Survey Participation is critical to a successful Customer Experience Improvement program.
According to KPMG Global Customer Experience Excellence (2019) report, successful companies tailor the Customer Experience (CX) to meet specific customer needs. The report goes on to add:
- Personalisation drives loyalty in 18 out of 20 global markets.
- New players solve customer problems rather than just selling products
- Top companies anticipate customer needs ahead of the curve
So, CX s important – but how do you understand what is important to customers? How do you solve customer problems? How do you understand the barriers that get in the way of a great experience?
The answer is by collecting, understanding and acting onCustomer Feedback. Feedback is the keyto any experience improvement program. Traditionally, the process of collecting, understanding, and acting on customer feedback can be time consuming, not to mention the challenges of actually getting your customers to participate!
Here we look at why your Customer Feedback participation rate matters:
Higher engagement, better the insight
When you know exactly what your customers think, you can solve their problems and improve your customer offering in line with their expectations.Statistically significant data from regular surveys gives you the confidence to make changes that keep customers coming back for more.
Customer feedback is used for many purposes, but when used to make important business decisions, we need to be confident that the data we are basing our decision on is accurate and represents what our customers really think. We all intuitively understand that the more survey responses we receive, the more likely it is that what we learn from the survey will be accurate; however, the statistical concept of sample size allows us to achieve practical confidence in data without a 100% response rate.
The acceptable margin of error and the confidence level will be different for every organisation, every survey question, and most significantly, for the importance and sensitivity of the decision that will be made from the data. Consideration should also be made for ‘non-responder’ bias, that is the fact that the survey design or context may result in a particular group (that share some characteristics) simply not responding. Whilst every effort should be made to remove any logistical or systematic reason for this group’s non-response, the higher the overall participation rate, the less likely that there will be a meaningful bias.
Every survey needs to Count
Your customer feedback program will only be successfully if you get enough feedback – that is, enough of your customer participate.
Most commercial and government organisations struggle to achieve meaningful participation rates. Some battle to achieve more than 1% participation, while others are challenges to break 10%. For these businesses, the value of their customer feedback can be compromised. As a rule of thumb in most industries with a high service element, a participation rate of 15% is acceptable, and 30% or more is seen as best practice.
Simply put, you need a high enough response rate to know that the insights and metrics you gather are truly representative of your customer base. Giving you confidence to make important business decisions.
How to boost survey participation rates
Survey participation rates vary according to industry, customer’s brand perception, demographics and – most importantly – the way surveys are designed and offered to customers.
To gain genuine customer buy-in, your CX surveys should be:
- Short and sharp:a long survey can lead to fatigue and customers may not respond next time.
- Timely: the sooner a customer is asked to participate in a survey after an interaction, the more engaged they are and the fresher their opinion.
- Convenient: conveniently delivered on the channel of choice – email, voice, text, instant message or mobile app. Picking the right channel for the customer is key to driving participation.
- Easy to complete:the less effort required, the more likely it is the customer will engage.
- Relevant and personalised: to individual customers and their experience.
- Supported by your Frontline:perhaps most importantly, your frontline staff should be engaged to personally request that customers complete a survey at the end of their interaction with them.
Ensuring higher participation rates for your feedback surveys will give you insights into your customer needs that can transform your business success.
How Centra CX can help achieve higher participation rates
CentraCX VoC is a Voice of the Customer (“VoC”) platform that helps organisations to collect, understand and drive action from customer feedback.
It has been designed from the ground up to collect both frontline and customer feedback with every interaction, everyday. Combined, these insights provide the complete picture of your customer experience enabling you to action what really matters.
Contact us today to find out how CentraCX VoC can improve your Customer Experience improvement program and start creating amazing customer experiences that drive loyalty and spend at each touchpoint with help from GSN.
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Or for more information on participation rates, download our eBook How to lift your Customer Feedback participation rates to 30%.