By Luke Weigel, lweigel@lessitermedia.com
Marketing Manager, Lessiter Medi
Understanding the customer is at the core of your business. You need to know who they are and what they want and need. The problem is, there are often glaring holes in our customer databases that leave us wondering who our customers really are. One great way to fill in your customer data gaps is by having them complete a survey.
A while back, my colleague Bree Greenawalt sent out a Marketing Minute that looked at how to use a survey to build your customer database. Bree provided some great tips and ideas on the types of questions you should be asking and in what format they should be asked.
But building a quick and easy survey to help learn more about your customers is only half the battle. The tricky part can be actually getting them to complete it at an acceptable rate that provides you with statistically significant and directional data.
According to SurveyAnyplace, the highest average response rates based on survey method, are 57% for in-person surveys and 50% for mail surveys. But each has their own hurdles to jump — Covid has put a dent in in-person interactions and rising postage costs has made mailing surveys more expensive. That leaves a lot of us resorting back to our digital channels — email and online surveys, which see a drop to 30% and 29% average response rates respectively.
So how can you maximize your survey response rates? Regardless if you are powering through with in-person and mail surveys, or making the most of your digital platforms, one great way to see a high return is to offer some sort of incentive.
I've put together a few tips to keep in mind when choosing an incentive for your next customer survey.
Are you already offering incentives to your customers? If so, I would love to hear what impact they have made on your response rates.
Source: Alchemer