Invaluable insight from surveys

Surveying clients and prospects can provide invaluable insight. The process doesn’t need to be complicated in order to deliver worthwhile feedback.

Your survey can be completed in person, over the phone, or on-line.

You can get feedback on the quality of service received, ask for ideas and suggestions, or check out local business conditions.

In a prospect survey you might uncover what is really important to your prospects, what they’re thinking, what motivates them and what concerns them.

It is important to be clear on who you want to survey – clients, prospects or both?

Keep the questionnaire short, and let them know how short it is (if it’s only 3 questions, tell them).

Use simple language – and no jargon.

Don’t ask leading questions – e.g. the question “What type of tax planning interests you the most?” leads respondents to pick a type of planning without first determining if they even want to undertake tax planning.

Use closed questions rather than open-ended –quicker for respondents to complete and makes analysis easier.

Include a section for their contact details – if not you may struggle to discover afterwards who said what.

Set up and test your survey – get someone other than the writer to test it as you may not have thought of all possible responses. If ‘I’m not sure’ is a possible answer, make sure you include it.

Think about offering an incentive for people to complete your survey – e.g. a free gift, a download or something they can claim at their next meeting with you.

Send respondents to a landing page when they’ve finished the survey to say ‘thank you’ (and collect their gift, if applicable).

Set an end date and let them know how long they have to complete the survey. You may also want to build in a reminder email a few days before the deadline.

Leave an ‘Other comments’ section at the end of your survey. Sometimes respondents offer casual remarks that are worth their weight in gold and cover an area you did not think of, but which respondents consider critical.

Get in touch to discuss how ad+ could help you plan and manage the growth of your business. Your initial meeting will be free of charge and without obligation.