Do you want to know what your clients think about your product or service? Chances are, you do. However, simply asking for feedback can be a tricky proposition. Some people might not feel comfortable sharing their thoughts on the matter – and some of those who do share their opinion might not say something constructive. That’s why it’s important to find a way to solicit feedback that will generate meaningful responses from satisfied customers and those who have suggestions for how things could be improved. One such method is the thumbs up/down survey!
In this article, we’ll discuss what these surveys entail so you can decide whether or not they’re right for your company – and if they are, we’ll outline best practices for conducting them.
Thumbs Up/Down Surveys — What Are They?
The simplicity of thumbs surveys sets them apart from other surveys. Thumbs is a traditional gesture that is quite intuitive. The response is positive if it’s a “thumbs up.” The response is negative if it’s a “thumbs down.” It’s that simple!
Polls are an excellent way to get feedback on your business, but most just give you a simple binary answer. Do people think that what you’re doing is great or not so great? Thumbs up/down surveys go beyond that and give you more insight into how clients feel about your services. You’ll see the number of people who rated you positively compared with those who didn’t and some comments from both sides (positive and negative).
One of the best ways to use thumbs up/down surveys: passive satisfaction tracking. Passive satisfaction tracking means showing the survey after every service performed for some time (5-10 minutes) until it’s no longer necessary. If you receive positive feedback 90% of the time, you know that your business is working well for clients, and you can work off of that success.
Using thumbs up/down surveys makes it easy to see how clients feel about a service provided to them.
Benefits Of Using Thumbs Up/Down Survey
Instead of just asking if your customers are happy, a thumbs up/down survey can give you real-time feedback from customers, which you can use to tailor the way that you do business.
It’s often difficult for people to tell you exactly what they want from a service or product. If someone is dissatisfied, they might not know how to express what was wrong with the process or why it wasn’t a good fit. On the other hand, someone might be satisfied but still have ideas for how things could be done better. That’s why a thumbs up/down survey is the best way to gather feedback and make improvements to your company.
You’re good at what you do, but every now and then, something can slip by you. And some changes are so nuanced that nobody will ever notice them except the people directly affected. Thumbs up/down surveys can help you catch these little things and ensure your business is always moving in the right direction.
How to Conduct a Thumbs Up/Down Survey
You don’t need anything super fancy to run an effective survey; all you need is a way to communicate questions, collect responses, analyze the data and act upon it accordingly. If you’re not sure what kind of device or platform would be best for this type of feedback, ask yourself (or your employees) what they like most about working with your company. That’s probably something you should start with! Also, consider how anonymous your clients would like to remain and whether they would be more likely to answer honestly on a phone call or through email.
- One question at a time: Getting straight to the point is always best when it comes to surveys, so make sure you don’t get too wordy with your questions! You want them simple and easy for customers to understand. Keep each response brief as well – if people feel like they need to write a novel before hitting “submit,” there’s a good chance that many of them will give up in frustration.
- Ending with an open-ended question: This survey should provide actionable items for your business, not just raw data that sits around doing nothing. At the end of every survey, ask one last question so that clients can give further feedback or suggestions. Make sure that the last question is open-ended, so people feel like they’re able to share anything on their minds.
- Timing: How long should your survey be up for? It depends on what you want! If you want immediate feedback, run it shortly after something happens (like right after someone leaves your salon). If you want more in-depth information, it’s best to leave it up for a few days at least – but don’t keep them hanging too long! Every time you send out an automatic reminder about the survey, customers have an incentive not to answer because they know another email will be coming soon enough.
Thumbs Up/Down Surveys — Best Practices
Thumbs surveys are one of the most straightforward and efficient ways to get quick consumer feedback. With that in mind, Thumbs surveys aren’t always the best choice for every situation, and certain adjustments to Thumbs surveys may make them less effective. Keep these best practices in mind to help ensure that your Thumbs surveys go off without a hitch!
Include Encouragement
One of the best practices when designing or sending out thumbs up/down surveys to customers and users is to include encouragement. You should specifically ask your customers to provide feedback on both the good and bad things about your business, services, products, etc.
Avoid Complicated Questions
Thumbs is a helpful tool for condensing overly complicated feedback systems into a simple rating scale with just two options. Combining Thumbs with a clear, easy-to-understand question is the best way to gather clear, actionable input, so don’t make the survey question so complicated that the Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down options don’t give the subtlety to the question required.
Align the Question and Scale
To minimize end-user confusion, the survey question must be mapped to the Thumbs scale.
To make a Thumbs question more strategic, phrase it to fit with one of the following answer pairs:
- Yes / No
- Happy / Unhappy
- Like / Dislike
Conclusion
Thumbs up/down surveys are a great way for companies to get honest feedback on what other people think about their business. This type of survey should be short, sweet, and simple while also encouraging customers to point out your company’s good and bad aspects. If you have any questions or need help setting these up, feel free to contact us!
