Why reduce your email list size?

There are actually several reasons why you may want to reduce your email list size. To begin with, with a smaller list you will be spending less money on your campaigns. You won’t be earning any less revenue however, because the names you eliminated using customer satisfaction surveys were the ones you weren’t converting in any event. Remember, with email marketing and the list you maintain, quality is far superior to quantity.

When you reduce list size using customer satisfaction surveys you’re of course finding out much more information along the process. Yes, you could shrink down your list size by sorting through stats to see which names have been the least active and engaged with your messages. However, you won’t be gaining any of the additional insight that can be so crucial to your overall efforts.

By asking the right questions with your Internet survey software you can get to the root of the problem. Why are the disengaged people unhappy with what you’re sending them? What could you do to make people happier? What kinds of people are the least involved with your messages? And much more.

The result is that your list may be smaller, but you’ll also know exactly what your list members want to be seeing, hearing about and reading. You’ll be able to see a much higher conversion rate because your information will be more targeted, and you’ll be spending less on your campaigns because your list is smaller. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

How to do it

To get started in your efforts towards creating a happier, smaller list for your organization, first you should be using Internet survey software that’s directly connected to your email software. The majority of email service providers allow this now, including two of the most cost effective, iContact at $9.95 per month and Constant Contact for $15 per month.

The sole purpose of your customer satisfaction surveys shouldn’t be to reduce list size, that’s more like a side mission. The main objective of course is to diagnose your campaigns to spot weaknesses and problems, and to get the pulse of your prospects and customers to see what they are really interested in.

At the top of your survey, include a link to unsubscribe, or ask if they would like to stop receiving communications from you, at which point you could manually remove them from your list. Then work your way into the meat of the survey. After all of the questions have been asked, again ask if they would like to continue receiving your communications. Include a text box after a no answer to give people a chance to say why.

Now in addition to utilizing Internet survey software to improve the effectiveness of your campaigns, you should have also leaned yourself out a bit. When you’re on the fence between two different costing areas, in some cases a list of 499 names gets one fee structure and 500 names gets another, you can instantly reduce your costs without any negative consequences.

If you send out customer satisfaction surveys once every six months or so, you’ll be continually able to weak out some of the worthless names on your list, keeping costs down, eliminating overhead and improving your efforts in the process.

Learn how to ask the right questions, in the right way at the right time and you’ll see far more success. The best way to take full advantage of your web survey tools is by integrating several different types of questions in the same survey to keep things flowing smoothly and to elicit the best responses from your survey takers.

Mixing in Question Types with Web Survey Tools

I think too many people get bogged down in trying to project a “consistent” image and only asking one type of question, for example only multiple choice questions on this survey and only short answer questions on that survey.

But in doing so, the people using your customer survey software are going to be lulled to sleep and you won’t get the best out of them. Mix up the questions you ask to see better results. Use this guide to help you distinguish which types of questions to use when with your web survey tools.

When to use multiple choice questions: Use multiple choice questions when the answers fit into general categories, you are only looking for one answer and your survey takers will only have one answer. This kind of question is the easiest to complete, and generally is best used in the beginning of surveys, almost like a warm up.

A sample question would be, “How did you hear about our new promotion?” With answers including told from a friend, browsing the web, email advertisement, and others.

When to use check box questions: Check box questions are best used when you expect people to have more than one response to a question you are asking.

A sample question would be, “why did you purchase our new product?” with check box results including options such as price, brand name, new features, came recommended, and so on.

When to use rating questions: Rating questions are best when you want to get a clear understanding of something that took place, and a person’s happiness or displeasure with it. You could be general or very specific with the questions depending on your needs.

A general rating question would be, “How satisfied are you with your relationship with our company?” Specific questions could proceed that general question, asking the customer survey software taker to rate their satisfaction with your customer service team, with your email newsletters, with your new product line and so forth.

When to use short answer questions: I love using short answer questions as follow-ups to multiple choice questions or rating questions. They are great when you have a general answer from the responder already, and now want to gain more specific details using your customer survey software.

Today’s web survey tools make it easy with their logic systems to display certain questions specifically based on the responses given from a previous question. Leave short answer questions towards the end of a survey, when a person has a clearer idea of what the survey is about and when they are more in touch with their thoughts on the issue.

For example, after asking a person to rate the ease of their transaction on your new website, popup a short answer text box that corresponds with the result. If they answered “confusing” or “difficult”, the short answer could read, “How could our current system be improved to make the process easier?” If they answered “quick and easy” you could ask why they thought so, or you could skip the short answer question altogether.

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Is this the only way you can use your web survey tools? Of course not! To begin with, there are many more types of questions than the ones listed above, and you shouldn’t try to use a formula- but that’s the point. Instead of being rigid in your development, learn to mix in different questions and different styles of questions to elicit better responses from the responders to your customer survey software.

Many small businesses are at a loss when it comes to making improvements in their performance. It’s not necessarily a lack of caring or effort either. More likely, it’s a lack of understanding- understanding where the problems really lie and understanding how to improve on those weak spots. Making good use of the best satisfaction survey software will easily allow you to come to a quick understanding of what you need to do.

Here’s a quick step by step guide to help get you started with customer service software. Survey your customers and prospects, respond accordingly and continue to adjust.

1. Understand why satisfaction survey software is superior – It’s not like the concept of surveying customers and prospects is a new one. It’s that the technology today has made it profoundly easier for you to take on the task by yourself without spending a fortune.

The benefits to using the best survey software companies are vast. Mainly, you will be saving a great deal of time and effort as opposed to other surveying methods. You’ll also get more honest responses as the online platform allows people to be more free and honest without fear of retribution or awkwardness.

2. Ask the right questions – Generally speaking, the more specific you get with the questions you ask the better the results that you’ll see with your customer service software. Survey results depend on participants being steered as clearly as possible into talking about specific occasions or factors.

An ineffective survey would be comprised of questions like “Describe your recent purchasing experience.” An effective survey would break that one question down into more specific questions: “How would you rate the speed of delivery?” “Was the condition of the product up to standards?” “Was the product what you expected?” “Do you feel that you paid a fair price for the product” and so forth.

3. Ask the right people – Many small businesses make the mistake of asking the wrong people for information. You might want to have several different survey groups to help you diagnose different areas. The groups could be as general as customers and prospects, or you could get much more specific.

For example, customers could be broken down into recent one time customers, multiple purchasers, multiple but recently inactive purchasers and so forth. The group you choose of course has to reflect the questions you want answered and the information you want revealed.

4. Spot trends – Some people have a tendency to overreact to each individual survey response. Don’t go and change your entire business model because one client was unsatisfied with one element of your service. Wait until you get many results for the same survey which will allow you to spot overall trends and baseline opinions. In other word’s, don’t have a knee jerk reaction to every response, whether it’s positive or negative. Wait until trends develop and you gain a more complete understanding of the situation.

5. Make necessary adjustments – Now that you have all of this information don’t waste it. Make the necessary adjustments to your business based on the results of the survey. Is your website a mess? Are your email campaigns off target? Is the quality of your product slipping? Whatever it is, listen to your customers and your prospects and you’ll be able to provide them with an improved experience.

You don’t need expensive marketing companies to conduct high quality primary market research. Delve into the world of customer service software. Survey results done in this fashion will provide everything you need at a far lowered cost than other, more traditional methods.

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Follow these 5 tips to make the most of your customer survey software and see great response rates.

1. Emphasize how short and easy it is: Nobody likes tying up a lot of their time to take a customer satisfaction survey for somebody else. I don’t like doing it, and I’m sure you don’t either. The truth, something even taking just 10 minutes could scare away your list from completing the task.

That’s why you need to advertise openly how quick and easy it will be to complete the survey. Be sure to include “2 minute or “5 min” or whatever is appropriate when asking people to take the survey. It will dramatically increase the likelihood that people use your customer survey software.

2. Make it intuitive to complete: Now that you’ve sold your list on how easy the customer service survey is going to be, you better follow through. Nothing is worse than getting suckered into taking a survey because you thought it was short and then end up spending 15 minutes on it and seeing you’re still only 50% through.

You see that? That’s your survey takers hitting the X button and closing their browsers. Make the survey as easy to complete and intuitive as possible. Put yourself and your coworkers through test runs of the survey to be sure everything flows smoothly and it’s as quick as you promise it to be.

3. Offer a bonus for completion: To really improve your response rates and make the most out of your customer survey software, consider offering a free bonus for completion of the survey. Maybe you can send each survey taker a small promotional item. Instead you can offer a 10% or 20% coupon on their next purchase. If you give people something, anything, as a reward for taking the survey they will be far more likely to do so.

4. Promise confidentiality: You need to promise confidentiality to your list members if you want them to provide you with worthwhile information. Ensure them that their answers won’t be shared with anybody else and will have no bearing on any relationship they have with the company. You can still track the results internally using coding to draw the best relationships from the data however.

5. Tell people why you’re conducting the survey: Don’t just tell your list that you “need them to complete a survey” or that “we want to get better”. You should be as specific as possible. Are you trying to improve your customer service response time? Are you trying to find out what you do the best so you can focus on those qualities? Are you trying to weed out weak spots in your products or services? Openly share with people the purpose of the survey, and not only will you get more responses to begin with, but the ones you see will be more insightful and worthwhile as well.

Unfortunately, no matter how great your customer survey software is, you’ll never have people there to take your survey if you can’t sell your list on the prospects of completing it. If you employ these 5 tips you’ll see that you get much better responses when it comes to the integration of your customer survey software and your email marketing list.

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The point being that if you use email survey software in the right way, you’ll see a boatload of great results. Here are a few tips to help you make the most from any customer satisfaction survey software.

The best way to keep your list members happy is to know what they want from you. Your viewpoint of what you think your customers and prospects want to know, and what the truth actually is may be quite different from one another. You may think that everyone is dying to see your “Inside the CEO’s brain!” newsletter, but in reality everyone signed up to your newsletter expecting to see discounts and periodic sales or special offers.

Customer satisfaction survey software can help you get to the truth of the matter very easily. In fact, just one check box question can provide you with all of the information you need. Ask your list members, “What kinds of messages would you enjoy seeing from us?” Allow them to select as many as they want, and provide a text box for suggestions as well. You’ll quickly determine what people expect from you.

Ask them a few other multiple choice questions as well to find out even more answers. Ask them questions such as, what do you enjoy the most from receiving our emails, what do you like the least about our communications, what would make you happier or more involved with our company, and on down the line. You’re essentially asking the same thing each time, but by asking it in different ways you can really hone in on the specifics.

Another key question to ask is “How often do you want to hear from us?” Even when someone is interested in your emails, too many of them can quickly turn them off. Conversely, too few emails and people will forget about you… quickly.

The more you know about the expectations and desires of your list members, the more adequately you can serve them and convert them into returning clients and customers. The best and simplest way to find out detailed, firsthand information such as this is through customer satisfaction survey software.

You can use all of this information to completely overhaul your email campaigns, or you can use the information obtained from customer satisfaction survey software to segment your list into more specific groups. For example, if 25% of your list actually was highly interested in your “Inside the CEO’s brain!” newsletter, you can segment those people and continue sending the messages to them without alienating the rest of your list.

I also recommend that you ask basic questions like what kinds of messages do you want to receive from us and how often would you like to hear from us when someone initially signs up to your list. It will keep that person happier from the beginning, and you’ll be able to target them more effectively right from the start.

Remember that happy list members put money into your pocket. Utilize the best email survey software programs to keep your list as happy as possible.