Question
Fresh from a marketing course last year, I decided to craft a 5-question survey and mail it out to 100 customers randomly chosen. The "100" number was scientifically determined on: that was exactly how many prepaid postcards I'd bought at the post office.
I wasn't sure what to expect, especially since I left a Comments area at the bottom of the survey postcard. To tell the truth, I was cringing a little in anticipation of what my customers might say.
I don't remember all the questions and I'm too lazy to dig out the results but some of them were:
Are you interested in buying jewelry in bulk?
Do you prefer the auction format or Buy It Now listings?
Do you buy for yourself or for gifts?
Well. I was surprised to get more than 90% of the postcards back. That's a tremendous response rate. Clearly my customers (and maybe yours, too?) want to communicate.
I incorporated the survey results into the way we did business. Many of the respondents are still buying from us. I'm thinking it's time for survey round two.
This time I want to know:
What time of day do you browse eBay and are you doing anything else at the same time (drinking coffee, reading email, waiting for laundry to dry, sitting in a tiresome meeting pretending to work, etc.)?
What's your favorite color?
If you came across the Find of the Century on eBay, what would it be?
I'm still working on the last two. But for those of you who use AMS, does your company craft customer surveys for you? It seems that this would be an incredibly useful service to offer. And yet, with all the things I've bought on eBay, no one's ever asked me about what I want.
fLufF
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Answer
Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat1
And yet, with all the things I've bought on eBay, no one's ever asked me about what I want.
fLufF
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That's interesting. There's a tip worth a donation. Where's that button? I'm off to look into this because my AMS offers that service and I didn't see it as anything but an annoyance to my customers.
Answer
Originally Posted by Joint Runner
...an annoyance to my customers.
I think the key is keeping it short.
OTOH, I get these four page surveys from Kaiser Permanente and Saturn Corporation wanting me to evaluate their service. I sh!tcan them, because I KNOW they use the stats from these surveys in their marketing, rather than using results as action items. I actually sent a stop-sending-those letter to Saturn. I told them I'd let them know if my dealership screwed anything up, but until then go away.
fLufF
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Answer
Well, I figured out how to use it. It's customizeable (Is that a word?), now all I have to do is give some serious thought to the questions.
I don't buy much on the internet so I think I'll incorporate some of my dislikes, etc. from the B & M perspective. Thanks for the heads up fLufF.
Answer
Depending on which type of survey you mean, I fill those out-and get great test-drive offers from them.
Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat1
OTOH, I get these four page surveys from Kaiser Permanente and Saturn Corporation wanting me to evaluate their service. fLufF
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Answer
I have actually been thinking about using a free online survey site like Zoomerang instead of a mailing. Have you ever tried that route or learned anything about its response rate?
Mary
Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat1
Fresh from a marketing course last year, I decided to craft a 5-question survey and mail it out to 100 customers randomly chosen. The "100" number was scientifically determined on: that was exactly how many prepaid postcards I'd bought at the post office.
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Answer
I haven't tried doing this online and I don't think I will. A couple-three reasons:
1. Everybody I know gets way too much email already. I can't remember the last time I responded to an emailed survey invitation. Probably 2001.
2. An email approach opens you up to the risk of a spamming accusation by TPTB at eBay, who want to have a clear field to spam your customers themselves.
3. Precisely because the response card is NOT email, it gets attention. Spammers have thoroughly nuked the novelty value of email.
I enclose the survey cards with shipped orders. Thus, at the point where they've opened their purchase and are (hopefully) delighted with it, I can get a quick response.
fLufF
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Answer
fluff -- that's a great way to do this! I like your first survey questions -- simple, quick to answer, and yes, having the postcards there when they get their items! Very cool!
Basically, I think what you're measuring is your customer satisfaction. That's an awesome response rate! Most CS surveys, if done by mail, are more like -- what, 20% response rate?
On your second set of questions, one of the things that I see all too often, even in the most professional of surveys, is putting 2 questions into one. Try to keep each question distinct. Like "what time of day" is one question, and "what else doing" is another. I think you meant that -- just caught my eye.
Wow, if I were really selling on eBay these days, I'd certainly do this.
Pre-stamped post-cards, right?
Way to go!
Answer
Those are good reasons for not doing it online...I am thinking more of using it with the folks that are on my mailing list instead of auction buyers.
Enclosing them with the orders seems like the best and cheapest way to get those out. Good luck!
Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat1
I haven't tried doing this online and I don't think I will. A couple-three reasons:
1. Everybody I know gets way too much email already. I can't remember the last time I responded to an emailed survey invitation. Probably 2001.
2. An email approach opens you up to the risk of a spamming accusation by TPTB at eBay, who want to have a clear field to spam your customers themselves.
3. Precisely because the response card is NOT email, it gets attention. Spammers have thoroughly nuked the novelty value of email.
I enclose the survey cards with shipped orders. Thus, at the point where they've opened their purchase and are (hopefully) delighted with it, I can get a quick response.
fLufF
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