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Seven Must Do’s for IVR Surveys

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Oscar Alban
Principal, Global Market Consultant, Verint

1. Keep your surveys short: Nearly everyone has had a bad experience taking long, drawn out surveys, which is why your survey should never exceed more than five questions. Include more than five questions, and you will see a dramatic drop in completion rates. A too-long survey is the kiss of death.
2. Focus on three key areas: The biggest mistake I see in contact center-related surveys is that all the questions focus on the agent. “Did the agent treat you with respect?” “Was the agent knowledgeable?” Well, you might have loved the agent you with whom you worked – and have rated them high – but your luggage gets lost 20% of the time and you are not a happy customer. By over-focusing on the agent, the company didn’t provide an opportunity to voice a targeted complaint. Everyone runs around saying how high their survey scores are, but this can be a false-positive. There are three main areas that impact customer behavior – good or bad – and your survey should include questions around them: people, products/services, and processes.
3. Rotate your surveys: By rotating between several versions of a survey, you are able to capture more information. Rotating three surveys enables you to capture 15 questions worth of data – instead of only five. And remember, each survey should have questions around the three key areas discussed in #2, above.
4. Ask the critical question: One of your surveys should contain the most important question you can ask a customer: “Will you make your next purchase from our company?” This question cuts to the chase. If the response is “no” or “maybe,” a series of events should immediately take place. First, you should give the customer an opportunity to provide – in their own words – why they may or may not remain a customer. This should then trigger an alert to a save team who reaches out to the customer quickly to try and save the relationship. In today’s economy, every contact center should have a well-trained service recovery team in place.
5. Always link the recorded call with the survey: Often, a survey with poor ratings – and even a blistering verbatim comment – prompts more questions than answers. This is why it is critical to link the recorded transaction with the survey. This enables you to listen to what the customer
   said – to gain clarity into why they responded the way they did. This can also provide insight into what actions need to take place to solve a critical customer situation. Imagine that you are a customer and you just provided less-than-stellar feedback about a company or its products. Within 15 minutes of completing the survey your phone rings – and you receive a call from the company that provides either an answer to your problem or an update on actions being taken to rectify your issue. Now, instead of choosing a competitor, you may become a customer for life!
6. Involve the customer in your calibration process: Every contact center conducts calibration sessions, but is everyone who evaluates agents rating within the acceptable range? What about what the customer thinks? You need to be able to easily compare customer ratings with internal QA ratings. The big one right now is First Contact Resolution (FCR). Someone monitoring an agent might rate the agent as having achieved a high FCR status; however, the customer may not see it that way. It is important to understand the process from the customer’s point of view.
7. Take a risk: Be creative with your surveys. Why not include the ability for customers to leave verbatim comments in a different way? At the end of the survey, ask customers to tell you – in his/her own words – one thing they absolutely love about your company... and one thing they loathe. You may be surprised at the answers you get back!