Developing & Analyzing Consumer H&W Surveys – Part II
By Shari Steinbach, MS RDN, RDBA Contributing Editor
Getting feedback from your customers is important if you want to understand how your current wellness programming is being utilized and to help determine future needs. In our last article, we discussed the different types of surveys to choose from but conducting a successful survey is more complex than simply asking shoppers how they feel about your initiatives. You need strong survey questions to effectively obtain meaningful customer insights. In addition, you must properly sift through the data to obtain key behaviors, needs and trends that can enhance your future strategy and actions.
Ask the right questions. Start this process by first having a clear understanding of what information you are trying to uncover. Once you know the answer to that question, you can start writing the survey questions. Survey questions can take on many forms from multiple choice to check box. Decide which to use then keep your questions clear and concise. Don’t use retail jargon and do not build in assumptions about what your customers may know or think. Keep question phrasing neutral, and leave different options to account for the differences among your respondents. For example, do not assume everyone uses or even knows about your wellness programs. To encourage respondents to answer all questions, supply several answer options to gain the best feedback from your survey base. Even responding with “I’m not sure” is better than no response. The ideal question should mean the same thing to all respondents and should measure only the intended underlying concept.
Analyze the data. When analyzing your survey results look at the variables to help you contextualize the data. What are the circumstances that form the setting for the data you received? Understand this so the information can be fully assessed. For example, say you asked the question “What do you think of our new nutrition shelf tags?” Immediately, you notice a large percentage of answers that are negative responses. Then, you drill down and find that 90% of the negative responders are age 65+. A deeper dive yet shows you that 98% of negative respondents are age 65+ and have an income over $200K. After ensuring this data is statistically significant, you can determine that wealthy older customers don’t like your new shelf tags. You can then start to look for patterns in your data by asking yourself some questions:
- What themes are prevalent? (i.e.: Are there more positive or negative responses to some programs or services?)
- Are there key differences in responses from older customers compared to younger? From men to women? From wealthy to poor? In different communities?
- What are respondents saying about your new wellness program or service?
- Are there any surprising responses? Can you drill down to figure out any patterns?
- What received the most positive feedback? What received the most negative feedback?
Once you go through the questions you can start to identify high-level themes. Compare your results to external data sources to help confirm patterns or see where you may need to do more research on a specific topic or location to gather more facts.
In the last article in this series we will discuss the most effective way to report H&W survey data to leadership.
