Archive for May, 2010

Survey reporting… breaking the mould

Thursday, May 27th, 2010 at 7:56 am

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Reporting.

That document, piece of paper or digital output that interprets the work done and is seen as the deliverable of the project.  All the time taken to understand the business, the purpose.  Understand the company style and tone of language.  Form the questions and flow.  Design the survey and invite.  Run it, monitor it.

Then to the last… the report.

We have a reputation for constantly evolving what we do… and next in line for evolution is our end output that our clients see.

So… what’s important in our research reports… and how can we shape them to be of even more value?

Should they be word…. powerpoint…. HTML or something else?

Our layout (simply) is:

  • key issues
  • executive summary
  • summary of results

Should we be mainly narrative based or highly graphical?  Should our reports be heavily branded or more basic?

Could we use wordle (generates “word clouds”) or is that a bit gimmicky?

The question is…. as a potential reader of a survey report, that could have been for a customer or client survey, a staff survey or market research…. what would make the survey report the most innovative and valuable that it could be?

Don’t be shy….

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Should you “sell” using an online survey?

Saturday, May 15th, 2010 at 4:32 pm

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How many times have you clicked on a survey link and within the first few moments clicked out of it because it was an overt sales process?

Yes… we’ve done that plenty of times too.  One of the many downsides of the increase in surveymonkey type tools is that it places the ability to create surveys in the hands of people who haven’t had any guidance.  And because it’s a dirt cheap exercise it’s caught on lots.  Just like e-mail bulk marketing.

But just because its cheap it doesn’t make it valuable necessarily does it?

The sad thing is, in many circumstances, those creating the surveys don’t realise the negative sway of opinion they are creating.

Think about it… a survey enticing you to take part for a “free ipod” just give your details and take these few short questions …  You know your e-mail is going into a sausage machine don’t you? 

So if you’re thinking… “i’d really like to understand why people buy from me”… what should you do?

First step…. don’t put the survey into the hands of a sales or marketing person.  Nothing against you/ them… but the natural inclination is to ask questions that 1) your customers will see as being sales driven and data mining and 2) will sound slick and salesy.  And those are two of the worst elements to put in a survey.

Maybe we can step back even more here.  If you start with the intent of trying to persuade your audience, or gaining personal data from them…. don’t use a survey.

Use survey technology perhaps… but that’s not a survey.

A survey should be based on understanding.  Gaining an opinion.  And gaining that opinion with the purpose of taking action.

Don’t ask questions that ask about when someone last purchased from you (you should know that from your finance systems) and don’t ask when they will next buy from you.  That’s just not cricket!

Instead ask opinion.  About how they view your speed, quality, service, personality and knowledge.  Wrap the questions around process and not people.  And give them the chance to have a vent.  If something is badly wrong… you need to hear it and fix it … sharpish!

So if you’ve thought before reading this…. “ooh a survey would be a great sales tool to capture personal information and understand when people will next buy from us”…. sorry to burst the bubble.  You’ll get a rubbish response rate, you’ll damage your perception in the eyes of your contacts and most of all you might feel inclined to do it time and again because of the low costs that a DIY approach provides.

Surveys are for feedback and research.  Please don’t go using them to sell.

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Are you happy?

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 at 9:57 pm

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Are you?  Happy?  Are you happy?  Really?

What does that actually mean?  Happy?  Or strike me down before I say this …..  “satisfied”….*cringe*

We’re talking in a business context here.  Let’s say you are a business owner.  You visit your accountant, say, and they run through your financial accounts with you.  It’s been a hard year.  Your turnover is down, you’ve made a loss and you’ve laid people off in the period being reviewed.

Are you happy at that point?  No… of course not.  You’re downbeat, crestfallen, disappointed.  You’re as far from happy as you’re going to get.  You’re walking through a necessary evil of signing off your annual accounts.

So if your accountant takes the opportunity to get out his silly “are you happy” cards (and yes I’ve seen them in gory technicolour)… you’re not going to be too chuffed are you?

It doesn’t matter how jolly your accountant is, what cup you’re having your coffee in, or how your accounts are modernly bundled together.

So with this in mind…. why do so many feedback attempts follow the focus of asking how “Happy” people are?

And if someone sends you a survey, and you say no… I’m not “Happy”… what happens then?

The point that’s trying to be got over here is the question itself.

If you ask a silly question, you’re going to get a silly answer that at it’s worst could mislead you further into making the wrong decision.

I remember a few months back.  I was chatting with a person from Business Link in South Yorkshire and they were proudly boasting that they had satisfaction levels in excess of 93%.

So… I asked what that actually meant and for what services and what situations and from what sort of businesses and for what period.  Yes ok…. so maybe I knew the chap wouldn’t have a clue, but it was good sport! 

But do you see how pointless a question it is?  If I was one of the 7%… what happens?  They aren’t asking the question in such a way with such a context that they can fix the problem.  If they ask specifically about contact points and services and people involved… they might have a chance of nailing the issue and improving what they do.  But a wide open question… “Are you satisfied?”  It evades the point.

And sorry for echoing this point, but this point is really crucial.  A silly question results in a silly answer.  That makes the feedback process pointless and you alienate the person you’re asking.  It’s a bit like being asked by your banks call centre people if there’s anything else they can help with when you’re asking them to transfer accounts!  It’s pointless, daft and only going to raise the heckles.

So do us a favour.  The next time you receive a survey (online survey or paper) and it has a generic question that asks if you are “Happy” or god forbid even worse “Satisfied”… why not be playful and ask “about what?”  And if the timing is really silly… pick them up on it.

Feedback is a fantastic opportunity to really understand and improve how a business operates and what it could do to improve.  But like estate agents, traffic wardens, MP’s and bankers…. it’s easy to tar online surveys and any feedback process with the brush of annoyance.

Questions that have value, not questions that are vague.

That’s the way forward…. now…. as I’ve got that off my chest, I can step back down from my soapbox… back to watching the Fulham Europa League Final!

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