buynokian96

by evansville

How To Use Customer Feedback Surveys At Trade Shows

What You Should Know about Customer Feedback Surveys

• Conducting Customer Feedback Surveys is a great way to obtain valuable feedback

• Be sure to tailor the questions to the appropriate timeframe: pre-show, show, and post-show

• Conducting surveys and compiling the information is only half the battle

While the trade show is in full swing, you will have some idea about how people are receiving your booth and your company. You will have a rough estimate of traffic through your booth and the quality of your leads. By observing and listen to people, you can gauge their reactions with some degree of accuracy. However, all these methods provide you with only so much information and are limited in scope. A great way to learn more is by conducting Customer Feedback Surveys. These should be done before, during, and after the show.

Make It Worthwhile

Make surveys part of your pre-show press packets. Include a one page survey asking potential and former customers about their expectations for the upcoming show. Make it worth their time. Inform them that by filling out and sending in a brief survey they will be entered into a raffle or drawing. Let them know they will be eligible to win valuable prizes during the show. During the show have a stack of surveys available and ask people if they would like to fill one out and be entered to win a prize. Include them again in the information packets you send to customers after the show.

Here are some examples of potential survey questions:

• How did you hear about our company?

• How did you hear about our presence at the trade show?

• Have you used our products/services before?

• What was that experience like?

• What is your goal/purpose in attending the show?

• What trade publications do you read/subscribe too?

• What trade guilds or societies are you a member of?

• May we send you a mailer or add you to our email list?

• What trade shows have you attended in the past?

Be sure to tailor the questions to the appropriate timeframe: pre-show, show, and post-show. The pre-show questions should focus on customer expectations and the post-show ones should focus on customer satisfaction. Ask customers what you could do in the future to improve the experience. In the end, surveys are another way to listen to your customers. Donald Trump, a man who knows a thing or two about business has been quoted as saying, “Watch, listen, and learn. You can’t know it all yourself…anyone who thinks so is destined for mediocrity.”

Act in Good Faith to the Survey Results

Finally, conducting surveys and compiling the information is only half the battle. You have to study the results and share the information with the appropriate people or departments. How they handle that information may not be your responsibility, but ideally, an action plan or response should result from the survey information. Customers who take the time to complete a survey are acting in good faith that your company will read their comments and act appropriately. In some cases, they expect someone to contact them with a solution. Failing to respond creates not only an unhappy customer but also a customer who will share their unhappiness with anyone who will listen. 

teacher survey

by kukame

The Importance of Customer Feedback Surveys

Do you want to drive your business forward? Do you really know what your customers think about your business? In order to ensure that you achieve both of these things you may wish to consider conducting a customer feedback survey. With the help of such a survey not only are you improving your customer retention and profit but you are also advancing satisfaction levels and prompting interest in new products and services that you offer. Basically, with the help of a feedback survey from your customers, you are building up a relationship with them, which will enable you to tailor your business more towards their needs and enhance the chances of increasing your own sales.

A customer feedback survey isn’t just about asking a few simple questions, you need to ensure you focus on the aspects that matter.  This includes the underlying purpose of the survey and the best methodology of reaching your customers. Depending on the type of business you run, there are a number of options available to you including mail and telephone surveys.  However one of the most effective methods that we are seeing today involves online surveys, or combined online and mail surveys.

Before you actually deploy your survey, make sure you read through it very carefully a number of times, or get someone else to do it as a means of checking that you are asking the right questions and also that you are asking them in the correct way. What this will do is help you not only construct the survey but also ensure that you are getting the best feedback from it.

One of the most important aspects of these surveys is analyzing the answers that you receive. This should actually help you decide what sort of questions to be asking in the first place.  For example, closed-ended questions are a lot easier to analyze than open ones, so keep your customer feedback survey simple but informative. It is also helpful when you are analyzing the results to achieve as many completed surveys as possible.  So don’t dive in too eager to examine the results.  Let you survey gather up responses over a matter of weeks and then collectively analyze these results.

Another great feature that you may not be aware of where customer feedback surveys are concerned is the fact that you can also use them as a means of publicizing aspects of your service that your customers, until now, have been unaware of. So not only are you gathering the information needed to improve your service but you are also promoting your business in the process.

No matter what type of business you run or for that matter what size your business is, you will benefit from the help of a customer feedback survey. It will help you manage your business initiatives and push your business to improve in all areas. Also whether you receive negative or positive feedback it is important that you take the points on board and use them to make any necessary changes. Although it is hard to face up to criticism, what would you rather do, admit you are doing something wrong and fix it or watch your business fail because you did nothing about it? I think we all know the answer to this question and I think this alone is enough to demonstrate just how important customer feedback surveys can actually be.