Customer feedback is crucial for the growth and success of any business. However, choosing the right type of survey between conversational surveys and traditional surveys largely depend on the complexity of data you are looking to collect. Both the survey formats have a time and place for use.

In this blog, we will discuss the difference between conversational and traditional surveys. Additionally, we will share the features of each and how they could benefit you during customer feedback collection

What are conversational surveys?

Conversational surveys are a new and innovative way of gathering customer feedback.

These surveys provide a more engaging and interactive experience for customers, mimicking natural human interaction. Conversational surveys can be delivered through various channels such as messenger based apps, social media platforms and chatbot websites. Conversational surveys have the ability to collect more detailed and accurate feedback by allowing customers to express their opinions freely. This personalized approach increases the chances of customer engagement and results in higher response rates compared to traditional surveys.

What are the types of conversational surveys?

Here are some of the medium that are interactive with their usage:

• Messenger based app: Messenger apps such as Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger have billions of users. These are highly conversational in nature and witness millions of casual interactions on a daily basis. Merren uses messenger based platforms to deploy conversational surveys for respondents.
• Social media channels: Channels such as Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook are some mediums that are highly interactive in nature. Organisations can interact with customers of each of these platforms and seek instant feedback.
• Website chatbots: Chatbots are new age tools that collect instant customer feedback. They are interactive and real time in nature. Chatbots are curated and deployed virtually anywhere to collect prompt customer responses.
• Dynamic email surveys: AMP type email surveys are interactive in nature. Respondents will get these on their email address which can be filled out instantly without being redirected to an external browser.

Conversational Surveys: advantages for a new age consumer

Conversational surveys are very engaging and interactive, leading to higher response rates from customers.  Businesses can also receive real-time feedback through conversational surveys, enabling them to respond quickly to customer needs.

Advantages of using conversational surveys

Conversational surveys offer a wide range of benefits to businesses looking to gather customer feedback. 

• Higher response rates: Conversational route of feedback collection have higher response rates than traditional surveys. The interactive route of seeking feedback is more engaging and feels like a conversation rather than a one-way communication.
• More accurate data: Conversational surveys allow for open-ended questions, which can encourage people to provide detailed feedback. This can lead to more accurate data, insights and higher completion rates.
• Improved user experience: This can improve the user experience by allowing respondents to provide feedback in a more natural and conversational way. This can help reduce survey fatigue and increase engagement.
• Real-time feedback:  With real-time feedback, organizations can quickly identify and address issues or concerns. Organisations can also address instant concerns and close feedback loop.
• Customizable and adaptable: This survey format can be customized to meet the specific needs of an organization, and can be adapted in real-time based on the responses received.
• Cost-effective: Conversational surveys can be very cost-effective. They can be automated, reducing the need for manual interruption.
• Insights into customer sentiment: Conversational surveys can provide insights into customer sentiment with real time feedback. This empowers organizations to clearly understand their customers and improve their products and services at every touchpoint.
• Increased brand loyalty: Conversational surveys can help organizations build a deeper connection with their customers. Respondents will be willing to share their insights and thus leading to increased brand loyalty and customer satisfaction.

What are traditional surveys?

When most people hear the term “survey,” they likely think of traditional surveys conducted through email, phone, or mail. People might also associate the word to long questionnaires.

Typically, these surveys come with a set of pre-written questions sent to a large group of people. While traditional surveys have provided valuable insights into customer opinions and preferences over the years, they may not always capture the full context of customer feedback. Traditional surveys are very topic oriented, and are typically closed-ended. This means that respondents are asked to choose from a limited set of response options.

What are the types of traditional surveys?

There are several types of traditional surveys, each with its own unique characteristics and methods of administration. Here are some of the most common types:

• Face-to-face surveys: These surveys have a trained interviewer visiting respondents in person to gather answers for specific questions. Face-to-face interviews are often used in market research, social science research and often while collecting information for census data.  This involves detailed and personalized questioning. They are generally more expensive than other survey methods due to the cost of hiring and training interviewers. This method is also immensely time consuming.
• Telephone surveys: Telephone surveys involve calling respondents over the phone and asking them a series of questions. This method is less expensive than face-to-face probing, but may be limited since none of the callers can get any visual aid or comprehend the body language. Telephonic surveys would also include computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) type of probing. In this method, the interviewer will call up respondents to seek feedback. They will read a pre-made questionnaire on the computer during the call.
• Mail surveys: Mail surveys are sent by mail to a sample of individuals. They are asked to complete the survey and return it by mail. Mail surveys are often used in academic research or for gathering feedback from customers or clients. They may have lower response rates than other survey methods, as respondents are less likely to complete and return the survey. This method is equally time consuming.
• Intercept surveys: Intercept surveys involve approaching people in public places, such as malls or events, and asking them to complete a survey. Intercept surveys are often used in market research, and may provide a more diverse sample than other survey methods. However, respondents may be more reluctant to participate in an intercept survey, as they are often viewed as an interruption.
• Browser based online survey: this is a web-based platform which administers survey questions via a link. These are redirected into an external browser where customers have to offer survey responses. 

Traditional Surveys: advantages and drawbacks

Traditional surveys have their advantages and drawbacks. They are an established method to collect customer feedback, often consisting of pre-written questions sent to a large group of people through channels such as email, phone, or mail. Standardized questions and responses make data analysis easier, but they can be time-consuming and become expensive in nature. 

Advantages of using traditional surveys

Traditional surveys offer numerous benefits in collecting valuable customer feedback..

Having a structured approach: The primary advantage is a structured approach, which makes it easier to standardize questions and responses. Responses can then be easily quantified and analyzed, providing valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences.

A valuable approach for unreachable markets: There are demographics that may not resort to using the internet. These populations prefer to live cut off from civilization to a large degree. Traditional surveys can help researchers collect sensitive and crucial information from these demographics. They also provide respondents with anonymity, encouraging honest and candid feedback.

Capture important human oriented metrics: This involves gathering important data metrics such as emotions, body language and personal details. This can only happen in a face to face setting or during intercept surveys.

Traditional surveys remain a time-tested method for gathering valuable insights from the target audience in very specific circumstances.

Drawbacks of using traditional surveys

While traditional surveys have long been a staple in the world of market research, they are not without their drawbacks.

Lengthy and time consuming: One of the most significant disadvantages is that traditional surveys can be lengthy and tiresome, leading to low response rates and incomplete data. Customers may find themselves losing interest or becoming bored with the length of the survey. This can mostly happen during longitudinal study that spans over months or decades. 

Respondents can get intimidated by a mechanical approach: Since the questions are very predefined and lengthy in nature, respondents may not be encouraged to respond.

Low response rates: Most time consuming survey methods do not bring a reasonable response rate. While sending email surveys, consumers may not be motivated to reply with their feedback. The intimidating format of questions is also to blame. Low response rates can hamper your business. 

Does not reach too many people: Opting for traditional surveys can get expensive. Hence organisations may leave out a lot of target respondents off the record. This can create a biased result and incomplete data. Traditional surveys suffer from providing added nuance or context to the feedback surveys. Hence it may not be too wise to opt for this method in the recent era.

Why should you choose conversational template over traditional route of customer feedback?

Your customers are busy. You need to capture their feedback from mediums they use the most. Here is why you choose conversational format of survey over traditional surveys:

1. Get high response rates for serious marketing insights: Conversations drive people to interact. Replicating this for customer feedback will reap results. Conversational methods of feedback tend to have higher response rates than traditional surveys because they are more engaging and interactive.

2. Mobile and platform friendly across demographics: Conversational surveys can be accessed via mobile or tablet devices and are compatible with various platforms. This makes them easily accessible to a wide range of demographics. Marketers can launch device compatible surveys instantly

3. Enable real-time insights to help close feedback loop: With conversational survey data, you get real-time insights into customer sentiment and satisfaction. Close feedback loop and respond quickly to any concerns raised by customers and improve customer experience in real-time. Asking the right questions can save time.

4. Cost effective across various touchpoints: Customers and potential buyers are interacting with brands on various social media platforms. Deploying interactive and conversational surveys across touchpoints over time will become cost effective. Meanwhile, brands can allocate other resources wisely. Traditional methods are often expensive over time.

5. Automate your way to success: Devoid of manual handling, there is no room for error with automated conversational feedback forms. With multiple integration tools available, reach out to every customer and seek feedback actively. All of this without manual interference. Traditional methods of seeking feedback cannot be completely automated.

6. Closing feedback loop will ensure brand loyalty: Everything is a domino effect when it comes to being interactive across touchpoints. Your customers seek human interaction. This can only be done via a conversational route.

7. Choose precise yet interactive template while curating surveys: Merren is a survey tool that facilitates zeroing on the right sample size, using an apt layout that is superior over generic online forms. Mediums of Whatsapp, Meta messenger, AMP emails can empower both brands and a broad audience.

Conclusion

Choosing the type of survey can define how you create a relationship with your audience and what you want to do with every collected data. Data collection now needs to keep up with the times. Using current methods of feedback collection can bring you more than just insights.  However, when deploying a survey, keep in mind that people access virtual surveys on their desktop or a mobile device. Keeping them platform compatible will determine the success rate too. Marketers need to make an immediate switch from the traditional browser based route to a new way of collecting survey results. This is a great way to let your customers know that organisations are serious about making the communication chain seamless. 

To know more about how Merren can supercharge your business, try out our 14 day free trial here.