Surveys have become one of the top tools that businesses use to gather data. We are invited to take surveys pretty much everywhere we spend money. Next time you go shopping, take a close look at your receipt. You’ll probably find an invitation to take part in some form of survey. The advent of massive marketing tools has made it so easy for businesses to set up automated systems for gathering data from surveys, so having this system set up is an obvious choice.
You’ll also notice that businesses offer incentives to get customers to take the time to complete these surveys. These incentives come in two different forms – pre-paid and promised. Pre-paid incentives provide the customer with a reward regardless of whether or not they complete the survey while promised incentives are handed out upon completion.
Pre-paid incentives tend to get a much higher response rate. In fact, according to a recent study, surveys that provide a pre-paid incentive experience a 59% increase in response rate.
The reason companies are willing to provide incentives is because surveys have a wide range of benefits. Here are the top 5 ways that small businesses benefit from survey research analytics.
Wide Reach
It should come as no surprise that online surveys have such a wide reach. A survey can easily get tens of thousands of responses, which in turn might improve your finances e.g. North Coast Financial. The key is to keep the survey short and to the point. Online surveys create a level playing field, giving small businesses the same access to consumers are large corporations.
Furthermore, surveys can be administered in a lot of different ways that increase their reach even further. Email, social media and mobile surveys are all outstanding options. With email surveys, you’ll usually provide a pre-paid incentive. Collecting such a wide range of data from a variety of sources is one of the best methods of obtaining valuable information.
Get Honest Answers to Your Questions
When you ask people questions in-person, they tend to tell you what they think you want to hear. You need honest feedback. If your services are not up-to-par with your competitor, then you need to know exactly where you fall short. If the buying process is a struggle for consumers, then you need to revamp it. Survey research analytics provides you with the honest feedback you need to pinpoint the tiniest of issues and improve your overall business process.
Keep in mind that this feedback is going to be brutally honest, so if something angers customers then expect to hear about it.
Survey Research Analytics are Affordable
Survey research analytics are usually outsourced to a third party so that the business itself can focus on core tasks. Fortunately, there are a lot of affordable options when it comes to outsourcing survey analytics. The bottom line is that the information attained through surveys can be used to generate leads, so the investment will eventually pay off.
Learn About Competitors
Customers are always looking for the best deal. While final buying decisions are not always based on cost but if you’re charging twice as much for a service that’s similar to your competitor, you will lose customers – unless your product has a unique feature that’s valuable.
My point is that surveys will provide you with a way to compare your business to your competition. Furthermore, you can discover why some customers choose your competition over you.
Customer Retention
Surveys prove that you care about your customers’ opinions. Customers want to do business with companies that truly care about them so surveys help you earn that level of trust. All businesses should put customers first and surveys are a great way to ensure that you’re doing just that.