TEXT SURVEY BEST PRACTICES

TEXT SURVEY BEST PRACTICES

WHY TEXTING IS A GREAT CHANNEL FOR SURVEYS In today s world, being present on SMS isn t a luxury it s a necessity. Over 97% of U.S. smartphone owners use SMS, making it the most-used app on a smartphone. In addition, research conducted by Harris Poll and commissioned by HGS found that 64% of customers would prefer to text your business. That s why texting is such a powerful channel to use to conduct surveys. Texting has been shown to drive impressive amounts of engagement, boasting a 98% open rate and a 45% response rate. For text surveys specifically, HGS recently helped a customer see a text survey response rate of 24% (up from the 4% response rate they saw with email surveys). If you want to get the highest number of customer responses, there s no better channel than text. There are several other reasons why texting is a great channel for surveys. Here are just a few. IT S IN REAL-TIME. On average, we get more emails a day than we do text messages, but while emails often linger in our inbox, texts are read almost immediately just under 90 seconds. Surveys don t need to be completed immediately, but with text messaging, you re more than likely going to receive a high volume of responses soon after sending it out. IT S FLEXIBLE. With text surveys, customers can put their phone down and check it again at their leisure (although they will most likely complete your survey rather than setting it aside). Texting also allows users to be more discreet than they ever could with voice calls, giving customers the ability to exchange sensitive information on their terms. IT S SHORT. Over 40% of customers who text are likely to believe that a text-enabled company values their time they can get their questions answered or problems resolved almost instantly. HGS TEXT MESSAGE SURVEY RESPONSE RATES PER QUESTION (FOR A FIVE-QUESTION SURVEY, WITH THE LAST QUESTION BEING FREE-FORM) 100% 80% 73% 69% 63% 24% RESPONSE Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5

7 BEST PRACTICES FOR CUSTOMERS SATISFACTION SURVEYS PERSONALIZE YOUR SURVEYS. Surveys can be adaptive based on demographic information or customer history, with questions personalized to the recipient. For example, if a customer is in their twenties and lives in the city, the questions they re presented with should differ slightly from a customer in their forties who lives in suburbs. Questions should adaptively change based on responses, based on logic within your survey software. TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION BASED ON FEEDBACK. SMS surveys allow you to activate positive sentiment (e.g. providing a share link to your social profiles) or capture negative feedback in such a way that the customer feels heard and less likely to share their negativity publicly. PROVIDE THE OPTION TO CHAT LIVE WITH A RESEARCHER. Sometimes, researchers and customers will want to interact with one another to increase the depth of understanding surrounding certain questions. When customers text in, if you want to allow them to converse with a researcher, provide an option to do that at any point in the survey. Transfer to a text chat platform where the researcher can engage with the customer. BE RESPECTFUL OF RESPONDENTS TIME. Because it s hard for the user to look ahead to the rest of the survey to know how long it will take, they may be hesitant to begin the survey. Start the survey with a question outlining the rules of the survey (how many questions there are, what the survey is about, etc.) A good strategy is to ask a few simple questions and one free-form. DON T LIMIT YOURSELF TO NUMBERS ALONE. People don t communicate through numbers--they communicate through words. Within your survey, include an option for a free-form response or responses. This will help you get more detailed insight into what customers are really thinking or feeling. Respondents may not be able to articulate all their thoughts in 160 characters, so give them an option to follow-up on their comments as well. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE PERMISSION TO CONTACT THEM. You can t survey respondents via text if they haven t consented to be contacted by your company. The easiest way to capture permission is to promote your text channel through your existing channels, like your website, social media, IVR, and email. You can also go print flyers or business cards with your text number on it. REMEMBER THEM. One of the things customers hate about customer service in general is having to repeat their problems. Luckily, text eliminates the need for having to repeat something because there is a written record. Reviewing and incorporating data from previous interactions shows customers you ve been paying attention to them.

TYPES OF SURVEYS Surveys are a valuable way to collect customer feedback, learn from it, and use it to improve the rest of your organization. While the goals of surveys may vary (customer satisfaction, customer effort, etc.), all can be used to produce valuable insights that an organization can learn from and iterate upon. Here are three common types of surveys companies use to measure customer sentiment: CUSTOMER EFFORT SCORE (CES) The customer effort score, or CES, measures how easy it was for a customer to solve a problem. While there are two versions of the survey, the CEB, creators of the survey, personally recommend version 2.0, which is what we ll cover here. The survey prompts the customer with the following statement: The company made it easy for me to handle my issue. Respondents can then choose from the following: Strongly disagree Disagree Somewhat disagree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat agree Agree Strongly agree While CSAT is used to measure short-term interactions and NPS is used to measure long-term success, CES is primarily used to diagnose customer issues. We personally recommend using a mix of all of the listed surveys (CSAT, NPS and CES) to get the best possible view of how your company is performing in the eyes of customers. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION (CSAT) Customer satisfaction surveys are a great way to get a sense of how customers are feeling soon after an interaction with a company. While customer satisfaction surveys are especially popular in retail, they can be used in any industry. Responses are generally measured on a 5-point Likert scale, which measures positive, neutral, and negative responses. The responses can either be measured on a literal scale of 1 to 5, or a more subjective scale like the one below. Very dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied Satisfied Very satisfied Overall customer satisfaction is calculated by dividing the number of satisfied respondents by the total number of respondents. Percentage of happy customers: # of satisfied customers 100 # of survey responses What is considered a good customer satisfaction score will ultimately vary by industry. For example, according the American Customer Satisfaction Index, the average score for full-service restaurants is 82%, while the average score for internet service providers is 63%.

NET PROMOTER SCORE (NPS) While CSAT is generally used to measure short-term satisfaction, another survey is considered to measure long-term sentiment towards a company: Net Promoter Score (NPS). This metric was developed by Bain & Company and measures customer loyalty. The single question asks, How likely is it that you would recommend our company/product/ service to a friend or colleague? Respondents are asked to answer on a scale of 1 to 10. Based on the answer to that question, you can group customers into the following categories: PROMOTERS (SCORE 9-10): Loyal enthusiasts who will promote you to others PASSIVES (SCORE 7-8): Satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings DETRACTORS (SCORE 0-6): Unhappy customers who can damage your brand through negative word-of-mouth NPS is calculated by subtracting the percent of detractors from the percent of promoters: NPS: % of promoters - % of detractors If 60% of your customers are promoters and 10% are detractors, you would have an NPS score of 50, which is generally considered an excellent score. However, it s important to note that any score above zero is considered a good score. If you have major business units, you might survey respondents on the different units rather than the business as a whole. For example, FedEx is too broad for overall NPS--instead it might be FedEx Shipping or FedEx Online. However, your results for different business units will not match your generic NPS for you company. The general view that the customer has about your company takes into account countless experiences that build a story that is strongly defined in their mind. The NPS that you are asking in context to the call skews that overall number based on the recent emotions of the call. The reality is that there are many experiences within your brand that cause better or worse experiences. If your phone line is higher than the average, then it means that it is a shining star in your overall brand strategy. If it is lower, than something else within your brand is stronger.

VISUALLY DESIGN TEXT SURVEYS Traditionally, you needed a developer to build your own text message surveys. HGS provides you with a visual builder that allows you to create your surveys through a simple drag-and drop-tool. You can add adaptive logic and multi-variant surveys with ease. INTEGRATE SURVEY DATA WITH OTHER SYSTEMS With HGS, it s easy to export the survey data into another system for visualization or storage. Additionally, you can use other systems to trigger a survey to be sent. This is great for sending surveys based on customer purchase history or support requests. WATCH RESPONSES IN REAL TIME All response data are captured in a report that can be exported as CSV. The data include typical survey responses (i.e. 1-10 or A, B, C) as well as free-form responses. Through HGS reporting, you can view survey traffic, as well as customize follow-up questions based on response. For example, If recipients give you a negative rating (i.e. 1-3), you can create logic that routes them down a branch asking why they gave a negative rating. About HGS HGS is a leader in optimizing the customer experience and helping our clients to become more competitive. HGS provides a full suite of business process management (BPM) services from traditional voice contact center services and transformational DigiCX services that are unifying customer engagement to platform-based, back-office services and digital marketing solutions. By applying analytics, automation, and interaction expertise to deliver innovation and thought leadership, HGS increases revenue, improves operating efficiency, and helps retain valuable customers. HGS expertise spans the telecommunications and media, healthcare, insurance, banking, consumer electronics and technology, retail, and consumer packaged goods industries, as well as the public sector. HGS operates on a global landscape with 41,000 employees in 66 worldwide locations delivering localized solutions. For the year ended 31st March 2016, HGS had revenues of US$ 507 million. HGS, part of the multi-billion dollar Hinduja Group, has more than four decades of experience working with some of the world s most recognized brands. www.teamhgs.com