You’re Preparing Client and User Surveys Wrong: How to Do It Right

Collecting feedback from users and learning from their insights over time to understand how your actions affect their perspective of your company or product can be challenging. Evaluating how users and clients feel about your product or services over time requires a structured approach; without it, the aim for continuous improvement is just an illusion.

This blog post is designed for product managers, designers, customer success teams, and anyone looking for a reliable method to gather and track feedback from users or clients. I’ll share how I organize and prepare surveys to gain valuable user insights, create product tests, validate product initiatives, and understand how changes impact client and user responses.

Here are some key strategies to help you gather and utilize user feedback effectively.

## 1. Choosing the Right Questions

When designing surveys, keep them short and focused. The shorter the survey, the more likely people are to complete it.

Prioritize questions that will provide answers to key metrics. Avoid asking questions that don’t help you understand user priorities. Instead of asking, “Do you want X?” (because they probably do), ask, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is this feature?” Anything above 8 means it’s a high priority. You can also ask users to choose between options, like “Which feature is more important: A, B, or C?”

Here are some example questions:

- “On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is [specific feature] to you?” - “What is the main reason for your rating?”

- “Which of these features is most important to you: A, B, C, or D?”

- “How satisfied are you with [specific feature or service]? (1 being very dissatisfied, 10 being very satisfied)”

- “What do you like most about our product?”

- “What is one thing you found frustrating about using our product?”

- “From the following list, which three improvements should we prioritize?” - “What do you think we are doing well?”

- “How does our product compare to similar products you have used? (1 being much worse, 10 being much better)”

- “Do you prefer [Feature A] or [Feature B]? Why?”

## 2. Evaluating Survey?Formats

Decide whether your survey should follow a traditional format or a collaborative one.

If group decisions are likely to influence individual responses, opt for a collaborative survey. In collaborative surveys, participants can see and react to each other’s answers, simulating real-life group decision-making. Tools like Nova make it easy to set up collaborative surveys by enabling cursor sharing and allowing participants to interact with each other’s responses.

## 3. Making Surveys Recurring

To validate ideas or monitor improvements, make your surveys recurring. As you launch new features or improve existing ones, recurring surveys help track how these changes affect user perceptions. This approach allows you to see which changes were effective and whether user satisfaction has improved.?

For example, you will be able to see your notes from the last time you sent a survey so you know which changes were implemented and what the results were. Additionally, you can navigate and access previous surveys and your notes without wasting time searching through folders.

## 4. Keeping Notes and Conclusions Organized

Store all your notes and conclusions from each survey in one place. This makes it easy to reference past feedback and prepare new surveys.?

With Nova, you can keep notes and conclusions within the survey itself. Just remember to set these notes for leader-only viewing so clients don’t see them.?

You can also send thank-you messages directly from the survey platform. In future surveys, you can automatically see previous observations, making it easier to compare results over time.

## What Not to Do When Creating?Surveys

1. Avoid Gathering Feedback Without Continuous Evaluation: Make sure you continuously evaluate how changes affect user responses. Keep track of how their answers change over time and document all changes made and your observations. ? 2. Avoid Using Traditional Surveys When Group Influence is a Factor: Use collaborative surveys if you are trying to evaluate how group decisions influence individual responses. ? 3. Avoid Disorganized Notes: Keep all your notes in one place and make them accessible to your team. Continuous improvement requires easy access to past feedback and observations. Whether you use Nova or another tool, keep your notes organized by date. ? 4. Avoid Single Surveys for Diverse User Segments: Create separate surveys for different segments or groups. This helps you better understand different user personas and focus on their specific needs.

Following these strategies can help you gather valuable user feedback and continuously improve your product or service. By choosing the right questions, selecting the appropriate survey format, making surveys recurring, and keeping your notes organized, you can effectively learn from user insights.

If this method works for you, try using Nova. It supports traditional and collaborative surveys, saves all notes and conclusions in one place, and allows for recurring surveys within the same session series, keeping everything organized.

By implementing these best practices, you can ensure your team continuously learns from user feedback and makes informed decisions to enhance user satisfaction.

Watch this short video to learn more: https://youtu.be/SMaaJwCRPpk?si=en0N_hXauIUN_RTQ