FAQs for Step 26: Create Your Survey Questions
Q: What am I trying to achieve by surveying my customers?
Q: How many surveys should I do?
Q: When does my surveying stop?
Q: How do I ensure that people will complete my surveys?
Q: When should I survey?
Q: I’m confused you say be beware of asking for sensitive info like age but earlier you said I needed that info to create a customer profile.
Q: You say, and I quote “Keep it simple, but not too simple.” Could you provide a little more guidance on this point?
Q: Should I be handing out my surveys directly to people on the street? Should I just leave a pile somewhere?
Q: Is the survey only one option for gathering primary research or is it a step I have to do along with other methods?
Q: I can’t afford to offer prizes. Can I say I’m offering a prize and then make up a fictitious winner?
What am I trying to achieve by surveying my customers?
You are trying to learn more about your customer and your business. You can pick up general knowledge from secondary sources, but it is really your primary research–communicating directly with customers–that brings the specific knowledge about your customers in your market area. Ultimately, you are attempting to prove or disprove your own assumptions about your customers, your products and services, and your market.
How many surveys should I do?
This will be different for each situation. A business that has only a few potential customers does not require the same number of surveys as a business with a potential market of thousands. I recommend getting a few questionnaires out, perhaps 10 or 20, followed by a revision of your survey as feedback dictates. Once you are confident that you are getting the information you need, you can then have another 50 people complete the survey. Assess the information you are getting, and do this again. I suggest doing 50 at a time until you find that your results level off or the information appears to provide you with a consistent message. One hundred samples generally bring a 10% chance of error, while 500 can give a 5% chance of error.
When does my surveying stop?
In one way or another, you will always be surveying as long as you’re in business. For your start-up survey, the time to stop is when you have enough answers to prove or disprove your assumptions and you cease to learn new information from the surveys. Your surveying just changes focus as your business evolves. As you do your surveys, your confidence level in your business idea will either increase or decrease.
How do I ensure that people will complete my surveys?
If you are providing needed products or services and targeting the right customers, your job should be easier because they will be interested in what you’re offering. Part of the answer is to take the time to define or target your customers. Once you are sure you’re surveying the right people, choose a method that fits the group you’re targeting. For example, if they are really busy, make sure your survey is quick and easy to complete. If they use the Internet, perhaps a Web-based survey is the answer. Finally, you can offer incentives, such as entering each completed survey into a prize draw.
When should I survey?
You certainly must survey potential customers prior to starting your business. Your customer service surveys will go on for the life of your business. You should survey for each new product, service, division, or business. You can survey to determine pricing, client preferences, changes in the marketplace, and competitor characteristics.
Q: I’m confused you say be beware of asking for sensitive info like age but earlier you said I needed that info to create a customer profile.
The caution with asking about age is first to ensure that it’s necessary for your survey, and secondly not to get too specific. Demographic breakdowns are usually in age groups. The age question is more palatable to those being interviewed if asked generally rather than specific. For example, the following question is used in the Stitches Fabric Store at http://www.riskbuster.com/tools/surveys/
Check your age group:
10-18 ________ 19-29 ________ 30 & over ________
The format above will enable you to meet your objective of building a customer profile while not pressing or appearing to press the participant for information that is too “personal.
Q: You say, and I quote “Keep it simple, but not too simple.” Could you provide a little more guidance on this point?
Here’s the thing – everything we do in a business plan is to prove or disprove your business case. Armed with that knowledge, we structure our survey or information gathering tools to get the answers we need to tell us whether or not we are on the right track with our business idea. So our goal is to gather just enough information, but not more than we need. We hope this doesn’t sound too exacting, because for one thing, if you decide you need more information after analyzing the data collected, you can usually go back for more or survey a new group with the new questions added.
The reason we suggest “keeping it simple” is that everyone is busy. In fact it’s often the busiest people that we want the information from. In today’s fast-paced world folks are turned off quickly by anything that wastes their time. To limit your questions only to the most important is the respectful thing to do. We suggest you not labour too intensively over this – write up your list of questions and put it in front of a couple trusted advisors to get their impression, and then test the survey on a few people. This should bring you the input or adjustments needed to move forward and survey more people.
“Too simple” would mean that you end up not too little information to make a go/no go decision. For example, if you don’t get clear on the pricing you will be unable to build credible financial projections and therefore unable to determine if the business will be viable. For more information on proving or disproving your business case, read Step 10 and Step 30.
Q: Should I be handing out my surveys directly to people on the street? Should I just leave a pile somewhere?
Test different methods to see which brings the best results, and which is the best use of your time. You have so many options at your fingertips, from street, to workplace, to Internet. Ideally you want to find somewhere that your target audience gathers. Conferences can be a great place to collect information, particularly if the conference attracts your ideal customers. As for how best to get the survey into the recipient’s hands, it will always be more personal and meaningful to receive it from a real smiling person than to discover it in a heap on a table somewhere. Still, we suggest leaving a few strewn around in different places to see what works. One thing is certain – you can expect a higher return rate from the more personalized approach, and a lower response from the less personalized, shotgun approach. The best advice we can give is to test, test, test – and to have fun doing it.
Q: Is the survey only one option for gathering primary research or is it a step I have to do along with other methods?
Surveys are one option for gathering information, but they are not the only choice and certainly not always the best choice. We urge you to test different information gathering strategies noted in the table in Step 25 to see which bring the best results.
You will be surveying, or gathering information from your customers and competitors for the life of your business. These skills will serve you well as long as you’re in the marketplace. You may as well belly up and get familiar with the different methods early in your entrepreneurial process. And while you’re at it, have you tried any of the web-based survey options? View our recommendations on the Step 26 Links Page.
Q: I can’t afford to offer prizes. Can I say I’m offering a prize and then make up a fictitious winner?
No. We tend to get what we give. If you operate from a position of deceit you are begging for deceitful results. If those filling out your surveys provide you with fictitious data, which will lead you to fictitious projections and cheerfully on to fictitious profits… It’s all wrong for a whole lot of reasons. We hope you understand and take the high road.
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