If you think conducting a survey means canvassing your neighborhood with a clipboard and tallying results, you’ve got it wrong.
Surveys are an effective, affordable and underutilized business tool that small business owners and community organizations can use to obtain information and evaluate what’s most important to their customers and neighbors.
All well-planned projects require the input of outsiders to make sure everyone is not just adequately served but also content, and technology makes it easier than ever to tap the audience you most want to reach.
In fact, Neighborhood Notes conducted our own survey at the beginning of the year, shedding invaluable light on who you are and what’s important to you, thus allowing us to tailor the stories we write for you.
This article is not about the particulars of survey design but is rather intended to stimulate you to think about what kinds of information and insights you can creatively capture about your audience, customers and neighbors to help your business or neighborhood project move forward in the right direction.
Why Should You Conduct A Survey?
You could simply capture demographic information and feedback from your customers, but if you’re considering making a change, big or small, in your business, you’d be wise to get the input of your biggest supporters: your customers.
In spring 2008, Jo Carter, the proprietress of the clothing boutique Physical Element, says, “I had made the decision to do away with the last remnants of active sportswear and commit to 100 percent international and local fashion. A big relaunch was underway.”
While Carter made this decision on her own, she was still nervous about how it would be received. A simple survey, conducted via the email marketing software Constant Contact, “really confirmed that the direction we were taking was spot on,” Carter says. “It told us how much our service was appreciated and our unique selection of clothing was finding our target market.”
Define Your Objective
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Whether you’re looking to make a change in your business or if you just want to evaluate a service you already offer, you must clearly define the objective of your survey. Don’t ask things you already know or can easily find out. And before you ask, think about how the information you’ll capture will help you answer the questions you have.
A clearly stated objective will help you write focused, effective questions. Carter says she sought information from her customers in a few core areas:
- What they did for a living
- How they found their fashion information, or were they active in that regard
- What local publications did they read
- What charities did they support, if any
- Hobbies and interests
Concision is important. When surveying, Loren Guerriero, the Community Outreach Coordinator for Mercy Corps NW, constantly asks, “How can we reduce the amount of information we ask for? What questions are truly necessary?”
Using your clearly stated objective to guide every question you write will help you avoid boring people before they get to the end.
How To Capture Information
Guerriero says he tries to “integrate surveys into normal processes.” When people sign up for a Mercy Corps class, his system, Eventbrite, automatically asks how people heard about the class as well as basic demographics. For Mercy Corps, getting this information before people arrive on the first day of class allows the teachers to tailor classes to the group that will be in attendance, focusing on the most important and relevant issues to that specific audience.
It’s also important that you use technology or software that integrates and automates, Guerriero says. Eventbrite allows him to export data to Excel, enables him to schedule follow-up emails, like class evaluations or reminders, and do payment processing.
Even if you don’t deal in the same volume or services as Mercy Corps, there are plenty of affordable or even free tools available. If you use an email marketing software, like Constant Contact, Mail Chimp or Emma, to send newsletters or communicate with your clientele, it’s likely there’s a survey function in included.
You can create a free or low cost, depending on your needs, online survey using services like Survey Monkey or SurveyBuilder. Or, you can build your own using a Google Docs Form and then email or embed it on your website.
Feel free to informally “survey” people on social media. You can offer a simple poll on Facebook using Questions, the Poll app or the like, or just capture feedback through any social network by posing a question and seeing what kind of conversation starts.
Lastly, feel free to offer incentives. And make the survey seem important, because it is! If you show that you care about it, others will take an interest and craft thoughtful responses.
How To Use Your Information
Carter’s survey not only “calmed my nerves a lot” but “confirmed it was the right move.”
“I used the information gathered to keep an emphasis on service,” she continues. Knowing her customers allowed Carter to “keep those customers constantly in mind when I'm buying products for the shop: what they do for a living, how busy they are. The clients are always at the forefront of our minds.”
Guerriero believes Mercy Corps has been effective in capturing a “net promoter score,” which he describes as how likely someone is to refer Mercy Corps’ services to a peer. He maintains that people commonly respond optimistically when simply asked if they were satisfied, but you tend to get answers that are more honest if you seek out how likely they are to recommend you to a friend.
And knowing who your evangelical supporters are may guide where you focus your attention. You just need to determine if your evangelicals are worth extra attention, or if more feedback from those who were dissatisfied will help you pinpoint your shortcomings, Guerriero says.
If you choose to focus on your advocates, Guerriero adds that it might be effective to request that they evangelize a little more—like on Google Places, Yelp or social media.
As you look to grow or change your business, consider using the above ideas and tools to craft a survey that will capture information and insights about your consumers before forging forward.
Have you recently conducted a survey? Have any advice to offer? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
