How to Gather Complete Customer Feedback with Automated Surveys

As we shift to a more digital and fast-paced business environment, customer expectations from businesses are also shifting rapidly. Today, customers expect faster and better outcomes and will even switch brands if their expectations are not met.

However, most brands fail to gauge customer sentiments until it’s too late. This is why real-time feedback is critical for a brand that practices active listening and customer empathy.

If your company is not using automated survey tools to understand customer sentiments, you may be missing out on crucial insights that can improve and elevate your brand. Here’s why brands need survey automation to read their customers’ minds.

Tracking Internal Performance: A Challenge

Every brand today knows the worth of exceptional customer service and support. It influences buying decisions and even creates brand advocacy.

As per Gladly’s 2022 Consumer Expectations Report, 42% of consumers would stop buying from brands if they have more than two negative experiences. On the flip side, 72% will be willing to spend more if the brand provides exceptional customer experiences.

However, there is a gap between how support teams and managers see their performance as against the customer. As per Calabria’s State of Contact Center 2022 Report, 80% of contact center managers felt they were doing a great job, but the majority of their consumers did not agree.

What could be the reason for this gap? Majorly, brands will use internal metrics to track their performance, which include Churn Rate, Customer Retention Rate, Ticket Volume, Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), and others.

Most of these metrics help support teams understand their performance over time but need more real-time understanding of customer expectations.

This is why real-time feedback is crucial. By gathering real-time digital feedback collection, brands can take the proper steps to pivot their service or support processes before it is too late, helping to improve customer experiences continuously.

How Automated Feedback Mechanism Can Bridge The Gap

Now that we’ve identified the pain points let’s explore how automated survey tools can solve each of these challenges.

1. Gain Real-Time Feedback

One of the significant advantages of automated survey tools is their ability to provide real-time feedback. Businesses can access insights as soon as responses are collected, allowing them to respond swiftly to customer concerns and preferences.

Use a call center analytics tool that can provide real-time insights like JustCall. You can monitor customer interactions in real time and provide valuable feedback, even during the call. 

2. Improved Productivity Using Automation

Online survey software helps businesses create, send, and make sense of their surveys effectively. Since each survey is triggered according to relevance and defined workflows, it saves valuable time that can be reallocated to strategic decision-making.

You can easily track the performance of your agents with post-call surveys and, therefore, provide informed and constructive feedback, resulting in better performance.

3. Enhanced Data Accuracy and Consistency

Automated survey tools reduce the risk of human error by automating data collection and analysis. Responses are recorded accurately, ensuring businesses can rely on the data to make informed decisions. Additionally, these tools offer standardized survey templates, ensuring consistency across teams and locations. 

With JustCall, you can easily customize the questions in a customer satisfaction survey, thus tailoring the tool to your unique needs. 

4. Multi-Channel Touchpoints

Online survey software enables businesses to reach a broader audience through digital channels. Whether through email, social media, or website pop-ups, automated surveys can engage customers across different touchpoints, ensuring a more comprehensive feedback collection process.

This is crucial because brands must capture feedback according to consumer preference, making the survey more relevant and empathetic.

Tips To Design Automated Surveys

To meet rising customer demands and bridge gaps in perceived performance, brands need to utilize real-time feedback using survey automation. To design powerful automated real-time surveys, brands can follow some of the tips below:

1. Define Your Objectives Clearly

Before creating your survey, establish clear objectives.

• What specific information or insights are you looking to gather?
• What metric will you be tracking using this survey?

Knowing your goals will help you design questions and select response options that align with your objectives.

2. Keep It Short and Focused

People are more likely to complete surveys that are concise and simple. Avoid overwhelming respondents with lengthy questionnaires.

Focus on collecting the most essential information to achieve your objectives.

3. Choose the Right Question Types

Select question types that best suit your survey goals. Common question types include:

• Multiple-choice
• Rating scales (ideal for Net Promoter Score metric)
• Open-ended Questions (to allow customers to speak their minds)
• Objective yes/no questions

Ensure the questions are easy to understand and don’t lead to biased responses.

4. Personalize When Appropriate

Personalization can increase respondent engagement. Use merge tags to insert the respondent’s name or other personalized information into the survey, where relevant.

5. Offer Incentives (If Applicable)

If you’re conducting surveys with customers or participants who might need an extra incentive to participate, consider offering rewards such as discounts, gift cards, or entry into a prize draw. This can boost response rates.

6. Send Survey Immediately Post Conversations

The likelihood of getting responses and positive feedback is immediately after a conversation with a support agent. This is ideal since customer feedback is fresh and directly relevant to the conversation or experience.

The Final Word: Practicing Active Listening

As per Hubspot’s Annual State of Service Report 2022, brands today are actively monitoring customer satisfaction and prefer to capture customer insights after each interaction as opposed to timely surveys every week, month, quarter, or once a year.

This trend showcases that customer support teams and managers understand the part active listening and gauging customer sentiments play in the brand’s overall success. By making customers feel heard, brands can lower customer frustration or issues, improve advocacy, and build long-term consumer relationships.

Thus, automated online survey software has become essential for businesses looking to gather complete customer feedback efficiently. Instead of manually depending on your agents to send surveys to your customers, automated survey tools help to send and capture customer insights after every conversation.

With comprehensive solutions like JustCall, you can track customer feedback in real time and understand issues, response rates, and even agent performance using survey data. These deep insights help your brand practice active listening and make appropriate data-driven business decisions in real time, crafting a successful support mechanism.