Customer Feedback or Customer Satisfaction – Which Survey is Better?

It has been observed that when a company thinks of taking any measures of improvement, it often spends more time accumulating data on customer satisfaction. This tendency is highly unproductive and achieves no end for the company.

It’s crucial for the survey maker to understand the target of the company and how it plans on using the survey result. If it needs to improve then improvement only comes with concrete actions. And, a customer satisfaction report is not going to yield that result.

The answers provided by customers related to their satisfaction with the brand will yield one of the two results. Either the company will brainstorm and take action based on the customer satisfaction report (without doing adequate research); or worse, it will like the result and take no action at all.

Therefore, only obtaining satisfaction score won’t be effective and no tangible action will be taken by the company.

The “Problem” With Satisfaction

You could ask a client how satisfied he feels with your product and change whatever he doesn’t like about it. He may give you a 10/10 rating on your action. But you know what the problem is? He will be dissatisfied with it as soon as you offer him an updated version.

Besides, there is always something that needs a little tweaking and it is supposed to be an on-going process in order to keep pace in the market. How, then, can a yearly survey, based on customer satisfaction, be the basis for timely decisions for a brand?

The concept of “satisfaction” is deficient in itself. How does satisfaction contribute in the progress of a thing? I would rather appreciate a system of continuous feedback from my customer than wait for an annual report. Passionate customers are always better than satisfied ones and they prompt you to take action and play a crucial role in the success of a project.

Counter the Problem. Ask the Right Questions.

With limited resources, it is ideal to dispose only relevant means and resources for continual growth. Instead of scaling questions about satisfaction, we should concentrate more on the following:

• Is the product easily available in your area?
• How long have you used this product?
• How long have you used this product?
• How likely are you to make other purchases from the same brand?
• Would you like to see variants of this product?
• How well does the product live up to its claim?
• Do you think the product is competitively priced?

Matrix questions and Net Promoter Score are also great options for a feedback survey. SurveyCrest offers free template for customer feedback survey with unlimited questions. It also provides excellent question samples.

Question, such as the ones mentioned, give you chance for actionable feedback. It also helps your survey takers to feel that their feedback is actually welcome. Most of them think that it’s not even read. This is also a major step in improving customer relationship.

Have your Say!

Have you used either types of survey to improve your brand? Let us know about your experience in the comments below.