Relationship Surveys vs. Transactional Surveys
Posted by Jeffrey Henning on Mon, Feb 22, 2010
A key decision to make when writing a questionnaire is whether you are gauging reaction to a recent purchase or service request or whether you are interested in assessing the overall customer relationship.
The distinction between relationship and transactional surveys is useful and important and will affect how you design the questionnaire.
Here are some key ways the two types of surveys differ from one another:
| | Relationship Surveys | Transactional Surveys |
| Topics covered | Many aspects of customer relationship | Recent transaction |
| Timing | Point in customer lifecycle; customer-wide research | Recent transaction (purchase; renewal or service request) |
| Frequency | Infrequent | Frequent |
| Appropriate length of questionnaire | Medium-Long | Short |
| Process/Project | Process or annual project | Process |
A common mistake is to add questions to the transactional survey that have nothing to do with the matter at hand, but provide information that some member of the team wants. This is bad for two reasons: first, you are asking a skewed sample (those who had a recent transaction), which will not be representative of the overall customer base; second, you are lengthening a survey that your customers do not want to spend a lot of time on.
Resist the urge to add extraneous questions to the transactional survey. Consider creating a one-time, special-purpose survey if you have immediate needs for information from customers. If the questions are about the overall attitude of the customer toward different aspects of your business, add those questions to the relationship survey.
And don't make the relationship survey too short. I once was invited to a survey about product satisfaction that asked only three questions; the product was important to me, and I was willing and expected to share more information about the relationship. I was disappointed not to be given the opportunity to do so.
Decide up front for a particular research effort whether a transactional or relationship survey will best provide you the answers you're looking for.