When is the right time to send out customer survey emails?

From a questionnaire I chanced upon the other day:

What is your attitude towards DIY?

A range of answers were offered from I enjoy DIY to I loathe it and pay someone to do every job no matter how small (or something like that). I wanted to add another answer option

• Ask me when I’ve finished my project

Ok, my answer is tongue in cheek but it highlights an important consideration when fielding a customer survey – when is the best time to ask the customer to complete a feedback survey?

Soon after the event is better. It doesn’t have to be the moment the support ticket is closed but give the customer a chance to recall the event as well as give yourself a chance to perform service recovery on any “customers at risk” that raise alarm bells in your results.

If you haven’t used an online survey for customer feedback in the last year avoid contacting customers that you last had contact with 12 months ago (even 6 months is a long time). Findings from 300 responses in the last quarter will be fresher, more reliable and more actionable than any findings from 1,000 responses in the last 12 months.

Dan Wardle

Might also be of interest: Tips for better customer surveys #3: Contact recent customers and (on blog.vovici.com) Follow-up/Transaction Survey