Unlimited Surveys? You Probably Don’t Need Them
The word “unlimited” sounds like a good thing — after all, why settle for less when you can have as much as you want? That logic can make unlimited surveys appealing to leaders at community financial institutions (CFIs) as they develop feedback programs. At first glance, more surveys means more feedback and more data to guide decisions.
However, an effective customer listening program isn’t built around collecting as much feedback as possible; it’s built around collecting the right feedback from the right people at the right time.
Here’s what a CFI looking into building a program should do.
START WITH YOUR CUSTOMER POPULATION
Before deciding how many surveys they need, CFIs need to ask two questions:
- How many account holders do you have?
- How often do you want to reach out to them?
Any program you build has to fit your actual population, as well as your communication channels and goals. It also needs to fit your institution’s ability to listen to clients over time without exhausting its available sample or repeatedly contacting the same people.
PROTECT YOUR SAMPLE
A CFI has a finite number of clients available to survey. Reaching out to the same people too frequently can create fatigue and aggravation, while surveying too much of the population at once may leave too few customers available for future outreach.
BUILD A PROGRAM THAT FITS
A listening program should also reflect how an institution’s account holders prefer to communicate. Some account holders may be easier to reach by mail or telephone instead of text messages or app notifications. Yes, those methods sound less modern, but using the channels that fit your population isn’t outdated. It’s just good program design.
YOU MAY NOT NEED “UNLIMITED”
Capacity alone doesn’t create meaningful customer insight. A listening program should reflect your CFI’s size, goals, population, and long-term strategy.
That’s where experience helps: Avannis helps CFIs design listening programs that gather meaningful feedback without oversampling account holders or gathering more data than the institution can use. Yes, you can get unlimited surveys if you want them — but CFIs typically don’t need an unlimited number of surveys.
If you’d like to learn more, we’d be happy to show you how it works.