A good customer survey includes three types of questions:
- Demographic data, such as gender, age group, geographical location and income level.This tells you what kinds of people shop at your store and what concerns various groups have.
- Specific questions about aspects of your store’s service, merchandise and operations.You may want to use a number scale or options like “outstanding,” “satisfactory” and “unsatisfactory” to make responses quantifiable.
Here are some areas of importance to customers that your survey could cover, suggested by consulting firm Arthur Andersen in Small Store Survival:
- Is staff friendly, helpful and knowledgeable?
- Are transactions completed quickly and accurately?
- Do customers like merchandise quality, price and selection?
- Are advertised items in stock?
- Are store hours convenient?
- Can shoppers easily find what they need?
- Are store prices and policies fair and consistent?
- Is the shopping environment clean and attractive?
- General or open-ended questions to elicit comments.Examples include: “How do you rate our service overall?” “What merchandise would you like to see offered?” “Why do you shop at this store?” “What do you like most about the store?” “What would you like to change?”
Keep the survey brief. Offering a prize, such as a drawing for a gift certificate, will improve your response rate.
Conducting a survey is an important first step in meeting your customers’ needs, but it’s even more important to act on the information you receive, according to CustomInsight.com, an Internet survey service.
Communicate the results, both positive and negative, to your employees and stress the importance of customer satisfaction. Decide on specific steps that can be taken to address the major issues raised by respondents.
If appropriate, contact customers directly to let them know what actions you will be taking. Just knowing that your store listens and responds to customer feedback should increase your customers’ satisfaction.
