As we covered in Part 1, setting goals for your online survey is tricky business. Survey goals usually ride the coattails of your other company-wide goals. But, truly, the main point of conducting any survey is to take the temperature of your customers.
In Part 1, we covered Customer Satisfaction Surveys and what the goals may look like, where in Part 2, we're going to tackle Event Exit and Market Research Survey goals.
Event Exit Survey Goals
Relevance
You're on your 10th year of holding your annual shareholders' meeting and gala. Generally, the event follows the same pattern each year. The feedback has been steady, but you can sense that the event has become incredibly stale.
Perhaps in the first 5 years, the event schedule was on point. However, peoples' interests wane and they no longer see the point of attending because they'll receive the annual report in their inboxes anyway. Why would they want to attend next year?
The relevance of an event changes over time, especially with events that are held regularly. By setting the goal of determining the relevance of your event, you'll understand what needs to be changed in order to retain their interest.
Price
Though this goal is a bit dry, it's important to gauge whether your ticket (or table!) price is where it should be. Perhaps over the past couple of years, your prices have steadily increased, reflecting the increase of your costs to put on the event. Generally, people are entirely sympathetic to market fluctuations, but if your prices increase too dramatically, then you'll lose attendees.
People never want to see ridiculously wide profit margins for an event. However, if the increase of price is reasonable, and you're just covering your expenses, then it's usually accepted.
Setting this goal for your event exit survey ensures that you have a finger on the pulse of your attendees. If your prices rapidly increased over a year, say, and you're not even breaking even, then you have to consider a change of venue, décor, food and beverage prices.
Market Research Survey Goals
Average Customer
Let's say you're sales trends are on the upswing for a particular product. Sure, your promotions are solid but are unsure as to what demographic is driving your success. Though Market Research questions are usually tied to another type of survey, they still illuminate who your average customer is. Marketers salivate over this kind of data because not only does it show whom the best and most consistent customers are, but also what they "look like."
Gaining an understanding of who your customers are may be a goal in it of itself, but usually, its tied to a product or service. Typically, Market Research questions include age, location, sex, income, and interests. Having this information will help you better target your ideal market, tailor promotions to your customers' needs and develop products.
Further, by tracking this data, you'll gather a picture of who your next great demographic is.
Buying Habits
This category of goal setting has many moving parts. For one, buying habits could mean what's your customers' motivation for purchasing. Or, it could easily mean the point of sale, whether it's online, over the phone or in person.
For example, if you're selling jewelry tailored at female customers, and yet your survey data shows that the majority of customers are male, and then it stands to reason that (possibly) the motivation for buying your products is for a gift.
Tailor your promotions towards gift buying rather than an indulgent purchase. Perhaps consider throwing in free gift-wrapping for every purchase.
Also, setting the goal of getting a clear picture of the buying habits of your customers allows you to focus on where the majority of your customers purchase from. Say there's a significant spike in online purchases, and then construct your next promotion so it can only be used online.
