments, you’ll find that ‘unknown unknowns’ will probably surface too – they might turn out to be the most valuable of all your results. You don’t have to be a statistician to design a small survey.
If you are, then that’s even better because you’ll understand the concept of null hypothesis – it’s worth reading about that before you start. One other thing you should always bear in mind is that if you make answers compulsory and people cannot find an appropriate answer for the question, they won’t answer it – they’ll abandon the survey or their answer will skew the statistics. One last piece of advice on surveys, once you’ve written your survey, test it, modify, test again and keep modifying it until you’ve ironed out all the creases.
I’m a great believer in testing – it’s what digital marketing is all about – and I’d love to hear about anyone elses experiences with surveys and what works and what didn’t…
