Using email surveys for business analytics

As business shifts focus from big data to data analytics, we’re starting to find that more businesses are benefiting from the value that can be obtained from email surveys.

While not all businesses have the need for call centres, I can’t think of any business that doesn’t have the need for good customer service. Good customer service is often viewed as something that benefits customers, but have you thought of how customer service can be leveraged to achieve growth and development of your business?

Email surveys may not be your first port of call when it comes to figuring out how to equate the two, but it is a tool that can have a surprisingly powerful role to play in growing your business. The equation is actually quite simple: tap into a wealth of invaluable data using email surveys. It’s one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways to engage with your all of clients on a regular basis.

You can use email surveys to stay in touch and show your clients that you value their needs and wants. This is one step that can tie in with your customer experience management strategy, but it is just the tip of the iceberg. The real value that email surveys afford lies in the largely uncharted waters of business analytics. Big data has until now been considered an IT concept, focused on knowledge gathering and market observations, but it is quickly becoming a business imperative.

Companies across the globe are leveraging big data to transform their processes and drive business planning. Obviously, the feedback obtained from email surveys can be invaluable in achieving these objectives.

By now, we all know that big data itself does not create value until it is unpacked and put to use to address important business challenges. This requires access to various kinds of data, including email surveys, as well as strong analytics capabilities and the expertise and skills to use them.

So where do you start? I’d suggest that you keep the following in mind to begin with:

• Email surveys need to fit into the specific demographic of the customer being surveyed. Surveying offices workers via email may be effective, but when surveying shop assistants, factory workers or lower LSM employees (basically, anyone who may not have regular access to email) another form of survey should be considered, such as SMS, USSD or Kiosk.
• Use emails surveys to ask more detailed feedback than what you would be able to receive via mobile or IVR surveys. Email surveys have room for longer responses and more questions per survey.
• Email surveys can help to establish brand credibility. They can be designed to with the exact look and feel of your branding. This is not always true of free online templates, so it’s worth considering our survey tool, Eyerys, if branding is important to you.
• Well-constructed email surveys have very little drop-off mid-survey. People that start a good email survey generally complete it. This is another reason it’s worth consulting with the experts before launching your project.
• Email surveys require strategy, which depends on defined objectives and careful planning. Avoid throwing out a bunch of questions to your client base just to make them think you care. If you’re going to do something, do it properly.

If you know what you want to achieve and have a strategy in place, have a look at this post on how to create email surveys:http://www.smokeccs.com/Blog/email-survey-1

You can also get in touch with me to explore your business needs and to see how we can use email surveys to capture invaluable insights and big data.