To make decisions based on customer data, designing a survey is an integral part of gathering valuable insights. To ensure the best results, professionals must choose the right online survey tool that comes equipped with essential features. These features act as the building blocks for effective survey distribution, data collection, and analytics. From customizable survey templates to advanced reporting options, each feature plays a crucial role in streamlining the process and enhancing the accuracy of customer responses. By opting for these essential features, professionals can unlock the true potential of their surveys, enabling them to make informed decisions based on reliable data.
In this blog, we will look at the 10 essential features to consider when selecting a survey software tool:
Better Cx: Essential Features for A Survey Software
If marketers are looking for cost-effective questionnaire tools, there are essential features to consider. These features should empower the customer support team, enhance customer experience and offer relevant and robust functionality for customer relationship management. Here are some of the essential features to consider.
Pre-designed templates
An online survey platform will have the facility to provide two important things- pre designed templates and the templates that can either be customized or the ability to curate feedback templates from scratch. This allows marketers to curate questionnaires without any technical expertise. This is a great way to avoid cognitive heavy lifting while curating a survey design for the target audience. With available questionnaires, both closed-ended questions and open-ended questions, marketers can avoid manual errors, have better survey logic placements and create conversational questions that bring high survey responses.
Key customer satisfaction metrics
Customer satisfaction metrics are standardised and a common method of bringing in candid feedback. These metrics are CSAT scores or customer satisfaction score, NPS or net promoter score , CES or customer effort score. Survey software platforms can be equipped with tools that can enable capturing real-time data, candid responses from users and analysing every response on the dashboard. These key customer satisfaction metrics can also be shared via in-app surveys or via various distribution channels. This brings us to the next point of distribution channels.
Multi channel distribution (email, in-app, messenger)
To get a high response rate, it is crucial to take feedback from customers at a place where they are mostly active- on virtual platforms they frequently use. This includes Whatsapp surveys and Facebook messenger, website based chat bots, social media platforms (including Twitter) , in-application surveys and interactive AMP email platform. Customer feedback collection can only be fruitful if there is a high response rate. With a low response rate, you run the risk of curating reports that may not truly represent your customer base. Using a multi-channel approach, you can diversify your feedback collection and have maximum survey data at your disposal.
Real time data tracking and analytics
What is consumer data without real-time analysis? Capturing real time feedback data is the most important way to understand trends, constant patterns, detect unhappy customers and gain competitive advantage in the market. An online survey software tool should offer the facility of mapping data, real time and analyzing them as they come through into the dashboard. In-moment feedback and instant tracking is superior to batch processing feedback since real time mapping allows the support team to close any feedback loop.
Automation and Artificial Intelligence
A survey software tool is not complete without automatic deploying of feedback forms at various touchpoints. Automation can prevent manual errors and intervention. While applying automation, the surveys can be launched straight into the consumer’s device at certain touchpoints and within a specific duration. There can be add-on facilities such as a gentle nudge to encourage participants to complete a response form.
Artificial intelligence or generative AI tools are an efficient way to analyze data and FastTrack data collection process. Merren goes a step ahead and provides an AI Survey Builder that can instantly build fresh survey questions using introductory data from clients.
Functionalities for question types
While building your own questionnaire to collect customer feedback, a tool can have the facility for skip-logic, survey logic and branching segregation, offering multiple response collection, having the ability to provide rating tools and various customer satisfaction metrics. Find a tool that can offer survey logic facilities, closed-ended questions and open-ended response formats alongside.
User-friendly interface
A survey software with a user-friendly interface is helpful for marketers to navigate through the software and create questionnaires that they can use, analyze, assess and change from time to time. A robust software will have a dashboard with every data stored along with systematic workflows in place. This also includes facilities for clients to opt for various distribution channels for questionnaire deployment, analyze results, create reports, download data and customize feedback forms.
Multilingual surveys and translations
A survey software tool can have the ability to translate questionnaires into multiple languages efficiently. With google APIs, the translations are accurate which makes their feedback forms more relatable for the target audience. Multi-lingual surveys are one of the essential features when it comes to capturing feedback from customers from around the globe. When a survey software offers this facility, the response rates are higher, more accurate and respondents are more than willing to answer messenger based feedback forms.
Customer journey mapping tool
There are various ways to choose the right kind of a journey mapping tool for your organisation. An additional facility would be the journey mapping tool that can deploy feedback forms instantly or at a certain time period. A mapping tool should also have the ability to capture candid responses and capture data not only by plain text but also by multimedia formats.
Collect responses with multimedia format
Humans are expressive in nature. To obtain media rich feedback, it is essential for a survey software tool to offer a facility that can collect responses via audio, video, photos and pdf documents. Bringing media rich responses makes data collecting methods more vivid and realistic. Using multimedia for response collection, there are greater chances to understand the emotions, behaviours and preferences and pain points of the customers.
Equip marketers with a robust tool
The main goal of launching a survey is to obtain a high response rate, keep the questionnaires compatible with the device, keep a conversational format of asking questions and analysing data swiftly. Marketing professionals must zero in on facilities that can upgrade their CRM abilities within the organisation. It is equally important to equip the customer support team with robust tools that can upgrade their customer service arsenal.
Merren is equipped to handle large amounts of data while collecting customer feedback at a super fast speed. Discover Merren as an alternative to Survey Monkey, Mailchimp, Qualtrics and Google Forms.
To conduct effective market research, sign up for a 14 day free trial with Merren. Enjoy our free version without any credit card and upgrade for a super fast customer feedback collection experience.
