3 Things That Will Destroy Your Customer Experience Survey Before You Even Start

You’ve been put in charge of designing your brand’s Customer experience (CX) survey (my heartfelt congratulations to you my friend!) Before you go and design your CX survey, take a deep breath and ponder the famous adage of “garbage in, garbage out.”

For your CX survey, this means starting off right by laying the necessary groundwork that will pay you dividends in the long run. If you do not take the time now, it may come back to hurt you. Here are three things that, if not handled properly, will destroy your CX survey before it even leaves your desk:

1. Forgetting the “C” in CX.

You may have heard that your customer is king. This is especially true when structuring your CX survey. In fact, you’ll have the most success if you see your CX survey through your customer’s eyes. This means keeping your CX survey short and engaging so it is not painful (or maybe even enjoyable) for your customers to give you feedback. Additionally, it means keeping your CX survey consistent with your brand’s personality so your customers will easily recognize it as coming from your brand. Above all, make it easy for your customers to give you feedback.

2. Survey design by committee.

Once you have crowned the customer as king, quickly appoint yourself as Survey Steward (yes, this is a thing. Go ahead and put this title on your resume and thank me later). As the Survey Steward, you own the survey on your customer’s behalf. This doesn’t mean that your CX survey will not need buy-in or approval from internal stakeholders. Far from it. What does mean is that for your CX survey be successful, it must have someone who ensures the survey remains an easy way for your customers to give you feedback.

As the Survey Steward, this means you must be able to distinguish between “must have” questions and “nice to know” questions. You must also have the autonomy to say “no” or “not at this time” to any request to add, remove, or modify any question in your CX survey. You have the final say to ensure you are asking what matters most to your customers (which may not necessarily be what every internal stakeholder thinks is important).

3. Having questions with no purpose.

As newly appointed Survey Steward, you now have the power to elect a co-owner for each CX survey question. (Just don’t let this power go to your head, all right?) Along with the question co-owner, you must ask yourself: What are we measuring by asking this question? How will we know when we are successful?

By asking these questions, you will ensure that the purpose of each question is met and you’ll know when the question has served its purpose and should be modified or removed. This may mean setting a future date when the CX survey question will be removed or at least reviewed for effectiveness.

Tackling these three things will lay the necessary groundwork to better help you design your CX survey.  My apologies for suggesting that your CX survey may be “destroyed” if you have already started your CX survey without solving these three potential issues. That may have been a little harsh (but I said it out of love). Regardless, start now by eliminating these 3 potential pitfalls as much as possible and setting up the guardrails for future success as you listen to your customers for years to come.