This is a topic I've written about several times over the last 3-4 years. It's been my contention that responserates for customer surveys are much higher when there is an expectation of follow-up action on the part of the company issuing the survey.
Clearly, there are ways to boost survey response rates that don't include follow-up. Survey length, survey design, number of reminders and availability of mobile device support all effect response rates. But, in my experience doing customer surveys, about the best response rate that can be expected for customer survey processes not employing direct follow-up is 25%. In other words, if a business surveying customers does everything else right and doesn't follow up, 25% is a reasonable expectation for maximum response. Though, I expect few businesses attain that level of response rate very often on their survey processes.
In my experience, for businesses employing customer survey processes where follow-up is included, the maximum response level can be much higher than 25%. I've worked with businesses for several years implementing customer survey processes built around follow-up. What I have seen is response rates that tend to rise over time (versus declining over time as is generally the norm in surveying). And, I routinely see response rates above 40%, with some even above 50%.
For me, the evidence is in that expectations for follow-up on the part of customers drives response rates higher over time. It would seem obvious that this would be the case. But, most businesses in my experience aren't likely to act on feedback often enough to give their customers this expectation.
The chart below shows response rates from one of my clients who I've conducted eight surveys for over the last five years. All the surveys used an NPS approach, employed what I've described above as "good" design practices and included multiple reminders plus follow up. Follow-up was facilitated by the "Notifications" process embedded within the QuestBack Essentials platform I use to deliver the surveys (meaning that follow-up is triggered by response profile). You'll see the early surveys tended to have lower response rates and the later surveys higher response rates.
Two things have been going on with this particular client. First, customers have developed the expectation that their feedback is going to be followed-up. Second, the business has actually implemented follow-up processes and responds to people giving feedback. If you notice, in the early surveys, customers did not have the expectation of follow up (they had not yet developed it). And, frankly the business really wasn't all that committed to following-up, at least at first. But, between survey 3 and Survey 4 this client began to have lots more competition. They reacted by paying a lot more attention to survey responses, acting on them individually and thereby improving customer experience across the business.
Beyond higher response rates, this business has improved customer retention, overall profitability and survived the entrance of major competition into its local market. And, in many ways has become a stronger competitor by paying attention to customer experience through the survey feedback / follow up process.
A last note. In this customers current survey process, response rate is at 53% and still rising.
- Stewart Nash
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stewartnash
