When writing a customer satisfaction survey, there are rules you should follow in order to get the responses and information you want.

Sending a follow up survey after a guest appointment at your spa or salon should be a no brainer for spa management. Most customers won’t complain, even if they’re not happy, so the only way to know whether they are happy is to ask them.

Spa software allows you to do this with little fuss and no complication. Not only will a customer satisfaction survey tell you if your clients are happy, they are also a great opportunity for customer retention and referral, as well as to solicit online reviews.

If a spa guest is unhappy, following up after the survey is a chance to make amends. If the guest is happy, you can ask for a referral or review, and offer an incentive for them to do these things.

In short, customer satisfaction surveys are a key element of business success.

But we all know that many people won’t be bothered with them, and view them as an inconvenience.

Here are a few rules to follow that will encourage more people to take your survey, and that will help you elicit the most useful information.

Offer an incentive. If you can afford to offer a gift or discount for taking your survey, consider doing so.

Keep it short. Your spa or salon customers are busy and they do not want to spend more than two minutes on your survey. A long survey will annoy people and turn them off. If you want responses, keep it short.

Be specific. Don’t make customers work for you. Be specific in your questions and stick to the point. Don’t ask hypothetical questions like “How could we improve our services?” or “What would have made your experience better?” They probably don’t know. Ask questions like what service they had, whether they enjoyed their service, and whether they were happy with their service provider.

Ask about one thing at a time. Questions like “Were you happy with your treatment and service provider” don’t work, because someone can be happy with their treatment and think the service provider talked too much. Or maybe they liked the service provider but thought the massage could have been more vigorous. Ask about everything separately.

Offer enough multiple choice selections to cover as much ground as possible – or a scale. If you’re asking something like “Are you satisfied with your spa experience?” Simple “yes” and “no” options are not enough. A better phrasing of this questions is “How satisfied are you with your experience,” with a scale from one to five, and a request to rate how satisfied they are “with one being not at all satisfied and 10 being more than satisfied.” This covers all possible ground. Or you can offer multiple choice options such as:

Ecstatic
Very satisfied
Satisfied
Somewhat satisfied
Not at all satisfied

If people don’t have the options they need, they can’t answer your questions, and if they can’t answer your questions they can’t complete your survey. When in doubt offer an “other” option with a comment box.

Stick to the point. If it’s a customer satisfaction survey, stick to that. It can be tempting to add an extra question in a bid to get more information and expand your scope, like “What other items would you like to see on our menu?” or “How many spas did you contact before making an appointment with us?” but those questions are for separate surveys. Like I said you want to keep it short or you risk losing your responses.

Ask for a comment. Always offer a comment box at the end of the survey. Your questions can’t cover everything, especially because we’re keeping it short, and there may be something the guest would like to discuss with you but didn’t feel like bringing up at the time.

If someone had a bad experience but didn’t want to complain,  this is your chance to nip that in the bud. Because there’s a very good chance they’ll think “Well, OK. I’ll tell you. Since you asked…”

I’ve personally done this: not complained at the time of an unpleasant customer service incident but later said something when asked in a survey. So, I know it works.

Follow up and make amends if need be. If someone tells you that they are not happy with something, this is your chance to win them back. The incident I just mentioned was with a hotel. They followed up with an apology, a $50 gift card, and a pair of socks for my daughter. I was happy with this, as I hadn’t expected anything. And I will go back to this hotel and spend far more than the value of the gift card and socks. Everyone wins.

Need more help with crafting your customer survey? Contact our customer service team. We’ll be happy to help. Book4Time is the world’s most innovative spa, salon, wellness, and activity management software. Learn more at Book4Time.com