An annual client survey is a fast and inexpensive way to learn directly from your customers about what’s going well and where things can improve. Here are some guidelines for successful survey practices:

Only ask a question if you will take action with the information you collect. If you have an email list of over 2,000 customers, AND you pay for an email service that can do advanced segmenting and multivariate testing based on customer tags, a slightly longer survey makes sense. Conversely, if you have a smaller list and no plans for highly-targeted emails, keep the survey shorter. A survey should only take two or three minutes to complete. 

Most businesses should ask this:

1. what do you like best about our products/services
2. suggestions for improving our products/services
3. suggestions for products/services we should add
4. blank space for adding their own additional thoughts

Some businesses should also ask this:

5. demographics: where do the customers live, age or birthday, urban/suburban/rural, household income
6. how did they find you
7. satisfaction on a score of 1 to 10, to calculate a net promoter scores (NPS)

Net promoter score importance builds over time. Once you have two data points to serve as a baseline reference, every subsequent survey tells you if you are improving or declining. Some services will almost always get bad scores (like cable providers), while other services will almost always get good scores (like luxury hospitality.) The key is to look at how your scores are trending. This will help you analyze recent hires, product changes, and market changes.

Which tools should I use?

You have many free choices, but check the question limits and response limits before signing up. The free versions of SurveyMonkey and Typeform limit you to ten questions. Google Forms is unlimited. I’ve used Typeform extensively. The free version is easy to learn, and if you grow, the paid version has incredibly helpful advanced conditional logic features for complicated applications. (A simple example of conditional logic would be asking homeowners if they have homeowner’s insurance but asking renters if they have renter’s insurance. It can get highly personalized.) Google Forms is perfect for quick, simple forms.

Anonymous or no? I believe that people should be able to answer anonymously. It lets someone get painfully honest about criticism, if they aren’t comfortable sharing that information directly. Keep in mind, if they’re filling out the survey, it means that though they had a bad experience, they still want to have a positive relationship with you, or at least help you do better in the future. Their critique could be very valuable to you.

That said, some small business owners will be frustrated to learn about customer issues without identifiable info that helps you diagnose the problem and make things right. If that’s you, you could offer that completed responses including contact info will be entered in a drawing for a modest prize: a tin of popcorn, a Starbucks gift card, or a gourmet cookie box. 

How to launch a survey:

1. Make your list of questions.
2. Choose a survey platform such as Typeform, SurveyMonkey, or Google Forms for Business. These services will make sure that your survey is optimized for mobile users. That means that users shouldn’t have to zoom to read or answer questions, and buttons should be large and spaced far enough apart to be tapped easily by fingers. 
3. Make your survey.
   Pro tip: when in doubt between setting up short response fields and long response fields, choose big fields. This limits annoying scrolling through a small box, and it shows that you welcome lots of comments. 
4. Email a link to distribute the survey, and include a short note about how you value your customers’ feedback.
5. Wait a few days for responses. Most will come in within four days.
6. Block an hour of calendar time to review the results and develop a response plan. 

If you’re ready to take action, a survey is the best way to prompt your customers for information about your company’s products and services. Follow-through is everything!