You don't know what you're missing: Try this 1 surefire way to get Customer Feedback

Did you know that the best marketing begins with research?

Everyone’s favorite frozen find, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, has a team of food scientists who research the current trends, buzz, and tastes you love. Research helps suit-up your taste buds with a delicious pint-size treat in the comfort of your own home!

Whether you’re interested in ice cream or some other entrepreneurial streak, you can build your very own dream team to aid in market research with a fast and easy questionnaire.

One simple questionnaire can provide valuable feedback that makes the difference you’re looking for. Let’s find out how to create a questionnaire below.

First, we need to find out two things:

1.      What to ask

2.      Who answers your questions

Find three friends whom you trust. These people could be mentors you admire, family members with free time, or the neighbor who lent you some sugar last week. They can be any level of expert, as long as they are willing to help provide feedback. A team of three people is small enough to be manageable yet large enough to be diverse. Different dream team members might be a:

·         Teacher

·         Parent

·         Friend

·         Spouse

·         Online Acquaintance

Asking for honest feedback will cover first-impressions and responses. Your 3-member team will prepare you for the equally-honest feedback of people you have not yet met.

Once you have identified your team, you are ready to ask them for their input.

You might be surprised by how many people are willing to help you. Help them help you by streamlining your questionnaire. A good goal is keeping this activity within 5-questions and 5-minutes. Wouldn’t you be happy to help someone in the same amount of time as it takes to watch a funny Facebook video?

Now, create a 5-minute, 5-point questionnaire to help identify your strengths and weaknesses. Tailor your questions to fit your experiment. If you are developing a website, use questions to find out about the impressions of your website. If you are launching a campaign, you can use questions to ask about preferred brands. Possible questions include:

·         “What are your overall impressions of this website?”

·         “How likely are you to share this product with a friend?”

·         “What would make this better?”

* Substitute your area for the italicized word, or try some new questions!

Five questions are plenty for this initial research questionnaire. This will help us evaluate our strengths and weaknesses. When we know what we need to improve, we can develop a plan to get to our goals!

Ensure your team knows that you are looking to identify your strongest and weakest points of your online presence. To do this, let some of the questions be free-response. Free-response questions leave room for new perspectives. After all, we don’t know what we don’t know!

Finally, let your team know that leaving all positive feedback will not help you improve. It is important to be constructive and honest in this questionnaire. This is the perfect opportunity to listen.

Constructive criticism through a 5-item, 5-minute questionnaire is one step you can make toward achieving your goals, today!