Small business survey software

When you run a small business, every move counts—from writing a solid business plan to hiring the right employees and (of course) building the product your customers want.

Are you keeping existing customers happy? Are your employees feeling satisfied or overworked? Are your product features a fit for your target audience? Make sure everybody’s goals are aligned—and streamline internal and external processes—with small business survey software.

Verify you’re making the right decisions for your small business by getting valuable feedback from those who matter most—your customers and employees. Whether you want to use small business survey software to develop new strategies or improve the way you’re already doing things, we’ve got you covered.

Want more reasons? We did a study that showed 83% of small businesses who describe themselves as “successful” measure customer satisfaction, versus 65% who don’t. Here a few more ways surveys help small businesses and startups make smarter decisions:

Track customer loyalty. As a small business, you have a unique opportunity to connect with customers. Check in with them from time to time to see if they’re satisfied and what changes you could make to improve their experience. Get your Net Promoter® Score, then benchmark your customer loyalty data against organizations in your industry. When you know where you stand with your customers, you can set goals, make improvements, and gain the perspective you need to get ahead of your biggest competitors.

Get product feedback. Make your product the best it can be by sending a product feedback survey. What features are customers using the most? What updates will help you attract a broader set of customers? What do customers not like about your product? Customer feedback survey templates are a great place to start.

And if you’re launching a new product, find out if you have the right target customer, pricing, and product features with product concept testing surveys.

Measure employee engagement. The smaller the business, the more hats employees generally wear. And that’s often part of the excitement in working for a small company. Maintain your company culture and keep employees happy by getting their opinions with an employee engagement survey. That way, you can see if your employees and your company’s goals are aligned. And you can benchmark employee engagement scores against other companies in your industry. That way, you can make sure you’re fostering a workplace environment that’ll help you attract the top talent you need to help your business grow.

Learn pricing sensitivities. It’s critical that your product or service is priced low enough to attract customers but high enough to help you generate revenue. Find out what that sweet spot is for your small business by sending a pricing poll. You’ll see if your product is priced appropriately for the market or if it’s time to adjust your pricing.

Conduct market research. Your friends and family might think your business idea is the next best thing since sliced bread, but how will your product or service really play out in the real world? As a small business, every penny counts. See what consumers in your target market have to say to get a realistic view of your business potential. And with a market research survey, you’ll save time, money, and possibly even your business. We can even help you get opinions from potential customers with SurveyMonkey Audience.

Check out our guides on how to write effective survey questions, as well as create and conduct surveys. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Go online. If you want the best response rates, keep your survey digital. According to our results, 91% of people prefer to take a survey online. Snail mail? Only 3% said they would rather complete and send in their survey by mail. And for the fastest responses, send out your survey during the peak response times of Thursdays and Fridays, 7 a.m.–1 p.m.

Be clear and concise. If your survey isn’t clear, there’s a good chance that people will misunderstand your questions, which can lead to inaccurate answers. And inaccurate answers mean bad data. Our studies show that 40% of survey takers give an inaccurate answer because the question is confusing, far more than for reasons of trying to rush through a survey. Keep your questions short, simple, and to the point.

Run surveys more than once. On its own, it may be a little hard to know what survey results mean. For example, is it good or bad if 80% of your customers or employees are satisfied? By establishing an internal benchmark and measuring your progress over time, you’ll be able to give more context to your survey results. That way, you’ll know you’re doing something right when you see 90% of your customers are satisfied six months from now.