TELEPHONE 01206 625222Why use customer perception surveys?
Customer perception surveys can be used to gain a broad insight into how customers think and feel about your brand, product and/or services. Customer perception surveys are likely to include open ended questioning with verbatim answers recorded, as these are valuable to gather commentary from respondents. Customer perception relates to experience, but also to how customers view an organisation in the wider context of the overall market. For example, findings might reveal that customers are happy with certain products, but perceive the brand in a negative light due to ethical or cultural association.
"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."
Bill Gates
We are living in a digital and global age, where customer loyalty is worth its weight in gold. Brands have opportunities to influence their customers through social media and other channels of direct communication. This means that now, more than ever before, gaining new customers hinges on customer perception of a brand. This insight can inform your future decision making, and by collecting regular feedback and reviewing the opinions of your customers, you will be able to ascertain potential threats and opportunities within your market. This insight will allow you to clearly identify what your customers actually want and need and enable you to develop a strategy accordingly.
The benefits of customer perception surveys are endless, but here are a top few:
In addition, an often-overlooked consequence of carrying out customer surveys of any kind is that they demonstrate to customers that you value their input and opinions, and unlike satisfaction surveys, the perception survey is viewed in a more favourable light by respondents as it simply asks for views and opinions.
People form a first impression in just 50 milliseconds. In this time, a customer could decide that they don't like what a brand has to say and turn to a competitor instead. Overall appearances are incredibly important, as first impressions can have a lasting effect. Just 1 happy customer can equal as many as 9 referrals for a business, according to a study by American Express. We work closely with our clients to ensure your customer perception survey objectives are realised. This is because we immerse ourselves in your business, taking the time to understand how it operates, how it's structured, and what your goals are for the future.
Customer perceptions of a brand are often a composite image made up of various sensory impressions. For example, logos make up the visual aspect, along with advertising. If a customer can instantly recall a logo or an advert, their perception of that brand is affected. Similarly, music used in adverts can be relentlessly catchy, or elicit emotion from viewers.
Measuring these different elements in a survey to obtain data-driven results is essential. For example, when exploring the concepts that a consumer associates with your brand, questions such as 'When you think of [brand], what is the first word that comes to mind?' can help to identify the cognitive factors that influence customer perception. Emotional factors could be explored with questions such as 'When you think of [brand], how do you feel?'
Verbatim is key to customer perception surveys, as it helps to pinpoint exactly what it is that makes your brand distinctive. By allowing customers to say what they think in their own words, it is possible to track opinion specific to your brand and even obtain testimonials.
Our surveys are carefully designed with validity and reliability in mind. We question previously-held theories and assumptions that may be holding back change, and encourage you to take a step back and look at what you're presenting to your customer. For businesses and brands to truly harness and utilise customer perception effectively, it is essential to create a strategy.
By researching, analysing and implementing a strategy, you can gain invaluable insight into your customers. This includes their journey, their needs, expectations and frustrations, your competitors, your industry's marketplace, and the channels and trends that could help to improve the perception of your brand. Brand perception is essential in accruing brand equity, which is the value a brand brings to a business, and its impact on sales and profits. It's important to measure customer perception regularly in order to track it over time and pick up on what it is that affects public opinion of your brand.
Our customer perception surveys are designed with a thorough grounding in survey methodology. Our researchers bring their expertise to bear in creating surveys that maximise response rates and ask questions that you need answered.
As with all of our research projects we like to kick off by getting to know you and your business or organisation. Through the collaboration of our expertise and your business knowledge we can create a research framework that truly gets to the heart of objectives. Our initial time spent with you will set out the full scope of the project, set timescales and deliverables and give you a chance to really own the research process from start to finish.
Our meticulous process is designed to be transparent and to respect the research participants every step of the way. If we are conducting a telephone or face-to-face survey, we ask clients to send an email to customers explaining that they are conducting a survey, and to expect further correspondence.
We design a survey methodology that may include a questionnaire, and review the line of questioning to make sure they give our clients the information they require. If conducting telephone surveys, a researcher will make contact and conduct the interview or arrange a convenient time to call back. We always seek to obtain as much rich verbatim data as possible.
When it comes to analysis we conduct statistical calculations and cross-tabulations according to the needs of our clients. We may identify threads of important information and will make recommendations for further analysis where necessary. Our visual findings are easy to digest and disseminate across your organisation, yet if your have a specific presentation need, we are happy, as ever, to adapt our style.
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