By: Joshua Bolkan
Customer surveys can be a valuable tool in edtech marketing and public relations efforts. You can check out a previous PRP post for insight into the hows and whys of surveys. The next question is to answers is what to do with all that delicious data. From publishing survey results to demonstrate a need for your products—and drive eyeballs to your website—to asking customers how you could improve your offerings to guide development, the use cases for surveys are limited only by your imagination.
Here are three ways to wring the maximum value out of customer surveys.
- Improving Your Product
No one knows your product inside and out the way you and your team do, but the people who know best how users are actually putting your product to use are, well, the users. No amount of research and thoughtful planning can produce a product that meets every user’s needs, and that’s okay! Nobody gets it exactly right on the first attempt.
There are multiple questions you can ask to elicit feedback that informs future development, such as:
• If you could improve one thing about our product, what would it be?
• If you could add one feature to our product, how would it work?
• What feature do you find most useful?”
Careful reading of the responses from your customers can guide future product development, putting your company on the path of continuous improvement and demonstrating to your customers that you’re responsive to the feedback you receive.
- Finding Out How Educators Are Actually Using Your Product
Botox was originally marketed for cosmetic use. It relaxes muscles in the user’s face to smooth wrinkles. As patients began using it for that purpose, those with migraines found that it alleviated their headaches and reported it to their doctors. Today, it’s approved by the FDA for treatment of chronic migraines in addition to wiping out creases for folks who would like a less distinguished visage.
Originally marketed to remove makeup, Kleenex sales doubled when the company began marketing it for blowing noses, a use they learned about from customers.
Most of the time, surveys are not going to uncover an unintended use that will double your sales. Even if it’s a small benefit that delights a subset of your users, though, it’s worth asking about and acting on.
- Gathering Testimonials or Story Ideas
Customer surveys are a great way to identify customers who may become your biggest evangelists. Invite happy customers or those who’ve found a lot of success with your solutions to share their stories with other users and prospects. Those customers putting your products to novel use may make for an intriguing story as well.
Make sure you ask for contact information and include a question on your survey asking if they’d be interested in sharing their experiences with others. Maybe their story is right for a case study or blog post to feature on your site, or maybe it could catch the eye of an edtech publication editor.
Gathering testimonials is even easier. Just include a short-answer question or two asking users to describe what they like about your product or tell you about some success they’ve had with it. Their comments can then become content for your website or even the foundation of a marketing campaign.
In the end, customer surveys are a gift that keeps on giving. At the very least, you’ll learn more about your customers—and you may even learn more about your own product.
Thanks for sharing!
