Every business that has customers should have surveys as part of their strategy. They provide an opening into the minds of a customer base, helping businesses grow and adapt. They are also particularly important now, given the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the face of CX perhaps permanently. Customers have become more demanding and open to alternative channel experimentation, with these behaviours triggered by long lockdowns across the globe. And because these customer personas have evolved, it’s imperative companies keep up with a successful survey strategy so they can retain them.
With this in mind, CX Today welcomes Jamie MacSween, Director of Customer Success at Puzzel, to provide his tips for setting up a successful survey strategy and ensuring customers respond when asked for feedback.
“Businesses absolutely need to understand their customers,” MacSween says. “Otherwise you’re simply running a company blind.”
Strong words from MacSween, but spoken from a Puzzeler who recognises how important the customer is to any business. This is because customer interactions is at the heart of what Puzzel does. Yet MacSween also reminds us of the importance of gathering agent feedback too. Agent Experience (AX) has become all the more important during the pandemic, with business leaders acknowledging the link between agent engagement and customer satisfaction. A happy agent will of course naturally provide a better customer experience when they feel supported and comfortable in their role. AX surveys can also prevent a high staff turnover, which can be damaging for organisations.
MacSween adds:
“AX is part of the Puzzel culture. If those on the front line engaging with customers are not happy and not enjoying what they're doing on a day-to-day basis then the customers will pick up on this”
But what types of surveys are on offer for companies to send to their customers? Post-call surveys are among the most popular ways of collecting customer feedback in a contact centre. Once an interaction ends, the customer is requested to score the conversation on a scale of 1-5 or 1-10, indicating their satisfaction. The organisation then evaluates the average response to understand how effectively an agent is handling customer interactions, as well as the average performance levels across the contact centre. Open-ended questions have a tendency to trigger a higher response rate, as customers tend to enjoy the freedom of being able to pen their thoughts. These types of surveys are typical of the ones sent out via email, while traditional post-call surveys are often sent out via SMS. The trick, MacSween explains, is not to ask too much of a customer in a survey. The same also goes for AX surveys.
“I've seen some surveys that I've really cringed at because of the long questions. Many customers get to the end of it and think ‘Well, to answer that question it’ll take me ten minutes, and it’s just not going to happen’.