How Surveys Can Help Businesses Understand Customers

Surveys are a helpful way to understand what your customers want.

It’s so important to understand your customers’ priorities and challenges. So, we have some handy tips on getting to know your customers better…

Finding out what your customers want

Knowing what your customers need from your product or service won’t only help you understand what they are interested in buying and how to price a product, but also things like where to tell them about it. By listening to customers and adapting what you’re doing based on their preferences, you will help meet their needs, give them assurance that you understand them, and encourage repeat business.

Using first-party information (insight that comes directly from your customers) to inform decisions can quickly have a positive impact on your business. In fact, research conducted by Heap in 2022 found that companies that listen to – and apply – customer feedback see a 2.5x greater increase in revenue and profits.

So, how can you survey customers?

Setting a survey up doesn’t need to be expensive or difficult. You can start by creating a simple email survey with a free online surveying tool, such as MailChimp and emailing out to your customers

If your business has a physical shop, you can also get feedback on the sales floor by chatting to customers and asking questions. By speaking face-to-face, you can get a lot of information about a customer’s experience, what they like about your product and even some constructive feedback on what you could improve.

Or, if you want to find out more about their shopping experience online, you can also get customer feedback when processing product returns. Including a short questionnaire for them to respond to as part of the returns process is an easy and time-efficient way to understand why they’re sending it back and how their initial purchase experience was.

How can you use feedback to create an immediate positive impact?

The stats speak for themselves. 98% of companies who use surveys to get feedback feel they fully understood their customers’ needs, compared to only 29% of businesses who haven’t set up a survey.

Customers and businesses alike are facing new challenges that are forcing everyone to change their spending habits. Surveying your customers is an easy yet essential way to understand them.  Otherwise, you risk not understanding their changing needs, potentially losing existing customers, and not connecting with new ones.

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