Do you want to increase the response and completion rate of your customer surveys? Are you asking the right survey questions? Will you be able to use the survey results to improve customer service at the winery?
Surveys or questionnaires are a common way to get feedback about services. Most wineries interact with consumers through winery experiences such as tours or tastings. Other consumer channels include club memberships, wine purchases and winery events. An effective way to evaluate the services is to send out surveys, which is a low-cost method for gathering important data.
Some wineries develop and manage their own surveys. Many wineries have customer relations software systems with built-in survey features. For example, a reservation tool can be set up to ask a satisfaction question at the end of a winery visit. There are also standardized customer experience surveys to be used for comparison and generalizability purposes.
It does not matter whether you deploy an existing survey or develop your own, here are six best survey practices for wineries:
# 1 – Determine the purpose of the survey
One of the primary rules of survey development is to have a clear intention or goal for the survey and its results. This includes determining the specific winery services to be evaluated. It also includes measuring the particular aspect of that service. It’s helpful to plan how survey results will be used to improve services at the winery.
#2 – Avoid unnecessary questions
One of the most important best practices is to only ask questions that are absolutely necessary. It’s important that each question supports the overall purpose of the survey. Also determine the results you might receive from each question and think about how those results will be used to make decisions related to services at the winery.
#3 – Develop clear and unbiased questions
The questions need to be understandable because consumers will skip questions that are confusing. Make sure you ask one question at a time. The fewer words, the better. Look at each word and determine if it is necessary in the question. Most importantly avoid questions that might lead to a particular answer since those are biased.
#4 – Design short and simple surveys
A survey should focus on evaluating or assessing a particular service at a winery. Surveys with high response rates tend to be short and designed specifically for their audience. The questions need to be in a logical order and it’s important the questions flow easily. Include a variety of questions, both open-ended and closed-ended questions.
#5 – Understand the types of questions
Each type of question serves its own purpose, and therefore it is important to distinguish. A “yes/no” question provides confirmation of a service or event. A rating scale question measures levels of satisfaction. The results from multiple-choice questions prioritize a set of pre-determined responses. Open-ended questions provide detailed feedback and additional insight.
#6 – Make sure to pilot the survey
Get various people to test your survey on different devices, including mobile and tablet. Ask for feedback on the flow of the survey and the questions. Do the questions make sense and do they relate to the survey? Tracking the time for completing the survey is important to know. The time is often mentioned in the introduction to the consumer.
Surveys are a low cost and a relatively easy way to collect important feedback from the consumer about services related to the winery.
