3 Simple Online Survey Questions You Nees to Ask
I’m all for keeping it simple. To that end, I’ve realized that there are only three branding questions that matter:
- Who are you (your business) being?
- What are you committed to?
- What can I (your customer) count on you for?
This is not psycho mumbo jumbo
You probably read these questions and thought — “What psycho-babble!” But if you take a moment and stop to think about it, you’ll see that every successful business and brand has some very clear answers to these questions. Not only that, but they stay in constant touch with their customer base to make sure that they stay on point with their messaging and their product offerings — so as not to stray from their brand message.
Survey questions that dig deeper
Granted, you’re not going to ask your customers “Who are we being” that is just plain silly. The solution is to ask them more concrete questions that they can easily answer — and that you can match up with these three key questions.
“Who are you being” question example
Which of the following words best describe (company or brand)
- Generous
- Lighthearted
- Professional
- Detail-oriented
- Creative
- Technically savvy
“What are you committed to” question example
Which of the following best describes your experience with our customer service representative?
- Friendly and interested in me
- Committed to my getting my question answered
- Fast and efficient problem resolution
- Keeping me on hold too long
- Putting me off to someone else who can help
Now — notice that in this example, I’ve listed BOTH positive and negative choices. I did this because there is a distinction between what we SAY we are committed to and what actually happens (which is what we are REALLY committed to). So we might say that we are committed to friendly services and that we are interested in the customer’s problem — but what really happens when they call into our customer service line is that they get pushed off from one rep to another, or they get put on hold and forgotten. It takes some guts to put choices like this on an online survey — but you will learn SO MUCH MORE about how your customer really experiences your product or service. This will also give you insightful decision-making fodder for the future of your business and your brand.
“What can you count on me for” question example
This is the true positioning type of question. Think Domino’s — You can count on them to deliver a pizza in 30 minutes — and you can also count on it NOT being the most gourmet pizza (until recently, but that’s debatable). With Fed-Ex, you can count on them getting it there overnight (unless you choose another option). But you get the point.
In this case you have options. You can do a multiple choice question type where you list a variety of options and have your respondents choose the one that’s most descriptive for them. Another option is to start with an open ended question type and simply ask them —
Based on your most recent experience with (company/brand) what can you count on us for?
The fun (and potentially risky) thing with this questioning strategy is that you’re going to get ALL KINDS of answers – some funny, some serious, but you will get the responses straight from the customers’ mouth and in their own words. You can then tabulate those responses and make them the actual multiple choices that you can use in another question where you can then measure more concretely how your customers perceive your brand and position.
I’ve given you a couple of examples of questions you can use to get to the heart of your brand — now it’s your turn. I’m calling on all you market research pros to give us some ideas of what questions YOU feel would best get to the root of these three branding questions. Have at it!
