What's the best way to collect customer feedback?
Answer as always....it depends.....Part 3.
In my last two blogs I highlighted the merits and drawbacks of both telephone and SMS based methodologies for collecting customer feedback data.
What about using email or online platforms?
Personally, I am a big fan of email and online solutions. Distributing feedback surveys using email can be a far less expensive exercise compared to other research methodologies, particularly telephone. This means that a much greater volume of data can be collected for a similar budget. The ability to collect more data means that analysis can be much more sophisticated and rich.
From a respondent perspective the task is a lot less intrusive and more engaging. Respondents will typically have between 24-48 hours to complete the survey and can therefore decide when they want to do so. What I particularly like about email/online is the ability to use visual and auditory stimulus as well as being able to implement more complex survey techniques such as conjoint and choice modelling which can't be delivered through other methodologies.
Finally, at the back end, the time taken to process and deliver the data is relatively quick meaning that information can be made available as close to real time as possible.
There are of course a few things to bear in mind when considering the use of email/online. The main factor is the quality of the customer database. Some key questions to ask include; how up to date are my customer email addresses? What proportion of my customers have provided an email address? I think you would be surprised to know that in many organisations, the current quality of customer information with regards to email addresses is so poor that email is just not a viable option (except for maybe ISP organisations and online retailers. You would hope they stand out as best practise right?).
The other factor is the response rate. Sending out an unsolicited email may end up in spam, junk or just go unanswered. To help drive participation we have often used an incentive, however this can drive up data collection costs.
Finally, the main drawback is controlling for the recentness of response. In customer experience research it is important to collect information as close to the interaction experience as possible. With online, customers can respond to the survey at their own leisure which may lead to the survey being completed 3-4 days after the experience. This potentially introduces bias into the data as not all customers would have completed the survey within the same timeframe, post their interaction.
Each methodology that I have reviewed is a viable option for conducting customer engagement research. Hopefully the last few blogs have been helpful in terms of pointing out some of the elements that require careful consideration.
This is my last blog for 2011. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a most excellent New Year and I look forward to 2012.
