In the fast-paced world of business, knowing which leads to follow up on is the key to getting customers and making sales. The usual approach is to attempt to follow up on each and every lead personally. This means hours of legwork, cold calling, and time spent out of your office. Many business owners have understandably decided that there has to be a better way. The hot new trend in internet marketing is using an AutoDialer to follow up on the leads you generate through your website. An AutoDialer gets you leads by replacing the process of cold-calling, allowing you to follow up on every single lead that you receive. If a salesperson attempted to do this manually, it would translate to hours on the phone every day. Contrast that with use of an AutoDialer, which allows mass broadcasting of your message to all of your contacts at the same time.
The leads you get from your AutoDialer are more valuable than leads generated by a traditional cold-calling model, because you or your sales staff only follow up personally with customers who indicate their interest in receiving a call back from your business. At first, switching to an AutoDialer to get leads can seem impersonal, but actually, when you record your AutoDialer script, it allows you to achieve something unprecedented in sales: a consistent, on-target, tested message sent to every potential customer, every time. It also allows you to blast out messages about news you may have, or one-time opportunities that your customers may not want to miss. An AutoDialer allows your potential customers to educate themselves about your business before they ever speak to a salesperson. A common thread in comments by those businesses that have switched to the AutoDialer method of following up on customer contacts say that the tables have turned, and that instead of tying to reach customers, clients are now trying to reach them.
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Designing surveys is easy; isn’t it? The reality is that writing surveys is easy but writing surveys that will be effective is more difficult. The following twenty tips will help you write more effective surveys.
1. What is the survey’s purpose?
There are many reasons for conducting questionnaires. By phrasing the questions and structuring the answers surveys can be used in a multitude of ways and for a variety of reasons. When compiling a survey don’t lose sight of its purpose.
2. Title the survey
The survey title is a golden opportunity to instantly summarise a survey’s objective and grab the attention of invited respondents. Respondents need to invest time in completing the survey so encourage them that the investment they make will be worthwhile.
3. The length of the survey needs to be as short as possible
Every question that is asked should be asked for a reason. Concentrate on the ‘need to know’ questions and minimise ‘nice to know’ information.
4. Use plain English, avoid terminology and acronyms, be consistent and ensure that the questions you ask will not result in ambiguous answers
Be careful when wording the question. If a question can be interpreted in more ways than one then there is a real risk that any analysis of the resulting survey data will be worthless or at the very least suspect.
5. Avoid long questions
Where practical use concise sentences. Long questions tend to cause respondents discomfort and can lead to a higher level of incidents where respondents abandon a survey.
6. Ask only one question at a time
Avoid confusing the respondent with a question like ‘Do you like golf and football?’
7. Don’t influence the answer
It is important to avoid loading the question. ‘Should irresponsible shop keepers who sell tobacco to children be prosecuted?’ is unlikely to have any value.
8. Make sure that the chosen answer format allows the respondent to answer the question being asked
Ensure that the respondent is able to answer how they really feel or they may be less inclined to complete the survey. As a last resort consider the benefit of including a “Can’t say”, “No comment” or similar response option.
9. While you are compiling your survey consider how the survey results are going to be analysed when the survey is complete
Appreciate that questions that allow for a free text open ended response, such as when asking the respondent for their comments, is likely to be difficult to score and/or summarised. Consider grouping the answers into groups that will match your analysis requirements. For example “Indicate your length of service?” – ‘less than 1 year’, ‘between 1 and 4 years’ and ‘more than 4′.
10. Ensure that the questionnaire flows
Group questions into clear categories as this will make it easier for the participants completing the survey.
11. Target your respondents
Sometimes you will want to target a specific group, in others a cross section. If you can’t easily control the respondents consider including questions/answers that will allow you to filter out respondents who don’t fit your target profile.
12. Allow the respondent to expand or make comments
Allowing respondents to make additional comments will increase their satisfaction level and will also give valuable feedback on the specific questions and/or the survey as a whole. Remember that for large sample collections free text open ended responses may prove difficult to analyze.
13. If the survey you are conducting is to be confidential ensure that you honour your pledge
If you have assured the respondents that the survey is confidential ensure that the individual data is not to be shared with anyone and not used for any other purpose. Confidentiality must be maintained at all times and any identifying information destroyed after the survey is complete.
14. Consider the benefits and disadvantages of allowing respondents to be anonymous or identifiable
If your respondents are to be anonymous then appreciate that you will be unable to follow up or match “pre” or “post” surveys. There are advantages to allowing people to remain anonymous for example it would allow people to respond without possible peer pressure.
15. Give careful consideration to the best response format
Maintaining a consistency in the format used for responses is good practice. Keep in mind that when analysing the data radio buttons are easier to analyse than check boxes that offer the respondent multiple responses. Do not use a check box format if a radio response format would do.
16. Inform the respondent as to how much time the survey will take to complete
If the survey appears to be a stream of never ending questions then respondent drop out can occur. It is good practice to indicate how long the survey is likely to take so that the participants can choose the best time to complete the survey.
17. Provide respondents with the survey end date
Try and encourage your invited respondents to complete the survey as soon as possible but advise the respondents of the survey’s end date so that they have the opportunity to schedule the necessary time.
18. Test the survey
Before publishing a live survey publish a small pilot survey to check for questions that are ambiguous or confusing and to ensure that the survey is aesthetically pleasing.
19. Before publishing the survey check the survey several times
Carefully check and then check again that the survey is grammatically correct and makes sense. If practical get a colleague to check the survey before you publish, if you are unable to do this then take a break before checking again.
20. Thank the respondent
To complete surveys respondents have to devote their time and should be thanked at the end of completing the survey or in a follow up letter. You may even want to consider an incentive such as a reward of some sort.
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