Q: We are planning to do a customer service survey to our best customers in the coming weeks.

Do you have samples of similar surveys that LERN (or members of LERN) might have done. I’ve looked through the Club LERN site, but didn’t find much information about surveys.

Or if you have other resources you recommend, that would be great!

A:        
I have attached a “Service Evaluation Survey” from a recreation program that shows the type of questions that are usually most helpful – that is, Likert scale-type questions where you have 5 options for response from poor to excellent.  Basically, LERN recommends that on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being excellent, your customer service should consistently score 4+.

The attached survey is a little too long – we had recommended that the program reduce it to one page.  The best questions to include from this example for a customer service survey would be numbers 2 and 4 (#3 needs to be specific to registration and would be good to include for that process) and 12 and 13.  It is always a good idea to ask two open-ended questions –

      What did you like best about your experience with our customer service staff?

      What needs to be improved about our customer service?

If there are any points that show up repeatedly in these responses, those will tell you a strong story.

Here are the key things to keep in mind when you develop your survey:

1. Keep the survey short - about three to five questions maximum.

2. Ask only questions that you can act upon. Don't ask questions whose answers give you information about which you can do nothing. For example, asking whether the customer service staff was easily available to answer questions at your customers’ convenience is something you should ask only if you have 24/7 options like email, Live Chat, etc.

3. Be specific. Ask questions that will give you information you can use to make adjustments or changes, for example, "What is the most convenient way for you to register for a class?" "Have you ever called our customer service 800 # , and if so for what reason?" And then ask, "On a scale of 1 to 5, how would you rate how your questions or concerns were handled?" etc.

4. Use yes/no questions, Likert scale, or other options (multiple choice) for most of the answers, rather than asking a lot of open-ended questions (the two mentioned above are best).

5. Give respondents the opportunity to make suggestions for ways to improve your customer service, but limit this to one question.

If you would like to send us a sample of your proposed survey questions and your goal for the survey, we can provide additional feedback. I hope you will find this information helpful.  Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have other questions or if I can help in any other ways.