Over the past 15 years, Opinionmeter International has distributed thousands of satisfaction surveys through its wide-range of interactive survey devices. Here are some 'hot tips' we've learned over the years.
- Placement - When using one of the unattended Opinionmeter systems, such as the TouchPoint Kiosk or Opinionmeter XL, it's important to carefully consider the optimum placement of the device. You'll need to consider the transaction or service flow of your lobby environment and when in the flow you wish to capture feedback. Do you want to capture spontaneous feedback at the Point-of-Sale, or after the transaction or service? Perhaps a table-mounted Opinionmeter adjacent the cashier can take advantage of the customer's wait time while being checked-out and capture a short point-of-sale survey. Or perhaps you may want to place the TouchPoint Kiosk by the exit or discharge area for an exit survey. If on the other hand you wish to gather pre-visit data relating to the overall experience from repeat visitors, place the device in the waiting area or queue line and take advantage of your customer's waiting time.
- Signage - Along with the placement, signage can significantly help draw attention to the unattended Opinionmeter devices. Signage can also be used to effectively communicate the importance of the data being collected, along with any incentives being offered, if any. Another great use of signage is to communicate to the customer the changes that are being implemented based on previous survey's feedback. This creates a strong sense of ownership and participation on the part of your customers and results in higher customer loyalty.
- Staff Involvement - The single most powerful driver of response rate is staff involvement. At the conclusion of the visit, if staff asks the customer to provide a "minute of their time to give us their feedback" - a high percentage of customers will do so. It's also important that staff be educated about the purpose of the survey so they don't feel intimidated by the data being collected (e.g. that they're being judged negatively by the customer's responses). If employees are not engaged in the process, they are likely to view it with suspicion or cynicism. This can lead to lack of motivation and in some cases even attempts to manipulate the customer survey.
- Survey Length - The shorter the survey the more likely you will have a higher response rate. This is always a challenge, balancing the need to ask the required questions to achieve your survey objective, yet keeping the length of the questionnaire appropriate to the environment in which you are soliciting feedback. This is especially the case in highly-trafficked areas. For example, if you are capturing feedback after a customer's visit, or have a kiosk adjacent a queue line, the questionnaire should be quite short. On the other hand, if your customers are waiting for services, a longer survey instrument may be appropriate.
- Using Incentives - There are many ways to use incentives to encourage survey participation and increase response rates. In fact, Opinionmeter provides several incentive options within the SurveyManager (Winning number and Winning Quiz features). In many cases simply explaining why you're conducting the survey and the value participants provide far more benefit than an incentive. If you plan to use an incentive, you should test the incentive to see if it results in a higher participation rate without sacrificing quality of the data. On the other hand, the more complex and taxing you make the survey ("survey friction") the more likely you'll need to incent your customers to participate.
- Feedback resulting in Action - It's critical, especially in environments where you have repeat customers, to inform the customer of the actions that are being implemented based on previous customer feedback. This can be done through simple signage placed at the survey station, on the device, even on the introductory screen of the survey itself or through a company newsletter, website, etc. Customers need to know their feedback is not only being recorded, but is resulting in actions being taken to implement change. One of the most powerful messages to your consumer is feeding back the findings of your survey and your planned actions. It says to your customer "We've heard your concerns, we've understood your opinions and now we're going to act." This is an excellent method for building customer loyalty.
