So what do customers really think of your roofing replacement business? A customer survey is one tool that helps you discover the answers. A well-designed questionnaire will help guide the informed decisions that lead your company to more referrals, a more effective marketing strategy, and healthier profits.
Check out these customer survey etiquette tips for creating roofing surveys that will benefit your business.
Don’t do a survey just for the sake of doing a survey.
Anyone can ask questions. It’s the ability to take answers and use them to make informed decisions that contribute to success. Establish goals for the survey that outline what you want to learn from your roofing customers and how you’ll use that information to better your roofing or construction business.
Do decide which survey method works best for you and your customers.
Paper
There’s nothing wrong with using paper surveys to get the goods on what customers think. Send out a separate mailing or include a survey with the final invoice or statement for each project. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope to simplify the return process for participants—the less they feel they have to do, the more likely they are to participate.
Online survey tools
Sites like SurveyMonkey make it simple to create and distribute digital surveys to your roofing customers. Depending on which website you use, you may be able to create a free account. Online survey tools also offer premium (paid) accounts, which often provide more features, including questionnaire templates.
Social media
This is a low-maintenance choice for informal or fun surveys, such as collecting customer votes for a holiday roof decorating contest. Learn how to post a poll on Twitter. Facebook now also offers the ability to create polls for business pages. Polls and question posts on social media make for some of the best customer surveys, boosting customer and lead interaction.
Don’t get long winded.
While there’s no ideal number of questions, keep in mind that if a roofing customer survey looks so long that you wouldn’t want to complete it, chances are good your customers won’t want to either.
Do ask specific questions.
A question like, “Were you satisfied with our service?” can get you the gist of what’s on customers’ minds, but more specific questions deliver far more valuable insights. Consider to-the-point questions such as:
- What was the top factor(s) in your decision to hire us?
- How would you describe us to a friend or neighbor?
- How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or neighbor?
- What was the one thing missing from our service?
Breaking up your open-ended inquiries with closed-ended questions, or yes/no questions, makes a customer survey easier for the participant to digest. They also help keep it quick and simple while still providing you, the roofing business owner, with insightful information.
Don’t ask more than one question per question.
It might sound a bit silly, but consider this: “Were you satisfied with our roofing products and services?” is actually two different questions. Perhaps the homeowner was thrilled with the roofing products but not the crew’s service. The customer might skip the question, or, worse, provide an answer that gives you a false impression. Hone in on the info you need by focusing on a single metric per question. For the example above, break it down into two separate questions: “Were you satisfied with our roofing products?” and “Were you satisfied with our service?”
Don’t ask an entirely new set of questions every year.
It’s okay to swap out roofing customer survey questions from time to time, but it’s also a good idea to retain at least a few basic questions from year to year. This allows you and your team to collect data over time and develop insight into changes—positive and negative—that will inform decision making. Also, keep in mind you likely won't be surveying the same customers next year.
Bonus Tip: Consider sending separate customer questionnaires based on the services your crew provided (e.g., roof replacement, roof repair, etc.). It's safe to file customer responses in the same database, but be sure to make note of which crew worked on which account in order to keep track of individual crew performance and take action on the right individuals when necessary.
Grow your bottom line with customer surveys and other roof replacement marketing guidance and tips that give you a competitive edge. Check out articles like Marketing for Roofers - Best Practices for Social Media and 3 Ways to Make Search Engines Love Your Roofing Biz. Then follow Equipter’s conversations for roofing professionals on Facebook and Twitter.