As you plan your next quarter or year, what is your go to analysis tool? Is it simply last year’s revenue or expenses? How are you measuring changes in demand? How are you objectively monitoring the real-time sentiment for your brand?
Any good leader would say they use variety of tools. But there is one that not many people specify in their top list–surveys. Ironically, but increasingly survey collection is becoming a crucial aspect for both customer and employee engagement strategies. It allows organizations to gather valuable feedback and insights directly from the clientele. It provides information in a more real-time way, and when analyzed deeply it can provide leading indicators of industry shifts. In today’s competitive business landscape, many brands recognize the significance of real-time feedback and are actively embracing surveys as a means to continually improve their offerings and operations. Perhaps you’ve seen them as you enter a website, there is a pop up for you to rate the brand. Or even after you end a call, you get an email to complete a survey on the service you just received. Companies thrive off of feedback!
Even organizations with reporting requirement, can sell themselves to investors and donors in a much better way by going beyond basic outputs (i.e. percentages and summations) and measuring impact (i.e. Correlations and cross-segmented insights). By focusing on customer engagement and employee engagement, organizations can better meet consumer demand, drive positive outcomes and foster a thriving work environment. Let’s take a look at each.
Surveys for Customer Engagement
Surveys provide a platform for customers to share their opinions and experiences with your brand. It allows them the opportunity to express preferences and improvements of your products or services. This feedback helps businesses understand customer needs and expectations better.
Surveys help identify pain points and areas of improvement. This enables organizations to address issues quickly and enhance the overall customer experience.
By collecting feedback regularly, organizations can measure customer satisfaction levels over time. One such measure is called a Net Promoter Score. It helps leaders ensure that they meet customer expectations consistently.
Finally engaging customers through surveys shows that the organization values their opinions. Valuing customer feedback and implementing recommendations where one can, most certainly will increase loyalty and retention metrics.
Surveys for Employee Engagement
Employee Feedback is essential to understand their thoughts, sentiments, and suggestions about the workplace, processes, and company culture.
Surveys help identify employee needs. Leaders get to understand what motivates and engages employees. Implementing those ideas and recommendations can increase workplace productivity and employee job satisfaction.
Workplace wellness is crucial. Surveys can reveal employee stress levels, work-life balance challenges, and overall well-being. Having this data consistently enables organizations to implement measures to support their workforce.
Finally, it helps improve employee engagement. Employees who are engaged are more likely to stay with the organization. This can reduce turnover costs. When they are invested, they are more likely to be productive and committed to their roles.
Why Outsource Survey Collection
The decision to outsource your survey administration to a research and consulting firm can be difficult and costly, but in order to step up your insights, I urge you not to cut corners! Here I want to share a few reasons why you should consider it.
You are in good hands when your survey leaders have a research and data collection background. While anyone can set up a Microsoft survey, the level of depth is typically limited to basic output percentages. An expert can look at data in a cross segmented way and extrapolate deeper insights.
Useful results begin with designed top quality questions. These research agencies have expertise in survey design, implementation, and data analysis. They can create well-structured surveys that yield meaningful insights. They should also be able to develop visualizations and support the publication of the insights gained.
Outsourcing surveys frees up your organization’s time and resources, allowing your team to focus on it’s core competencies. Perhaps you have seen it—an employee fresh out of college with some computer skills is tapped to oversee the survey administration process. You run into challenges along the way, the job is poorly executed and no depth was provided in the results. It becomes just another task to check off the list and no actionable strategies put in place. The last thing you need in dictating the direction of your organization is a Google Top Ten list of questions to ask. Firms can bring an unbiased perspective, ensuring that the questions are neutral and not influenced by internal biases. Time must be spent in crafting the questions tailored to your key business questions.
Partnering with a research consultancy provides access to advanced tools and capabilities. Survey companies often have access to advanced survey tools, best practices, and technologies. They may have access to the latest tool such as PowerBI to extract, transform, and load data. This leads to more accurate data collection and analysis.
It creates anonymity and objectivity for survey respondents. Third-party survey companies can maintain respondent anonymity and ensure objective data analysis, promoting honest feedback. Many times, especially with employees, they are hesitant to provide feedback for fear of retaliation. Research firms can summarize data without revealing identities. Plus, it adds a higher level of authority to your research findings.
Survey collection serves as a powerful tool for organizations to cultivate a culture of continuous improvement, create customer-centric strategies, and foster a motivated and engaged workforce. Embracing surveys as a means to gather feedback from both customers and employees empowers businesses to adapt and thrive in an ever-evolving marketplace. When considering outsourcing your surveys to a research and consulting firm, it’s essential to choose consultant with a research background. Be sure they are familiar with data protection regulations to safeguard customer and employee data. They should have a depth of cultural sensitivity, considering cultural nuances that can impact the accuracy of responses in international or culturally diverse contexts. Lastly, ensure they understand the key business questions and are able to tie results back to your organizations’ goals and objectives.
Do you have business questions you are eager to understand?
