Three Survey Questions for Quick Feedback

If you want to improve your website and increase web sales, but can’t afford web analytics tools to measure customer response to your site, try a short website survey. In his blog, Occam_ Razor, Avinash Kaushik recommends including at least three questions in your survey.

Why are you here today? Ask the purpose of your customer’s visit to your Website, or what task they are looking to accomplish. This will provide you with information on why people are visiting your website and what they hope to achieve by doing so. That way, you can better tailor your website to meet the variety of needs your customers cite.

Were you unable to complete your task today? If customers are unable to complete their task, you’ll know immediately if your site is not working up to its full potential. This question will eliminate some of the guesswork involved in analyzing data to determine whether your visitors had their needs met or questions answered.

If you were unable to complete your task, why not? Ask your customers how you can improve your website to enable them to meet their needs. This question allows the customer to directly tell you how you can improve your site to help them accomplish their mission. Listen to your customers’ reasons for being stymied and their suggestions on how to adjust your site to make the visit quick and pleasurable.

Think of more questions you can add to get the information you want. You might also want to ask customers about their overall experience, if they had difficulty completing their task, or what they would like to see changed on the website. This will provide input on whether your site needs a few minor tweaks or a major overhaul. For those of you with more time or resources, longer surveys and/or web analysis may be optimal, but don’t discount the power of a few simple questions. It is certainly better than doing nothing at all.

For more information on Avinash Kaushik’s article and reader feedback, visit www.kaushik.netlavinash/2007 /O4/the-three-greatest-survey -questions-ever.html.