Juntae DeLaneFounder, Functn · Go Beyond The Ticket

Avoid This Survey Mistake: Boost Response Rates by 20%

Name: Avoid This Survey Mistake: Boost Response Rates by 20%
Uploaded: 2024-02-02T20:02:12+00:00
Duration: 1 min 25 s
Channel: Juntae DeLane
Description: In this short instructional video, JUNTAE KAI DELANE explains how understanding why customers leave is crucial for continuous improvement, but gathering…

2 Feb 2024 · 1 min

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1:25

In this short instructional video, JUNTAE KAI DELANE explains how understanding why customers leave is crucial for continuous improvement, but gathering that feedback can be challenging. He recounts a client’s experience with an exit‑email survey that asked “Why did you cancel?” and received less than 1% response, with largely unusable data. By simply rephrasing the question to “What made you cancel?” the client saw response rates rise by about 20%. DELANE suggests the original wording sounded cold and defensive, whereas the revised phrasing feels less accusatory, encouraging more honest feedback. He concludes with a practical tip to tweak survey language to boost response rates and invites viewers to follow for more insights.

Chapters

Learning the reasons why your customers leave can be quite painful sometimes, but it's always incredibly valuable. Whether they stop their service or product subscription, cancel their accounts, or unsubscribe from your mailing list, knowing why someone chooses to leave provides a great way for you to continuously improve and move forward. However, it's not easy to collect feedback and get people to share their valuable insight. Now, a client wanted to know why customers canceled their subscription. So we decided to give a customer exit survey a try. And the client started sending emails to every customer who canceled their subscription. And in the subject line it was quick question in the body of that email, why did you cancel? And the result? Well, almost no one completed the survey, a little less than 1%. On top of that, most of the data collected was simply useless. And we came in and made a small change. Instead of saying, why did you cancel? We asked, what made you cancel? Ha. And that change increased the response rates by almost 20%. Now, one possible explanation is that why did you cancel simply sounds somewhat cold and distant, putting the reader at on the defense. But whereas what made you cancel, it really doesn't have that same accusatory tone. So if you're looking to get more information from your customer surveys, then try these small tweaks to boost your response rates. And if you want more information like this, continue to follow for more.