Why Customer Surveys are Important

A customer satisfaction survey is a very important tool that can provide benefits for businesses of every size. Surveys can assist business decision-makers in developing strategies to achieve the all-important goal of gaining and retaining customers. Results can play a key role in identifying areas of the business that require corrective action and improvement. Surveys can also identify areas that can be leveraged to achieve business growth and expansion.

Small businesses can gain extremely useful information. For example, a small restaurant owner, new to the area, can find out how customers found them, what they like and whether they'll come back for more. A clothing boutique owner can find out if styles align with the tastes of shoppers and, if not, make inventory adjustments. A tax preparer can assess if fees, turn-around-time, referrals, or hours and location are helping or hurting efforts to gain and retain customers. Larger businesses have levels of managers and executives who usually don't have direct, one-on-one contact with customers. Surveys provide data and feedback to monitor customer satisfaction levels and assess employee performance in fulfilling management objectives and goals. Surveys can be executed to target specific customers by demographics, by geography, marketplace needs and more.
Customer surveys are conducted in different methods by different companies or business establishments. Some of the most popular methods used in customer surveys include:

Face-to-face interviews

Telephone survey questionnaires

Mail survey questionnaires
Telephone interviews

Field service interviews or questionnaires

Customer complaints data from interviews and questionnaires

Purchase-point survey questionnaires

It is vital to target the right individuals. For example, if the customer is a company rather than an individual then the questions must be designed to suit it. The questions on the survey should be able to be answered in way that the business can take action to make changes based on the answer. Remember, the bottom line is all about improving your prosperity or success of your business by improving your customer satisfaction

Munson, Cheryl. Importance of Customer Satisfaction Survey . 1999-2011. <http://www.ehow.com/about_6068288_importance-customer-satisfaction-survey.html>.