Batch processing data can increase customer churn rate- the logic behind this is simple. People want resolution and they want it now. Most organisations opt for real time conversations over social media channels. They even run chatbots to buy time and respond round the clock. Putting efforts in survey automation can prevent a lot of virtual mishaps.  

In this blog, we will discuss survey automation for customer feedback, how it works, types of survey it can automate and its benefits. 

What is Survey Automation?

Survey automation is an activity to capture customer feedback at scheduled touchpoints without any manual intervention. A robust software can help you schedule automated surveys. This will free up the time and resources for other priorities. Automated CX surveys can be used for a variety of purposes-market research, employee feedback, customer feedback at various touchpoints. It can be administered in a variety of formats, including in-app surveys, website chatbots, messenger apps, AMP emails, social media.

How does Survey Automation Work?

Survey automation involves the use of software to automate various aspects of the feedback process. Depending on the tool you use, the specifics may vary. Generally, the process of survey automation involves several key steps:

1. Designing the questionnaire: The survey software  allows you to use a drag-and-drop interface to create survey questions. You can select response types, create multilingual questionnaires and customize the feedback form. Recent advancement in generative AI has made this even simpler by using natural language to create an optimized questionnaire in a few clicks.
2. Distributing the survey: Once your survey is designed, you can distribute it to your target audience via fast and in-the-moment channels. This includes AMP emails, social media, WhatsApp messenger and Facebook messenger, website chatbots. Using CRM to trigger the survey can automate the process of when and how to distribute the them
3. Collecting responses: As respondents complete the feedback form, their answers are automatically recorded and compiled into a database. The Merren CX dashboard can showcase real-time data analytics.
4. Analyzing survey results: With automated survey tools, you can quickly and easily analyze survey responses to identify trends and insights. Survey platforms today have the power to automatically chart the structured data and analyze unstructured data. Again with AI, the ability to do analytics on the unstructured data has exploded

What Are the Benefits of Using Automated Surveys Over Traditional Surveys?

Traditional surveys have long been the go-to method. However, as technology has advanced, so has the ability to automate the survey process. Here are some of the benefits of using automated surveys over traditional surveys:

Minimal human errors with automation:

You can ensure the feedback collection happens in an ongoing manner instead of adhoc . This means that you can collect data more consistently and accurately, without the risk of human error. Additionally, survey automation can standardize questions and response options for consistent data collection across all respondents.Customer responses are recorded and compiled automatically, and there is less risk of errors in data entry or analysis.

Publishing feedback forms on time:

Automated surveys allow for timely deployment with the ability to schedule and send surveys at specific times. You can ensure that your target audience is receiving the survey at the most optimal time. This increases the likelihood of higher response rates and more reliable data.

Faster results, quicker insights:

Automated surveys can be distributed quickly and easily to a large audience. This results in faster response times and quicker insights. With real-time data analytics, you can view and analyze survey responses as they come in. You can make decisions faster and close the feedback loop on unhappy customers.  

Allocate resources for other priorities:

Automated survey creation and administrative tasks can free up time and resources for other priorities. This means that you can gather feedback and insights efficiently and with less effort. This system of working is devoid of human intervention, reducing the costs and making it economically feasible.

Greater scalability and more data:

Automated surveys can be administered to large groups of people, without the need for additional staff or resources. This makes it easier to gather feedback from a large and diverse audience, without worrying about the logistics of survey administration.

Better targeting:

Automated surveys allow for more precise targeting of your audience, whether by demographic or interest. This means that you can gather goal-oriented data that are more relevant and useful to your organization.

What Kinds of Surveys Can You Automate?

While survey automation can be used for a wide range of use cases, there are certain types of surveys that are particularly well-suited to automation. Here are some examples:

1. Customer experience surveys

Automated surveys are ideal for gathering feedback on customer experiences. These can be sent out immediately after an interaction (in-moment surveys). With real time responses, you can quickly identify areas for improvement and make necessary changes to improve the overall CX.

2. Customer satisfaction metrics

Automated surveys can be a great way to gather feedback on customer satisfaction using metrics. These metrics include customer satisfaction score (CSAT), net promoter score (NPS surveys), customer effort score (CES surveys). Capture promoters and detractors or identify brand advocates immediately.

3. Employee feedback

Companies can gauge job satisfaction, employee’s opinions on company policies, or their experiences with the organization. Automated employee feedback surveys can be administered on a regular basis. The leadership departments can track changes in employee sentiment over time.

4. Market research

Market research surveys can gauge interest in a new product or understand consumer behavior. You can bring genuine responses from your target audience especially when they are geographically spread out. Automated market research surveys can collect data from a diverse audience.

5. Event feedback

Automated surveys can also be used to gather feedback from attendees at events or conferences. By automating the survey process, you can quickly and easily gather feedback on the event, and track changes in attendee sentiment over time.

6. Course evaluations

Automated surveys can be used in educational settings to gather feedback on courses or programs. You can quickly and easily gather feedback from students, identify areas for improvement, and track changes in course requirements over time.

What Questions Can You Include in an Automated Survey?

A good tool will enable greater flexibility when it comes to curating questions and CX surveys. Here are some of the most common types of questions you can include in a feedback form:

Multiple choice questions:

Multiple choice questions are a popular question type for automated surveys, as they are easy to answer and simple to analyze. With automated surveys, you can include a large number of multiple choice options, making it easy to gather insights on a wide range of topics.

Rating scale questions:

Rating scale questions are another common question type for surveys. Survey respondents are asked to rate a particular aspect of a product, service, or experience on a scale of 1 to 10, or similar. This type of question allows for quick and easy feedback, and is particularly useful for gathering feedback on customer satisfaction.

Open-ended questions:

While open-ended questions can be more difficult to analyze, they can also provide valuable insights into the thoughts and feelings of respondents.You  can include open-ended questions that allow respondents to provide more detailed feedback and explain their answers in their own words.

Likert scale questions:

Likert scale questions are a popular question type for surveys, related to opinions or attitudes. With Likert scale questions, respondents are asked to rate their level of agreement or disagreement with a particular statement. The scale uses a metric between strongly agree to strongly disagree.

Demographic questions:

Demographic questions include questions of age, gender, income level, or location. This type of question allows you to gather insights on the characteristics of your audience. The answers can help you tailor your products or services to better meet their needs.

How Can Automated Surveys Benefit a Particular Audience or Business Goal?

One of the key benefits of using automated surveys is the ability to customize them to fit the needs of a particular audience or purpose. Here are some ways you can customize your automated survey:

Timing

Automated surveys can be triggered at a pre-determined time. It can be any time of day when your customers are most likely to reply. This includes post purchase, onboarding phase, after a contact with customer service team etc. This helps you maximize the quality and quantity of responses.

Personalization

Personalization is another way to customize automated surveys. By using a respondent’s name, you can create a more engaging and personalized experience. You can also use data you’ve collected about the respondent, such as their location or past purchases, to tailor the questionnaire to their interests and needs.

Language

You can customize a survey to offer questions in a multilingual format. This is particularly useful for companies that operate in multiple countries or regions, or for surveys that target specific language-speaking populations.

Frequency

Depending on your needs, you may choose to send out surveys daily, weekly, monthly, or on an as-needed basis. Avoid over-surveying people to avoid feedback fatigue. Curate special touchpoints and select your triggers wisely. 

Drawback of Automated Surveys: 3 Challenges 

While there are many benefits to using automated surveys, there are also some challenges to be aware of. Here are some of the most common challenges, along with strategies for addressing them:

Expect minimal response rates with automation

One challenge with automated surveys is getting people to respond. Since automated surveys can be sent out in large quantities, people may feel less obligated to complete them, or may even ignore them altogether. To address this, consider reducing the frequency at which the surveys are deployed. Keep the surveys short, communicating the value of the feedback. Offer incentives for completing the survey, such as a discount code or the chance to win a prize. You can also make the feedback forms more engaging by including interactive elements, such as images or videos.

Technical issues can discourage respondents

Automated surveys can also be subject to technical issues, such as slow load times or broken links. To address this, make sure that your survey is optimized for all mobile devices. You may also want to consider using a third-party survey platform, such as Merren, which can help to ensure that your survey runs smoothly.

High survey dropout rates

Survey fatigue is a common challenge associated with automated surveys. If you send out too many surveys, or long and repetitive surveys, respondents may become fatigued and stop responding. To address this, be strategic about when and how often you send out the feedback form. Use interactive channels that are inmoment and keep questions, short and focused. You can also use skip logic to tailor the survey to each respondent, which can help to keep them engaged and interested.

5 Best Practices for Designing and Publishing Automated Surveys

To get the most out of your automated surveys, follow some best practices for designing and administering them. Here are some tips to help you create effective surveys:

Define your objectives

What insights do you hope to gain from the survey? What specific questions do you need to ask to achieve those objectives? By defining your objectives upfront, you can ensure that your survey is focused and targeted.

Keep it short and focused

One of the biggest advantages of interactive surveys is that it can be completed quickly and easily. To take advantage of this, keep your survey short and focused. Only ask the questions that are necessary, and avoid including long or redundant questions.

Use skip logic

Skip logic is a powerful tool that allows you to tailor the survey to each respondent. Ask different questions based on the respondent’s previous answers. This can help you make the feedback more engaging. This can also help to keep respondents interested and prevent survey fatigue.

Test your survey

Before you send out your survey, test it thoroughly. Make sure that there are no technical issues or broken links. You may also want to conduct a pilot test with a small group of respondents to see if the survey is working as intended.

Analyze your results

Look for patterns and trends in the data, and compare the responses of different groups to identify any significant differences. You can also use data visualization tools, such as charts and graphs, to help you better understand the data. Merren CX dashboard can help marketers view data in real time.

What is the Future of Survey Automation?

As technology continues to evolve, it’s likely that survey automation will become even more sophisticated and powerful. Here are some ways that survey automation might continue to evolve in the coming years:

Smarter AI algorithms:

One of the biggest advantages of survey automation is the ability to use artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze survey responses. In the coming years, we can expect to see AI algorithms become even more powerful and sophisticated. Organizations can gain even deeper insights from their survey data.

Custom tools for every marketer:

As survey automation tools become more advanced, we can expect to see greater customization options. This could include the ability to create surveys that are tailored to specific industries or niches. Once can customize the look and feel of the questionnaire to match a company’s branding.

More sophisticated question types:

As AI algorithms become more advanced, we can also expect to see more sophisticated question types. For example, natural language processing (NLP) could be used to understand the meaning behind open-ended responses. You can get more nuanced analysis of qualitative data.

Greater integration with other systems:

As organizations continue to use more digital tools and platforms, we can expect to see survey automation tools become more integrated with other systems. This could include integration with customer relationship management (CRM) software, email marketing platforms, and other tools that organizations use to gather customer data.

Improved CX and more personalization:

Finally, we can expect to see survey automation tools become even more focused on providing a positive respondent experience. This could include more personalized surveys, engaging question types, and more mobile-friendly designs.

Here is how Merren CX will help

Merren is the modern survey and CX platform that helps companies collect feedback from the customers wherever they are, instantaneously. Merren incorporates automation at multiple levels:

AI powered Survey Builder

Merren’s AI-powered Survey Builder allows companies to create sophisticated questionnaires that are ready to be deployed in a few clicks. No need to create questionnaires from scratch or force-fitting a template. AI Survey Builder can create a customized survey based on your brand and category. Use our survey templates that need no coding experience. Create your own chat bot survey using Merren.

CRM integration to automatically trigger surveys

Merren’s CRM integration allows for automation of the survey process. This happens automatically by triggering surveys based on customer’s interaction with the company. This means that surveys can be sent out at the perfect time, without any manual effort. Clients can also integrate survey rewards along with the surveys to bring a high response rate from people. Incentivising a customer feedback form can motivate people to share genuine insights.

Automatic multi-language translations

Merren’s platform also offers automatic multi-language translations. This ensures that the language barriers do not prevent companies from gaining valuable customer insights. This feature saves time and effort by eliminating the need for manual translation efforts.

Omnichannel surveys: Facebook messenger and WhatsApp 

Merren uses multiple channels for deploying surveys such as WhatsApp surveys, Facebook messenger, AMP emails or chatbots to collect in-moment and in-context feedback. This allows organisations to collect feedback from customers via any device and from any location. Additionally, users can be rest assured since WhatsApp messenger is an encrypted platform with its own privacy policy.

Automatic, real-time data analytics

Merren’s survey automation platform provides automatic, real-time data analytics that allow companies to gain valuable insights from the feedback collected. With Merren, companies can track both quantitative and qualitative data in real-time, helping them to make informed business decisions faster than ever before.

KPI and customer journey based dashboarding

Merren’s dashboarding feature allows companies to track their KPIs and customer journey, providing a holistic view of their customers’ experience. This feature enables easy identification of trends and areas that need improvement across customer touchpoint. Companies can address issues before they become critical. The automated dashboarding provides actionable insights to ensure that businesses can make data-driven decisions quickly and efficiently.

Conclusion

Merren’s survey automation platform is a game-changer for businesses who want to gain a competitive edge in today’s market. By automating the survey process with AI-powered technology, CRM integration, multi-language translations, and real-time analytics

Curious about how automation can fast track your feedback collection process? Check out our 14 day free trial here. Supercharge your customer service capabilities today!