The complete guide on how to survey your members and customers

Want to ask your members or customers for feedback but don’t know where to start?

Surveys can provide invaluable, controlled and measurable feedback on your club / organisation. If you are yet to utilise them at your club, for whatever reason that may be, now is a great time to use the power of surveys to your advantage.

To find out how you can create a response-driven survey, keep reading. 

What is a survey? 

A survey is a tried and tested research method. Using a series of targeted questions, it gathers data, feedback, and information from a set group of people. 

You can tailor the questions in the survey to suit your goal. Hopefully, their responses will provide you with insight into your customers’ / members’ opinions. Also, you’ll be able to identify areas of improvement and services you could provide. 

Many often put off carrying out surveys because they worry about receiving negative feedback. This shouldn’t be the case. You can gain valuable knowledge from surveys and grow as a result.  

What is the purpose of a survey?

This completely depends on your goals. However, the main aim of a customer / member survey is to collect insights. As you receive more feedback about your club or organisation, you can better understand how members feel, and identify new opportunities for services you may not have considered before. 

You may be wondering, why should I conduct an official survey when I could ask a couple of people a few questions casually face to face?  

Simply put, the opinions of one or a couple of people can’t always give an accurate representation. The opinions of the club collectively are much more insightful and credible. They give you a glimpse into what your members are feeling and thinking. 

Define your survey goal

Your survey goal will be dependent on what you are hoping to get information on. 

If you’re a dance school, you may want to ask your customers about their ideas for an end-of-year show. Gymnastics clubs might want to ask for feedback about the times of sessions. The list goes on.

We recommend setting a clear goal then writing questions that will give you the answers you need to get there. 

It’s also worth considering the actions you wish to take from your goal. A survey might be designed to find out if there is an appetite for 1-2-1 sessions for specific skills, for instance.

Based on the results, you’ll be able to determine if you should offer 1-2-1 coaching sessions.

Clear goals help you create questions that provide you with more insight. Without a defined goal, you risk asking irrelevant questions.  

What types of surveys are there?

Surveys come in many forms, some of which you are most likely familiar with.

The main three survey types are: 

• Customer / member feedback 
• Net Promoter Score (NPS)
• Market research

Customer / member feedback survey 

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could get into the minds of our members? You might not be able to gain a complete understanding of your members through customer feedback surveys, but they can certainly help.

A customer / member feedback survey aims to find out what your customers think of your services. 

In most cases, the questions will be things like  “How did you discover our club?” or “Are you happy with the times and dates our sessions currently run?”

This type of survey is great for driving growth. It helps you learn a bit more about your audience. The data from these questions can help you with marketing campaign ideas, internal processes, and also member experience.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey

This type of survey is great for identifying if people are likely to recommend your club / organisation to a friend or gauge their opinion. 

The key to a good Net Promoter Score survey? Asking only one question. 

Your score is calculated by splitting your respondents into three main categories (promoters, neutrals, and detractors), and then subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. This gives you your Net Promoter Score. 

Common phrasing used within this type of survey includes “How likely are you to recommend our club to your family or friends?” or “On a scale of 1-10, how happy are you with the sessions we provide?”

The feedback you receive can help you determine whether your classes are going down well or if you should offer any referral incentives. 

Market research survey 

To be able to connect with potential new customers, you need to make sure you have a good understanding of who they are and what their expectations are. Market research involves asking questions to individuals in your local community. The idea behind carrying out market research surveys is to expand your knowledge and authority on a subject.

We recommend asking questions such as “What is your typical budget for gymnastics lessons?” or “Would you sign up either yourself or your child to one of our sessions? If not, please state why.” 

Creating your survey 

So after determining which type of survey you are going to conduct, it’s time to actually create one. To do so, you need to first identify the types of questions you are going to ask.

What types of survey questions should you ask?

As you know, surveys need planning for them to be most effective. And to be able to collect reliable results, the questions need to be thought about carefully. The types of questions you ask will depend on your end goal. 

Questions usually fall into four main categories: 

• Nominal questions – yes or no, multiple choice and checkbox questions
• Ordinal questions – drop-down or ranking questions 
• Interval / ratio questions – ranking scale, matrix, or textbox questions 

Tips on how to master your customer survey 

We have compiled a list of helpful tips that can help you make your customer survey a success.

• Don’t complicate your survey – asking too many questions can be off-putting to potential respondents. Only ask questions that are relevant to your end goal in order to get insightful answers
• Put together an intro – it’s important to introduce your survey to respondents so they are fully aware of what they are getting involved with. Put together a couple of sentences summarising the goal
• Stay cohesive in your style – we recommend using ranking scale questions wherever possible and always using the same scale
• Always give options – if you decide to opt for a multiple choice question, we recommend giving respondents the option to select others and add text themselves. You might be surprised by the ideas they have

Three of the best tools to carry out your customer survey 

SurveyMonkey 

As one of the key players within the customer survey world, SurveyMonkey is a popular choice for many. They have over 200 editable pre-made survey templates that you can use for a wide range of surveys. 

Click here to find out more about SurveyMonkey

Typeform 

Known for their aesthetically pleasing forms, Typeform has taken customer surveys to the next level. They also have a free plan that is great for clubs and organisations. 

Click here to find out more about Typeform

Google Forms 

As with most Google products, Google Forms are reliable and functional. Used by businesses of all kinds, this popular choice is easy to create and distribute. Real-time response analysis can also be a great way to quickly view results. 

Click here to find out more about Google Forms 

How can LoveAdmin help you utilise surveys? 

Distributing your customer surveys has never been easier thanks to our powerful communication tools. From Net Promoter Score surveys to market research, you can quickly and easily send your questions to a targeted set of individuals via our system. 

All you need to do is create an email, link to your survey and then select your recipients. Send to either all your contacts or create smaller, more targeted campaigns. At the click of a button, you can view open rates, deliverability, and much more. 

Discover more about our powerful membership management software.