E-commerce has one glaring problem. Because you can’t interact with your customers face to face, you often don’t know what the greatest barriers are that prevent purchases. The savvy e-commerce marketer will do everything in his power to make up for this by interacting with their customer base in other ways. In my experience, the difference between a customer centered company and a self centered company is how they deal with and encourage customer feedback. Below, I’ll share some benefits of surveying your customers.

1. Measure Customer Satisfaction: I encourage my customers to move beyond simple “how would you rate your experience” questions. Delve into specifics. Ask them about checkout. Ask them about the shopping cart. What about customer service? The returns process? If you questions are vague, then your results will be less than impressive.
2. Determine Future Improvments: One of my favorite things to do in a survey is to ask customers about potential ways of improving the website. When your tech team is wavoring between two or more improvement projects, a survey is a great way to find out which would benefit customers more.
3. Capture Customer Demographics: Have you ever wondered what the average age or your customer is? What about the percentage of male/female? Customer surveys are a great way to learn more about your client base.

Anytime you ask something of your customers, it’s a good idea to provide an incentive. If you site uses coupon codes, you might want to offer a $5 discount for those who fill out the survey.

If the idea of creating a system to create and track survey responses sounds intimidating, there are companies such as Constant Contact and KeySurvey that offer services that simplify creating and analyzing customer surveys.

Be sure to let me know your experience in this area.

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