What’s the best way to broach a survey request?
According to Accelerant Research, the most welcoming survey invitation methods are ones that can be most easily avoided: sent via e-mail, those printed on retail checkout receipts and via the U.S. mail.
The overall survey of 1,741 Americans sought to identify the most and least invasive ways to solicit feedback.
The most unacceptable were seen as those done door-to-door, robocalls to mobile phones or landlines, intercepts done while dining at restaurant, and live operator calls to mobile phone or landline.
Most consumers appear to be more open but not overjoyed about intercept interviews (either in a store aisle or exit interviews at restaurants/retailers).
They also seem to be getting accustomed to, although still wary of, survey requests from text messages. Twenty-six percent found them “completely acceptable” although 22 percent saw them as “completely unacceptable.”
Accelerant Research said cost, timing, legality and desired sample size should all play a role in deciding on the type a survey method. But also important to weigh is “to what extent you are inconveniencing your participants — particularly when you are conducting research among existing customers where your brand is identified as the research sponsor.”
For retailers, the most common survey method appears to be an e-mail or online pop-up that often comes right after a purchase. Response rates are low, and offering incentives can skew data quality. This holds true for adding surveys to receipts, as well.
In-store surveys, according to Upfront Analytics, tend to be fairly inexpensive, are quick, offer immediacy, and makes customers feel valued. The drawbacks are that is they tend to have a small sample size, generally encourage positive opinions by their face-to-face nature, and can lead to survey fatigue.
Mobile surveys are proving to have a higher response rate and offer more immediacy than PC-supported ones, although they have to be adapted for shorter interviews and questions.
- Easy Does It: How to Succeed in Survey Invitations – Accelerant Research
- Retailers: Your Surveys Are Making Customers Suffer – Forbes
- Pros and Cons of In-Store Surveys – Upfront Analytics
- What Are Receipt Customer Satisfaction Surveys Good For? – Survey Methods
- How and Why Mobile Surveys Win over Paper-Based Questionnaires – Daily Meal
- Reality: Mobile Surveys Will Beat Traditional in 2016 – Green Book Blog
Source: Accelerant Research
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:Â What are the most and least invasive ways to solicit feedback for retailers? Do you see text surveys or another emerging method holding much promise?
Poll
BrainTrust
Ryan Mathews
Founder, CEO, Black Monk Consulting
Max Goldberg
President, Max Goldberg & Associates
It really depends on what you are researching and how concerned you are with getting a response that can be projected.
For some issues (say trying to determine the popularity of a new line or product, a casual, directed one-question conversation at the register might do. For other, more complex questions, you need professionally deployed psychographic testing.
I guess the caveat is that a.) there is a tremendous amount of “survey bias” built in and surrounding almost every retail survey I’ve ever read — and I’ve read literally thousands; and b.) most of us are over-surveyed and are either tired of answering questions or have become default “professional respondents.”
As for the last question: ask yourself, would you really like your phone exploding 10 times a day with questions?
Surveys are tough to do right, more so in an environment where consumers realize that the data they provide is worth something.
What the research does not discuss is which methods of gathering information are most beneficial to retailers. Consumers prefer the channels that are least intrusive — email, register receipt and mail. Could that be because these are the easiest methods to ignore? If a retailer really is interested in getting customer feedback it will employ some more intrusive methods of research, even if fewer customers opt to participate.
When retailers or brands want answers about service delivery, surveys are fine for yes or no answers, or “rate this one to five” answers. And I see register surveys and texts with permission as decent ways to deliver those requests.
But most of the time any kind of deeper questions, especially about purchase influence, must be administered in different ways in order to get reliable answers. Professionals in the business are well worth the investment to avoid the “garbage in, garbage out” problems that seem to prevail in so many research findings.
The fact of the matter is that consumers cannot get to the right answer because the “decision center” in the brain has no voicebox. So the rational brain comes up with an answer which may or may not have any real impact on what actually drove the behavior or decision.
Behavior change tracking and culture shift research also needs to be done with observational ethnography in addition to other methods.
Net-net. Research is a complex and professional discipline that needs to be discussed, planned and administered with great care.
Depending upon the product, purpose and type of desired customer, different survey methods are better. There is no shortcut. To get valid responses the goal needs to be considered. Then determine which method fits the consumers and product. The best and worst methods have to be determined in each situation. There is no one best method.
There were over 4.3 billion email users around the world in 2015. That number is projected to grow to more than 5.2 billion by 2018. Email is the most pervasive and user-friendly form that is mutually accepted by businesses and individuals alike.
A convenient, non-invasive eight to 12 minute syndicated survey can be fielded for larger consumer surveys, and useful two to four minute custom surveys are completed throughout the day. The resultant feedback helps retailers make faster, better decisions based on Insights and accompanying Analytics to support guiding and running their businesses.
Email, as Accelerant Research’s study points out, is the preference for respondents. Makes sense for retailers, CPG, manufacturers and service providers as well.
Having taken graduate level courses in both opinion polling and market research (as I’m sure other commenters here have as well) I know that much opinion polling has other goals in mind than merely soliciting opinions.
And most market research is sponsored by an entity, group or company which has, at its heart, a desire to obtain publishable verification of their already decided upon action or at least their embedded POV. Professional researchers know how to make this happen.
People do not need a graduate degree to have figured this out! This is why they increasingly reject such polls and surveys. Or purposely lie to pollsters.
Short emails which follow a store visit/purchase with a few questions pertaining to store cleanliness, in-stock conditions and offering the opportunity to name any employee who went out of his or her way to help is non-invasive and quick. Those get my attention and participation. A web address at the bottom of a receipt that gives me the opportunity to communicate if I have anything to say is also welcome albeit seldom used unless I encountered a problem.
I am at the point where I hate customer service surveys. Every time I seem to shop somewhere or fly somewhere, I get another survey. Enough is enough already.
But I saw a survey a year ago as I walked out of a McDonald’s and said WOW! Great idea. As I walked out of the door there was a happy face sign at the exit with a question: “How was our service today?” (The questions were changeable.) Below the sign was a series of four buttons from Very Happy to Very SAD.
All I did was hit a button. Sign lit up. Instant feedback for the staff. I now understand there is tracking software behind the simple machine.
I love it. Company is called Happy-or-Not.
I have been shocked at our findings with email blasts in that they are returning great response rates compared to other methods. I tend to agree with the study findings in this article.
Email seems to be popular, even with low responses. Intrusive surveys over the phone that are quick may work, especially if the retailer tells them they may be getting a call in the next 24 hours. Texting is good if, the same as a phone call, you inform the customer they will be receiving a text.
I have to agree with Camille: the point of surveys is to get representative responses (at a reasonable cost). While being non-invasive is nice, it’s really beside the point if nobody responds to your survey, or if the responses are not representative…simply framing the methodology in this way is too limited.
Surveys have some critical flaws by their very nature. Non-intrusive ways usually get people that are really unhappy with you or really happy with you. The vast majority in the middle just ignore it anyway. Intrusive methods often result in hasty answers or just data that is not accurate. Surveys should be used only as part of a data set when making decisions, I think.