Surveys as a Marketing Strategy: 3 Ways They Positively Impact Businesses
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For years, businesses have used surveys as a tool to measure customer satisfaction and to improve customer engagement. As a marketing strategy, it gives you an idea of how your customers perceive your business. But did you know that if you make a survey that your customers can participate in, you can also influence their future purchasing behaviors? A study conducted by the Harvard Business Review proved just this.
The study involved about 2,000 customers of a large financial services company in the United States, 1,046 of whom were randomly selected to be a part of the control group (no surveys performed) while the other 945 were asked to participate in a phone survey. For two years, the researchers tracked these customers’ purchasing behaviors. The results of the study found three ways in which surveys can positively impact your business.
- Surveys reinforce your customers’ positive feelings towards your business.
Conducting a survey makes your customers feel important because it shows that you care about their opinions and feedback. As a result, their existing positive feelings towards your business are reinforced. This leads them to purchase more of your products and services in the future.
- Surveys increase your customers’ awareness about your product and services.
A detailed survey will have questions about most, if not all, of the products and services that you currently offer. By asking your customers to participate in this kind of survey, they will be made aware of the products and services that they don’t currently purchase from you. This will inspire them to explore their options and to conduct further business with you. However, note that if you are planning to use a survey as a sales tool, you need to disclose this information before conducting the survey. The customers should be aware that you are trying to inform them about products and services that they may not know of.
- Surveys help your customers realize that they actually like your business.
Sometimes, customers need a little nudge to realize how happy they actually are with your products and services. By asking them questions about their experience with your business so far, they will realize that they are actually satisfied with how you provide their needs. This realization will lead to future purchases and will reinforce customer loyalty.
Overall, surveys improve customer loyalty and encourage future purchases.
The study conducted by the Harvard Business Review revealed that, as a marketing tool, surveys improve customer loyalty and encourage future purchases, which will have a general positive impact on your business.
Therefore, you have to use surveys as a marketing tool, although strategically. You want to create a survey that will not feel like a burden to your customers. One way to do this is to find a platform like Typeform where you can create surveys that are aesthetically pleasing. Using Typeform, you can make questionnaires fun and interesting for your customers, so that they will be inspired to take the time to respond to your survey and to give you the most accurate answers.
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