Creating and utilising specialised online surveys can provide intricate insight into the mind of your customer and with the right message and crafted content, can provide a deep well of consumer information.

There are two general challenges to online surveys: getting the RIGHT people to respond and gathering enough data (respondents) to actually produce meaningful results.

With online options galore, both of these challenges can be easily mitigated, usually for low to no cost to your business.

Firstly, let’s identify the five best uses of surveys within the small business realm:

1. Customer follow up. Immediately following a purchase, a survey (included with receipt or invoice) can shed light on the sales and purchasing process as well as offer a space for customers to share thoughts and ideas on improvement or highlight strengths.


2. Timeliness. This may be the most important. Consider allocating the role of Customer Service Manager to a team member where they dedicate blocks of time each day to respond to online complaints. The longer a complaint sits unnoticed, the more damage it can do. Not only does it upset the customer who lodges the complaint but it allows other customers and potentials to view the complaint as a fault.


3. Market / trend analysis. At all stages of your business operations, a deep understanding of your market - its peaks and valleys, strengths and weaknesses - is essential. Surveys can be utilised at the beginning, middle and end stages of any business operation to assess your relatability and relationship to the market.


4. Performance and operations management. Track your operations by enquiring with customers about their interactions with your company. Encourage a dialogue on improvement, be sure to ask about the strengths and the weaknesses. Surveys are a great way to breed an honest answer!


5. Develop stronger relationships with customers. With a survey, you can easily and quickly find out more about your desired customers. Find out what they like, how they seek information, where they are spending money, what makes them buy! The possibilities here are endless.


6. Decision-making. Create an interactive atmosphere by bringing some small decisions to the public. Post new logo ideas, garner feedback on your image and consider tweaking things to reflect the public’s opinion. A survey is a great forum for interactivity.


7. Surveys allow you to constantly be engaging with your customers. As we know, engaging content is what keeps people interactive on your web page or social media sites, and what will ultimately keep them coming back.

Also be clear, ask open ended questions to encourage feedback and consider offering discount coupons or some form of incentive to entice customers to participate.

Remember, time is money, and keeping your surveys short and direct is best - never ask your customer to spend more than 5-7 minutes filling out your survey. Respect their time, they will likely provide more meaningful responses.