A very important practice that can separate one MSP business from the next is the gathering, analysis, and use of customer feedback. If you know how your clients feel about your products and services, you can work on what needs to be worked on to improve your overall offering of IT products and services. There are various ways to get feedback from your clients, but one fairly easy to use method is a customer survey or poll. Surveys are not without their flaws, and sometimes the information gathered from them may have its share of inaccuracies. Here are three important tips to help you create a great customer survey:
1. Ask Questions that Give You Valuable Information
This first guideline gives you an important starting point. Before you get to creating a survey and sending it out, you must think about the kind of feedback you are looking to get for your MSP business. Are you trying to rate a new support service you have rolled out or find out how well your helpdesk is performing? Make sure you only ask questions that are helpful for this purpose. After all, you don’t want to waste time and energy asking questions that don’t add any value.
2. Make Sure the Survey is Short and Clear
In the same vein of valuing your customers’ time, make sure that your survey is of a reasonable length. It is hard to get people psyched up about spending an hour or even 30 minutes on filling out a questionnaire. When you are constructing the questions for your survey, you must make sure you ask questions that are clear and concise. Your client should be able to understand what you are asking, and there shouldn’t be any assumptions or bias in the way you phrase your questions.
3. Make Use of Different Question Types
The first two tips covered asking useful questions and making your survey short and clear. One very helpful way to achieve all these is by using a mixture of different question types. You can garner different types of information from these. Some options include multiple choice questions, yes and no questions, rating scale questions, and open-ended questions. Make sure you think about the ordering of these questions so that you don’t overwhelm your client.
The data you are going to receive from your customer surveys or polls is useful even though it may not be perfect. You can learn a lot about whether or not you are hitting the mark and find valuable insights about how you can set yourself apart from your competitors in the MSP business. Remember to thank your clients for their feedback, and consider using an incentive such as a bonus offer to get more responses.
