INSIGHT business coaching
Survey Says…
Ask the right questions to the right audience by Anna Runyan
If you have an idea, there is always one place you should start: gathering feedback from your potential future clients so you can identify the frustrations that they are facing, what their goals and dreams are, and how you can help. Doing one-on-one interviews for this type of insight isn’t realistic, which is why surveys are such a popular tool. But the challenge is to structure a survey correctly, so that the number and types of questions, the phrasing, the incentives, etc., delivers actionable results. Otherwise, you end up with a survey that is annoying to your customers instead of being informative for you. Here are the six elements of a survey you need to have clearly organized before you push send. Step One: Know Your Audience What is this group like? Who am I gearing this question toward? Put yourself in their shoes and pretend as if you were taking the survey. If you already have a relationship with them, you can make the survey a little longer and more complex. So your first question to yourself should be: How well do you know your audience? Step Two: Define Your Objective What type of information are you trying to get from them? Too many surveys try to accomplish too much, instead focus on one problem you’d like to address. You’d be surprised how many questions can be asked around one specific issue. This allows you to get deeper insight into a particular issue vs. general responses on general topics. Step Three: Think User Experience Carefully consider how well you know 14 | wf-vision.com | Mar + Apr 2017
your client, and how well they know your products and services. Think about how they will approach your survey. Start broad if they don’t know a lot regarding the topics you’re addressing, or be more focused if you’re sure they’re familar with the issues. If you were taking your own survey, what time and place would you want to take it? Make sure you send it out at the right time, because if it gets “filed” in their inbox, you’ve most likely lost that potential respondant. Sometimes it is about trying different approaches to see what works—one test in the morning and another in the evening in order to catch your audience at the time that’s best for them. Sometimes I’ll even send out individual emails with the survey or make phone calls. Step Four: Define Your Incentives I always try to set a goal in advance for the response rate I want. If you write out your goal, it helps push the process and encourages you to keep seeking those survey results. Your incentive is the great information you’ll garner. But your audience needs its own incentive. For certain audiences it may be a gift card, but in many cases you want something more connected to your business— perhaps a PDF on 2017 color trends, or an exclusive report from a trade show you visited. Or offer a single, but more valuable “prize,” such as a consultation, a custom product, or something that relates directly to your services. Just remember the point of all this: The more you can learn about them and talk to them, the better potential there is they can turn into a future client.
Step Five: Structure Your Questions Ideally, you want people to be able to answer your survey in 2–3 minutes. For people who are familiar with you and your products or services, you can typically fit 10 or so questions in this time frame. For a new audience, that number should be pared back to 5 or 6. Try to include a mix of question types to keep the survey from seeming repetitive. These include: • ranking (most-to-least, 1-to-10, etc.) • ranking with a value assessment • simple yes or no • suggestions for change • open-ended comments • recap of accomplishments Step Six: Analyze the Results Review the results and put them into an improvement plan. Find someone to review the data with you and help you transform those responses into actionable steps that will build your business. z Anna Runyan is the founder and CEO of ClassyCareerGirl.com, named by Forbes as one of the top 35 most influential career sites of 2014. She helps millions of women design and launch their dream careers, businesses, and lives through her website, online courses, and social media channels. Get started with broadening your network using Runyan’s free network action plan, available on her website. classycareergirl.com Facebook: theclassycareergirl Twitter: classycareer LinkedIn: annarunyan YouTube: classycareergirl