Use a Survey to Build Your Customer Database

By Bree Greenawalt, breeg@lessitermedia.com
Sr. Manager Data & Ad Services, Lessiter Media

We've all received emails asking us to take part in a "short" survey. While there is something exciting about being asked to share our insights, often times we are met with something that is not all that short, asks questions that are way too personal or leaves us wondering what was really being asked for. If you've run into any of these types of surveys, you've likely left without clicking the submit button.

Online surveys can be much more than a tool to measure customer satisfaction, market optimism and product opportunities. They can be an effective data source to populate your customer database, provided you ask the right questions and avoid the pitfalls mentioned above.

Strategically adding one or two personal or industry specific demographic questions to your surveys can provide valuable information, and combining the collected demographics with the information you already have in your customer database will allow you to easily cross-tabulate to find trends and opportunities.

Below are five questions to consider asking in future surveys to help develop, or simply update, your records.

I'd love to hear how you're using surveys to build your customer database.

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