Hindsight may be 20/20 but savvy businesspeople are finding that the way to be nimble in the marketplace is to build a continuous feedback loop into several places within the tactical business plan, deploying surveys throughout the year so that feedback drives the action before the budget is spent or production begun.

Zoomerang offers just some of the ways that surveys can inform your tactical business plan and improve the efficiency, effectiveness and profitability of your business. And to make it easier, we’ve developed templates on each of the survey types below, using proven market research techniques. These templates will give you an edge, and the right data, as you look for feedback on new ideas for your business.

Get feedback right after the interaction

One of the most popular uses of surveys is as a yardstick of customer satisfaction. Annual, semiannual or quarterly surveys serve as a barometer of your business’ health and allow you to monitor your performance over time. In additional to an annual customer satisfaction survey, many businesses send out satisfaction surveys after each customer transaction, using the survey as a way to judge the effectiveness of individual employees, and the product itself. This type of customer satisfaction survey is called an ‘operational’ customer satisfaction survey, and gives you instant feedback on how your business or organization is doing.

Test the Concept

Expanding your audience to include prospects allows you to check the receptivity of the market to a product enhancement or a new offering. Sending a survey to two segments – a portion of your customers and a portion of your prospects – provides visibility into whether prospects require different messaging or education than was required to win your current set of customers. Zoomerang users have included graphics of new products and questions related to expected volume of purchase into their surveys, which can drive product development and even production quantities.

Check Your Vendors

Surveys can help evaluate which vendors are best equipped to deliver the raw materials required to fulfill your product plan. You can send out a survey asking about their shortest lead-time, the quantity of materials available through them, and their standard shipping terms, etc. By downloading their answers into a spreadsheet, you can sort your vendors by those most capable of meeting your new requirements for faster shipping or expanded capacity.

Plan and Evaluate Your Event

Remember that a survey is an easy way to collect multiple data points from a large group of people. Zoomerang users in the marketing and event planning departments have deployed surveys to ask sales representatives about their arrival times to a trade show, their requested shifts, their meal preferences, etc. and have used that information to plan their event. Afterward, they deployed a separate survey to ask the sales representatives for their opinion on the value of the tradeshow, the number of sales attributed to it, and whether they plan to attend next year.

Gauge Employee Satisfaction

Online surveys are an ideal mechanism for soliciting employee feedback, since they provide the anonymity that is so essential to candid feedback. Many companies use Zoomerang to conduct management evaluations and Zoomerang can even deploy the survey for you, to ensure privacy. Additionally, Zoomerang users send surveys to ask for feedback on training requests, benefit offerings, professional development, and events to be held at a company picnic. You can use surveys to screen prospective employees as well, polling them on the number of miles they’re willing to commute, whether they will travel, and other data that you need to collect.

Share Best Practices

Guidance is golden and Zoomerang users within associations or even loose groups of vendors are finding surveys an effective way to gather wisdom that they can’t find elsewhere. A quick survey on a how to handle a difficult business question generates responses that can be directly put into practice.

Get It On Your Calendar

Give yourself enough lead time to really learn what the survey reveals: too frequently surveys are done at the last minute, which makes it impossible to act on the insight. In addition to a quarterly customer satisfaction survey, consider getting surveys into this rotation:

Deploy Your Surveys in Several Ways

There are several ways to deploy your surveys and each method has its own advantages. If you host your survey on your Website, you send a signal to prospects, customers and vendors that you are constantly listening to them and receptive to feedback. A one-time email broadcast to your entire customer or prospect base is a thorough way to communicate. And if Zoomerang deploys the survey for you, we can provide a higher level of confidentiality to the respondents than a survey you deploy yourself.

In Conclusion

Building a real-time feedback loop into a number of sections of your annual business plan can provide you with a way to be nimble – and knowledgeable – in your operations. Examine your calendar and your plan and ask yourself: would it help to test this concept or gather more information? If so, step up to Zoomerang zPro and gather insight.