This focused information
is like gold for our
business. By applying the
information in our future
decisions we are able to
really develop our product
and make our business
decisions based on the
needs and expectations
of our clients.
The aim of a survey is to gain general or specific insights into
a topic. There are four key steps in running a survey and
making sure it has an impact on your business:
1. Choose a topic or specific area you
want to find out more about.
2. Run the survey and promote it to the
focus group.
3. Analyse the data which means
making sense of it within context.
4. Apply your findings to the issue or
topic you wanted to find out more
about.
We generally take months to run this survey and it’s a very large undertaking. However we also run other surveys in our business
more specifically to Ezypay clients. We recently ran one to gain an insight into buying decisions, perception and experience
of Ezypay. We collected the data, analysed the results and produced an infograph for our team to use in our business. I also
personally contacted each person who was not satisfied with the quality of their experience at Ezypay. It was a great experience
because it gave me the opportunity to really understand the buying motivations and decision making process of our clients.
This was important to me because I wanted to make sure we were meeting their initial expectations. I also was able to use their
language and words to sell and market our product to our prospects. In addition I picked up a couple of areas where our clients
told us we could do better.
This focused information is like gold for our business. By applying the information in our future decisions we are able to really
develop our product and make our business decisions based on the needs and expectations of our clients. Each client is valuable
to us so it has also given me the opportunity to work with the handful that weren’t satisfied to see if I could resolve their issues and
make them satisfied with Ezypay. I am just about to do another communication to these people to find out if we were able to help
them and check to see how their experience is now.
There are a range of theories about surveys and I am not going to go into them all however I will give you a couple of ideas I hope
you will be able to use.
Length The shorter the surv ey the more
Marketing You will need to market your survey.
responses you will get. LinkedIn has sent me two
surveys in the last four months. Each had one
question only. I thought it was an interesting
approach and clearly designed to get the
highest engagement possible.
Even if it’s sending not just one but two emails
about it you need to promote it like any other
marketing piece.
Frequency You are better to do shorter surveys
more frequently. Most people are happy to
answer the shorter questions more regularly
rather than lots of questions once a year.
Tools There are loads of survey tools out there
- some are free and some are paid. I would
recommend Survey Monkey for a tool that
provides excellent value for the price (free). They
even have ready-made templates for you to use.
Analysis It’s a lot harder to analyse answers
Application There is little or no point to running
from qualitative questions, than quantitative
ones. So really think about how much time you
have, and the real value of the information when
forming your survey.
a survey if you aren’t going to apply the results to
your initial problem. Generally you ask a question
because you have an issue and you need
information to solve it. So you need to ensure you
actually apply the insights you gain to the initial
problem that motivated you to ask the question
in the beginning.
Good luck with your survey. When you do it right the information you
receive will be nuggets of gold that will help you improve your business.
24
WHAT’S NEW IN FITNESS - AUTUMN 2014