Email surveys have been one of the initial forms of communication among people. Brands have applied their customized marketing strategies to get people to open their emails. At the present rate, organisations still use emails in large numbers to reach a variety of customers. It is one of the most efficient ways to collect data from people. Emails can also be used for retargeting ads and products or services. In this blog, we will discuss the benefits of using email surveys and how to automate customer feedback campaigns. 

What are Email Surveys?

Email surveys are a simple yet powerful way to gather feedback by sending surveys directly to a person’s inbox. This method enables businesses to connect with their customers and get valuable insights on their experiences or preferences. Be it an embedded question, a clickable link, or a quick rating scale, email surveys make it easy for respondents to share their thoughts. These thoughts, both qualitative and quantitative, turn into actionable insights for businesses. With the right approach, email surveys can boost response rates and help CX professionals create data-driven strategies. 

Common types of email surveys for CX

Email surveys can be versatile across industries and use cases. Here are the common ways to use it to get the best of your data.

1. Customer satisfaction metrics

Net Promoter Score NPS:
The NPS metric functions on a standard scale of rating. It asks customers their likelihood to recommend a brand/ business on a scale of 0 to 10. You can embedd the scale within the email body. However, if you are using Merren, the NPS scale is dynamic and people can respond within the email body itself. Add a section where customers can explain the reason for their ratings. 

Customer Satisfaction Score CSAT:
A CSAT scale can gauge the satisfaction metric based on their experience. Based on a 5-point scale, it can be in the form of an emoji scale or a simple star rating scale. CSAT rating scales are popularly used across mobile applications. It collects in-the-moment experiences based on post-purchase or transactional experience.

Customer Effort Score CES:
A CES metric will gauge the maximum amount of effort a customer takes to resolve a grievance or issue. The main goal is to reduce high-effort interactions and work on service gaps. The responses can directly reflect the efficiency of a customer support team. Merren’s CES scale is dynamically embedded in the email body. People can immediately share their effort based experiences via the inbox.

2. Retargeting cart abandonments:

Abandoned carts are potential transactions waiting for a nudge. Email surveys can use cart abandonment surveys to learn more about the customers who might have changed their minds midway. Re-targeting these customers can bring in revenues and potentially convert them into brand advocates with the right marketing campaigns.

3. Market research surveys:

Market research surveys focus on the overall market condition. This includes competitive advantage, brand awareness, customer needs and preferences, purchasing behaviours and technological developments. Email surveys are used across industries to launch specific goal-oriented questionnaires. Due to the extensive nature of market research surveys, email platforms can reach a wide variety of audiences across any age group. 

4. User persona email surveys

Knowing your customer is the first step to creating a market strategy. A user persona will gauge the person’s demographic details, their purchasing habits and their personal beliefs and patterns. This can help businesses be sensitive to their needs and curate better strategy to up-sell or cross-sell products and services. 

5. Lead generation forms

Lead generation forms capture potential customer information through forms integrated into surveys. These forms typically ask for contact details such as name, email, phone number, or job title. This information is later used to nurture leads into paying customers. Lead generation surveys are strategically designed to collect relevant data while providing value to the respondent, such as through a special offer, downloadable content, or access to exclusive information.

Benefits of Email Surveys to Gather Customer Feedback

In the U.S alone, email surveys remain an effective tool for businesses to gather customer feedback. As per statistics on average, professionals spend 172 minutes a day checking work emails. It is during this dedicated time, email based surveys can capture attention. Here are the benefits of email feedback forms:

1. High response rates:

Surveys embedded within the emails give a chance for respondents to answer immediately. Emails have an open rate of around 21.3%, highlighting that over one-fifth of emails sent get viewed by recipients. However, a high response rate also depends upon a compelling headline and body. In the current aspect, dynamic emails powered by Google AMP enables people to answer emails without going into an external browser.
Customer satisfaction metrics such as rating scales, CSAT and NPS scales are easy to set up. People can share their response at critical touchpoints. 

Other curated email templates can be embedded and be sent out to a large number of people with just a few clicks. Every design can be customized to fit the needs of your business.

2. Cost-effective:

Email surveys are relatively inexpensive to conduct. Traditional methods of gathering customer feedback involve phone interviews (CATI method), pen and paper method or in-person interviews. Email based surveys are cost effective and customers can respond at their own convenience. With the right CX tools, marketers can quickly create customized survey templates that are pre-designed and pre-tested. They can distribute the questionnaires to target audiences based on their interests or demographics.

3. Efficient survey distribution:

Streamline your potential subscribers/ respondents and publish your customer feedback campaigns directly into the respondent’s inbox. With this you can get the desired survey responses you need, all from their mobile devices. Merren enables easy creation and launching email surveys with a one-click button. All features collectively increase email open rates, respondent clicks and you get live feedback that you can analyze on your dashboard.

4. Tracking survey responses:

Create a hook that can increase open rates. During survey design, keep in mind the templates, subject line, contact information, question type and scales of NPS, CSAT or CES. A well-rounded CX tool can showcase campaigns based on daily, weekly or monthly metrics. Marketers can analyze results based on applied filters (location, age and other demographics). With tools from Merren, all results are available on the dashboard including a real-time view and open rates. 

How to Automate Email Surveys with Merren?

Sign up with Merren for a 14 day free trial without any credit card details.
You can build AI-powered instant surveys with Merren AI survey builder. This will directly take you to options you can choose from. Create AI templates for any industry. 

Learn more about creating email surveys in detail with Merren here.

Benefits of Automating Email Surveys

1. Reduces manual errors:

• Traditional survey methods like batch processing or browser-based surveys often lead to mistakes due to manual handling.
• Automation minimizes these errors by efficiently managing a pre-prepared database of active respondents for smooth operations.

2. Ease of use and flexibility:

• Automated survey tools offer user-friendly interfaces to customize and distribute surveys effortlessly.
• Advanced features like AMP surveys, customizable embedded surveys, and in-signature surveys enhance engagement and interaction.

3. Integration with CRM tools:

• Automating email surveys allows seamless integration with CRM systems. Businesses can manage and analyze customer feedback more effectively.
• CRM integration ensures that all customer data is tracked across multiple platforms, helping CX professionals to monitor interactions on a unified dashboard.

4. Informed decision-making:

Automated surveys can capture customer behavior patterns, pain points and trends more efficiently for strategic planning. Steer clear of manual intervention with Merren CX.

Build Actionable Email Surveys: Design Tips

While maintaining basic courtesy of launching survey questions, keeping surveys conversational, short and respondent friendly is the right way to go. Here are some steps you can take to create a response generating template.

Keep it conversational for respondents:

Conversational surveys elicit more response rate over intimidating or robotic tones. While creating effective surveys, writing clear and concise questions can help you get relevant information faster. Inculcate open-ended questions so that people can share their candid responses. Additionally, reimagine your target audience and make sure the questions are easy to understand.

Use device-friendly survey templates:

Many people access customer feedback forms on their smartphones or tablets. Hence eliminate long blocks of text that can be difficult to read on a small screen. Optimize email surveys using pre-designed templates that can save the hassle of editing and corrections. The main purpose of the survey should be to reach the survey respondents and bring valuable customer feedback.

Create in-moment and personalized forms:

A friendly greeting within the email body will not intimidate your target audience. Effective survey emails offer personalization and show gratitude to the buyers. Take it a step ahead and offer survey incentives (coupons, gift cards etc).

In-moment surveys are published at specific touchpoints where customers are involved in an interaction or transaction with a brand. In-the-moment email surveys have a high open and response rate since the experience is fresh in their minds.

Conclusion

Actionable email surveys can solicit a high response rate. A good survey design considers the hook, email body and other visual elements to grab the attention. However, always make sure that the elements are visible across devices to have a successful email feedback campaign. The biggest upside of email surveys is that people across all age groups and professions can answer emails across any device. However, integrating a dynamic format of email surveys can help respondents answer questionnaires within the email body. Read more about AMP email surveys here.