Customer input brings incredible value to your customer service operations. It gives you insight into your customers’ thoughts and concerns so you can make actionable improvements to your CX strategy. And, those improvements bring about more loyal customers who drive better impacts to your bottom line. In fact, 84% of companies who work to improve their CX see an increase in revenue.

To optimize the customer journey and maximize the amount you spend on improving CX, it’s vital that you get authentic customer feedback. But too few responses to customer satisfaction surveys will get you nowhere. Without enough customer data, you base decisions on your company’s perceptions of what your customers want and less on what they actually need.

But how do you get feedback? Your customers are busy and likely worn out by the number of unread emails and texts on their phones. To help you gather more representative data, here are six ways to encourage customers to take your customer satisfaction surveys.

1. Require the minimal input

Customer-focused surveys must require the least input for the most return, whether that’s multiple-choice questions or the use of number scaling of one to 10 for “most likely” or “least likely.” Time is of the essence and studies show respondents are more likely to respond to such requests where they don’t necessarily have to type in an answer.

If you explain the value of your survey to your customers and keep it short and sweet, you’ll see better results.

2. Optimize your time to send

Timing is everything when it comes to customer satisfaction surveys. It’s important to send your surveys while interactions are still fresh in your customers’ minds, so they can recall the details. The feedback you get will more accurately reflect their experience. Experts recommend that you send any survey within 24 hours of a customer interaction. But the sooner, the better.

For email and SMS surveys, aim to send surveys within 15 minutes of your customer’s most recent service interaction. The quicker you can deliver the survey, the more likely you are to get a response.

3. Tailor your delivery to your customers’ channel preference 

Meet your customers where they are. Remove any barriers that might prevent customers from filling out your surveys. If a customer typically reaches out via live chat, send them a pop-up survey in the chat window after your agent closes their case. If another customer opts for email, send a follow-up email with a survey link. Tailoring your surveys to channels your customers actually use gets better results than defaulting to a follow-up phone call.

Even though CSAT surveys benefit your customers, asking for a response is still asking for a favor. Knock down any barriers you can to make it easier for your busy customers to respond.

4. Make your customers feel special

We always feel flattered when we are engaged in making a qualitative change and having a hand in something significant and visible. So, use a kind of gamification and make people feel and see that changes will be done and the information applied. Guarantee them that they’ll receive a confirmation on the usage of their insights.

5. Use simple language

Taking a survey with complicated language is nothing but frustrating for a survey respondent. Wondering what a question means often results in either random answers or the decision to click out of the electronic survey, which means you don’t get any answers at all.

Using simple language that is accessible to everyone is a surefire way to improve your survey response rate. It helps to reduce the prospects of frustration, confusion, and abandonment of your survey every time.

6. Adjust your frequency

Be intentional about when and how often you send surveys to customers. Don’t just press send after every single interaction. If a customer called three times last week about the same issue, he will likely get frustrated if you send him a survey after each interaction. To him, that would feel impersonal and out of touch, especially if he was still struggling with an unresolved issue.

Use intelligent customer data to inform when you send your customer satisfaction surveys. Set a rule so surveys go out after your agents close a case. And if you automate your surveys, include filters that take your customers’ history into consideration. This way, you make sure you meet your customers’ needs first.

Customers love telling their favorite brands what they think about them, good or bad. Crank up the useful information for your brand and company by creating better surveys. Ask better questions that get to the heart of what you want to know. Make your customers feel valued and acknowledged with each survey, and you’ll have a customer for life. Use these tips to improve the quality of your customer surveys and increase your survey response rates today.