Shweta Menon SurveySparrow Team

278

Product Marketer

What is a contact form?

A contact form is a medium through which website visitors can reach out to a company whilst providing their contact details such as name, email address, phone number, etc.

Website visitors can provide feedback and enquiries at ease, establishing the first point of contact with your business. Contact forms are one of the easiest methods for lead generation since you’re capturing potential customers while they’re browsing on your website. Moreover, contact forms help increase data quality since it reduces the risk of spam email addresses from reaching out to you.  
 

Having a contact form on your website sends a message to the general public that you’re always available - be it for feedback or queries about your business. It requires minimum effort from website visitors to get in touch with you and helps you understand your audience better based on the information they provide. 
 

You can segment your new contacts based on demographics such as location, industry, job role, etc. and set up sales strategies to cater to their needs better. In conclusion, contact forms open up opportunities to engage with your audience, find out their requirements, and transform them from leads to customers. 

When to use contact forms?

Contact forms are most commonly used on websites - specifically on the home page. You can also have them embedded on specific blog posts or event pages to gain more visitor engagement on those particular pages. 

Create a contact form using SurveySparrow

What’s the key to a successful contact form? An online survey tool that lets you carry out all tasks in one place, from contact creation to closing deals on the go. SurveySparrow provides such capabilities that can help you elevate your business 10-fold.

Here’s how you can create a contact form using SurveySparrow:

1. You can use our readily available contact form template or build your own from scratch.

2. Click + New Survey on your survey dashboard. 

3. For your contact form, you can choose between Classic Forms and Chat Surveys, depending on your requirement. In this case, we’re using Classic Forms.

4. Pick a name for your survey and click Next.

5. You can make use of the Contact Form question type (available only for Classic Forms) to collect all contact information in a single question.

You can customize existing fields and add new ones for any specific information you need to collect from respondents. Choose a field type, give a label to your field, and decide if it should be mandatory. 

Click Save & Add. 

And you’re good to go!

Best practices for contact forms

With the right online survey software, there are a ton of benefits you can unlock with your contact forms. Here are the 5 best practices to help you utilize your contact form to the fullest! 

Include only what’s necessary

Avoid adding irrelevant fields in your contact forms. The more contact fields you have, the more lengthy your survey gets, which leads to higher chances of website visitors bouncing off mid-way due to sheer annoyance. That’s a potential customer gone down the drain. Therefore, only include the fields you really need. 

Make it personal

Personalize your forms to add that human touch. Let respondents feel special by using their names in the questions (Pssst! You can do this using question piping). This will make your contact form more engaging and can bring you higher completion rates. 

Brand your forms

Whitelabel your forms to represent your brand in every way possible. Use CSS customization to style every aspect of your contact form to match your brand tone. Take it up a notch higher by using a custom domain that reflects your brand name when sharing your form via weblink. 

Embed it on your website

Embed your contact form on your website to ensure maximum reach to visitors. Customize your form widget to your liking and trigger it to pop up on a certain webpage or as they scroll through. And finally, copy-paste the auto-generated embed code on your website. Absolutely zero coding involved! 

Integrate with useful software

You’ve made your contact form available on your website, and a large number of potential leads are reaching out to you. What next? Integrate with your favorite CRM software such as Salesforce and HubSpot, or email marketing tools like MailChimp and AWeber to streamline your workflows and grab those sales opportunities. All with just a few clicks of a button!

Hi, patrons! It’s been a while. 

Let’s catch up on everything that happened this past month, shall we? We’ve got many more features & enhancements ready, just for you.
 

• You can now automate survey shares when an event happens in Salesforce. Choose an event, set your conditions, pick an email share, and voila! Get valuable insights at feedback ‘o’ clock.
   
• Customize your reports’ color scheme from the available palette. Have your pick from a variety of shades for question headers and infographics. Spruce up your reports in style!

A Superior NPS

• Survey your customers from your Android & iOS applications using NPS SDK. Be it a promoter, passive, or detractor, give your respondents the convenience of providing feedback from the comfort of their phones & tablets.
   
• Because sharing is caring and also super useful in this case, share your NPS reports dashboard via a public link to the relevant stakeholders anytime, anywhere. Collaborate with your teams and derive actionable insights now! 

Enhancements for your 360 assessments 

• Sick and tired of jumping from our platform to another to transfer employee data and vice versa? Worry not. Use the E360 Public APIs to automate actions such as creating or updating invites, and collect data about Subjects, Evaluators, and Approvers. 
   
• We always want you to have more power over customization - which is why you can now modify all labels across your reports. Customize & personalize employee evaluation reports the way you want. 
   
• Have a big performance evaluation coming up? No rush needed. Schedule invites later for your 360 assessments. Set the date and time, add participants, and we’ve got you covered!

3 must-read blogs of the month

GPT-3 Artificial Intelligence at its Finest

How to Create an Ideal Customer Profile

10 Must-Have Digital Marketing Tools of 2020

SparrowCast

Ever wondered how you could make customer surveys more meaningful? Find out how from Customer Sucess expert, Alex Mead as he shares the best tips & practices to enrich your customer survey workflows!

Upcoming Event 

Get ready for another special edition of Ask Me Anything, hosted by Vipin Thomas, Director of Revenue Operations, SurveySparrow. You can post your questions here at any time! 

That’s all folks! Let’s meet up next month with more exciting additions.

Until then, Cheers, and Stay Safe!
From all of us at SurveySparrow

Hello everyone! :) 

It’s time for another one of our special Ask Me Anything sessions. 

Our host is Vipin Thomas, Director of Revenue Operations at SurveySparrow, who will be answering your questions on anything and everything related to Customer Journey Mapping. 

He was the Head of Customer Success at Freshworks (formerly Freshdesk), online cloud-based customer service software. With over 16 years of experience in the field, Vipin led a large team that worked on the execution of long-term retention, growth, and advocacy strategy. 

He dedicated his efforts to proactively drive customer adoption and seek out opportunities to increase customer loyalty and revenue growth. 

Before Freshworks, Vipin worked with MangoApps Inc. for four years as their Senior Manager of Product & Customer Success. 

Unlike webinars, this is a simple Q&A session where you can post your questions below at your convenience, and answers will pour in on 23rd September @10 AM EST. 

This article covers the following: 

• What are 360° assessments?
• When to use 360° assessments?
• 360° assessment process
• 360° assessment questions
• Conduct 360° assessments using SurveySparrow
• Looking at 360° assessment reports in SurveySparrow
• Negatives of 360° feedback
• 360° assessments best practices

What are 360° assessments?

360° assessments are a performance review process that focuses on evaluating an employee’s performance in order to identify their key strengths and weaknesses and in turn, drive organizational-wide growth.

The 360 feedback system has been widely adopted by organizations since it’s a productive process that can help employees reach their maximum potential in the workplace. It also builds a stronger bond between employees and managers due to the transparency achieved and improves employee retention on a larger scale, thus driving company growth to greater heights. 
 

For example, Netflix conducts 360° performance reviews continuously throughout the year and has done away with the “annual review” to provide frequent opportunities for employees to improve their skills and work ethics. They even make the feedback public within the company to achieve 100% transparency and maintain a high-performing, competitive work environment. Netflix’s CEO, Reed Hastings, encourages every individual to be bluntly honest with one another in order to avoid office politics, promote openness in the workplace, and drive collaboration. 
 

Likewise, other organizations such as Google, Deloitte, Amazon, Uber, and others have set in play various 360 review initiatives to boost organizational performance. 
 

The 360° assessment typically consists of four roles: 

• Subject: This is the individual being evaluated. The subject does a self-evaluation assessment and also nominates their peers to review their performance. Post-assessment, once the report is ready, the subject together with the HR administrator discuss a clear-cut workflow for personal growth and development.
   
• Evaluator: These are the peers & co-workers that are nominated by the subject. Their main job is to evaluate the subject thoroughly and honestly and provide valuable feedback that can help boost their performance. 
   
• Approver: This is the manager. They also evaluate the subject as well as approve evaluator nominations, and the final report once all assessments have been completed. The approver and the admin work together towards devising a thorough development plan for the subject. 
   
• Admin: This is the HR administrator that conducts the reviews, formulates the questions, works on the subject’s development plan with the approver, and ensures that the procedure is known and followed correctly in the organization. They share the reports to the subject once the manager has approved them. They also help the subject with any clarifications they might have after delivering their growth plan.

When to use 360° assessments?

360° feedback reviews should be continuous in nature, ideally every quarter to ensure consistent growth of employee performance. Typically, the flow of performance management is 360 evaluations multiple times a year, followed by a final performance appraisal where employees are evaluated for their overall performance and are recognized and rewarded for their achievements. 

360° assessment process

360 feedback follows a cycle - it’s not just about sending the survey but also about what happens at the aftermath of receiving feedback. The 360 review process is as follows:

1. The admin uses a 360 feedback tool to share the assessment to all the relevant individuals within the organization(managers, reportees, and peers) and gather their feedback(can be anonymous, if needed).
    
2. They then use the software’s reporting module to analyze the inputs and create a 360 feedback report that highlights the subject’s strengths and weaknesses and includes a personalized growth plan. 
    
3. The report is shared with the subject and leads to a discussion between them and the HR admin for further clarifications on their growth plan. 
    
4. Subjects who have fared exceptionally well are given recognition for the same.

360° assessment questions

360 feedback forms can cater to review both - employees as well as managers. The questions included in these assessments measure an employee/manager’s performance and behavior across various competencies. This helps identify their key strengths and weaknesses, which makes it easier to create personal development plans. It’s also recommended to add competency-based open-ended questions to provide managers, reportees, and peers with the option to provide the necessary feedback. 

Here are some sample 360 feedback questions:

For Managers

Planning & Execution

• Manager sets realistic & achievable goals.
• Manager best utilizes their time to create a positive impact.
• Manager keeps employees focused on the organization’s mission & vision.
• Manager motivates employees to achieve short-term & long-term goals.
• Does the manager display excellent problem-solving skills?

Decision-making

• Manager makes the right decisions on time.
• Manager displays good judgement while making decisions.
• Manager seeks the viewpoint of others on crucial matters before taking action.

Leadership

• Manager handles conflicts in a suitable manner.
• Manager recognizes & rewards the achievements of the team.
• Manager encourages you to share your best thinking without any hesitation.
• Is the Manager fair and unbiased to all?
• Manager has excellent mentorship skills that help in an employee's personal growth.
• Manager responds constructively to the mistakes of others.

Integrity & Values 

• Manager is ethical, honest, and reliable.
• Does the Manager take responsibility for their actions?
• Manager sets a good example for everyone.

For Employees

Leadership

• Does the employee exhibit leadership qualities in their current role at the organization?
• Employee encourages teamwork and collaboration across various teams.
• Employee helps their team members to solve work-related issues.
• Optional: How can this employee improve their leadership skills?

Communication

• Employee converses clearly & concisely.
• Does the employee listen to others actively?
• Employee provides candid feedback that facilitates improvement.
• Optional: How can this employee improve their communication skills?

Creativity

• Employee thinks of creative ways to approach a task.
• Employee comes up with innovative solutions to tackle a problem.
• Optional: How can this employee improve their creativity skills?

Organizational Skills

• Employee manages their time effectively.
• Employee streamlines all tasks and eliminates redundancies.
• Employee accommodates their workload to improve efficiency.
• Optional: How can this employee improve their organizational skills?

Teamwork

• Employee works productively in a team.
• Employee treats each and every team member with respect.
• Employee respects and values differences among team members.
• Optional: How can this employee improve their teamwork skills?

Organizational Alignment

• Employee is well-oriented with the organization's mission & vision.
• Employee keeps people focused on the organization’s mission & vision.
• Does the employee establish a level of transparency while delegating or following up with tasks?
• Optional: How can this employee improve their organizational alignment?

Conduct 360° assessments using SurveySparrow

No 360 feedback system is complete without useful software to automate various aspects of performance evaluation. From creating the assessments to inviting participants, tracking assessment status, and reports generation, we have you covered. 

Here’s how you can successfully conduct 360° assessments in SurveySparrow:

1. On your survey dashboard, click + New Survey and select 360 Degree Surveys. 

2. The assessment comes pre-filled with questions and sections. You can edit them and add new questions and sections to suit your needs better. (Please note that questions can only be added once you have created Sections.) The supported question types are:

• Sections
• Opinion Scale
• Text

3. To personalize your assessment better, include params such as Subject Name, Email, Job Title, etc. in your Welcome page, Thank You page, and questions. Click the dollar sign($) next to the question to add any params. 

4. Now, it’s time to design your assessment! Pick a theme or create one of your own and use Custom CSS for advanced styling. Let your assessments represent your brand in every way. 

5. Click the envelope icon on the left navigation bar to access the email templates. Here you’ll find ready-made email templates for sending notifications to Subjects, Evaluators, and Approvers at every stage of the assessment. 

6. You can edit each template by modifying the Subject, Email Body, and Button Text. You can also add variables such as Contact Name, Email, Survey Name, etc. by clicking the dollar sign($) on the right side of the email template. 

Click Save. You can also send a test email to confirm all details before officially sending it out.

7. Next, click the paper icon to go to Reports. This section is where you can customize your 360° assessment reports from the cover page to different sections included. Modify the titles, add descriptions, select which competencies should be included for gap analysis, set threshold values for determining the subject’s strengths and weaknesses, and define the minimum gaps in scores to identify hidden strengths and blind spots.

Click the pencil icon next to each section that you wish to customize.

Click Save.

8. Go to Survey & Portal Settings (gear icon) to customize the Rating Scale labels, increase the scale points, assign roles, and configure settings for your assessment such as the cut off date, decide the conditions for report generation, and allow assessment participants to edit and resubmit their responses.

9. Now, it’s time to invite the participants. Head on over to Invite and either upload a CSV file (recommended), or you can manually add them one at a time. Click Invite Participants.

10. Configure your CSV using the available options such as allowing the subject to complete their self-evaluation, choose their evaluators, define the minimum number of evaluators needed for the assessment, and decide whether the evaluators need approval from the manager.

11. Click the ‘add participants one by one’ hyperlinked text to add them manually.

Enter participant details and define the relationship from the dropdown list (Peer, Reportee, Manager). Click + Add New to add more rows. Add the name and email address of your approver as well. Click Send Invites after filling out all the fields. 

12. Once you’ve sent out the assessment, you can view its status in the Results section. You can filter the assessment results by Self Assessed, Partially Evaluated, Evaluation Complete, Report Pending, and Report Ready and sort them by most recent, oldest, and subject name.

Click on each subject to get a detailed view of the feedback they have received.

Now you’re all set!

Looking at 360° assessment reports in SurveySparrow

Once all the scores and feedback have pooled in, what’s next? The reports, of course! SurveySparrow’s 360 evaluation platform is well-equipped with an in-built reporting module that creates auto-generated reports filled to the brim with valuable insights. 

Let’s take a look at how you can analyze 360° assessment reports in SurveySparrow: 

1. In Results, click on Actions next to any subject to either download(in PDF) the assessment report or review it.

2. Clicking Review Report takes you to the 360° portal. This section is where the manager can review the results of the assessment, the feedback received, add their feedback and inputs where necessary, and decide whether to approve or reject the report.

Cover

This is the cover page of your report. The first page that will be shown once the report is ready for review and download.

Introduction

See a general introduction on the goals and objectives of the 360° assessment along with a summary of the participants. Information such as relationship, the number of participants who were nominated and have completed the evaluation along with their completion rates will be shown.

Competency Summary

A summary of the competencies in the 360° assessment including scores given by the Subject, Peer, Reportee, and Manager along with the average rating out of 5 (this is subject to change depending on the number of scale points used in the assessment).

Gap Analysis - Radar Chart

View a radar chart of all the gaps found between the Subject, Peers, Reportees, and Managers in the perceptions and observations of the subject’s workplace behavior across all competencies in the assessment. 

Your Strengths

A list of all the statements where the subject has scored the highest ratings across the assessment and are considered their key strengths.

Areas of Improvement

A list of statements where the subject has scored the lowest ratings across the assessment and are considered their areas of improvement.

Hidden Strengths

A list of statements where the subject has rated themselves lower when compared to the average ratings from other participants. 

Blind Spots

A list of statements where the subject has rated themselves higher when compared to the average ratings from other participants. These are their potential areas for improvement.

Detailed Feedback

A detailed statement-wise breakdown of ratings from the Subject, Peers, Reportees, and Managers across all competencies included in the 360° assessment.

Personal Development

The manager can add comments and provide inputs on how the subject can improve their performance at the workplace in this section of the report. Click + Add Reviewer Input, add your comments in the space provided, and click Save.

3. Finally, you can approve or reject the report.

Negatives of 360° feedback

Although 360-degree appraisals are widely used by companies to boost overall performance, there are a few drawbacks that deem this process to be non-ideal for performance management. Here are four negatives of 360° feedback:

Lack of planning

This is something that can jeopardize the whole process of 360 evaluations. Without a clear set of objectives and procedures for performance reviews, you can wave goodbye to any potential growth in the workplace. 

Risk of discontinuity

A lot of companies carry out 360 feedback perfectly the first time around but fail to maintain consistency after that. This defeats the whole purpose of 360° assessments. There is no continuous improvement without continuous evaluation.

Failure to align with the organization 

360° assessments play a massive role in an organization’s performance management system. The main focus of these reviews is to ensure that all the questions and competencies included align with the organization’s goals and objectives. You can’t achieve company-wide improvement without incorporating organizational alignment in 360° feedback.

No 100% guarantee for growth & development

True progress lies in the responsibility of the individual, not the organization. We can’t say that 360° assessments improve an employee’s performance if the employee hasn’t taken the feedback into consideration. Yes, 360 reviews help identify a person’s strengths, weaknesses, and allows managers and HR admins to chart out personal development plans. Still, it’s up to the employee on how they perceive the feedback.

360° assessments best practices

Here are the four best practices to follow for a successful 360 evaluation!

Strategize & plan 

It’s always best to plan the objectives and outcomes to be achieved from conducting organization-wide 360° assessments. Just so that you can be prepared for every situation that arises and carry out every step of the performance evaluation process to a tee. 

Make the process consistent 

Collecting 360-degree feedback certainly isn’t a one-time thing. If you want your company to grow consistently over time, ensure that the frequency of 360° assessments is continuous. This leads to constant improvements, higher performance levels, and absolute transparency in the workplace.

Keep it crisp & relevant

Beating around the bush for surveys in general is not recommended. So when it comes to 360 performance reviews, it’s a strict no from us. Maintain relevance across all competencies and questions in your assessment. Stay to the point and only ask what’s necessary. Avoid making the assessments too time-consuming; There’s nothing worse to kill productivity as well as one’s mood. 

Allow open-ended feedback

Open-ended questions - super important. It’s not just about asking participants for scores but also the reasons behind it along with some additional constructive feedback. There will never be a lack of need for transparent feedback in 360 reviews. It’s a crucial way to go beyond the ratings and dig deep into the participants’ inputs. 

This article covers the following areas: 

• What is Net Promoter Score (NPS)?
• NPS vs CSAT
• When to use Net Promoter Score?
• Net Promoter Score Methodology
• Net Promoter Score Calculation
• What is a good Net Promoter Score?
• Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)
• Measure your NPS using SurveySparrow
• Looking at NPS reports in SurveySparrow
• Net Promoter Score Best Practices

What is Net Promoter Score (NPS)?

The Net Promoter Score or NPS is a measure of customer loyalty towards your brand based on their likelihood of recommendation to a friend or co-worker.

Numerous companies have adopted NPS as their metric to achieve customer success. It is an integral key performance indicator of an organization’s customer experience management(CEM) system. NPS not only drives company growth but also gives a clear picture of how a customer perceives your brand. Measuring NPS is a surefire way to identify brand advocates, gain quality customer testimonials, and drive overall revenue for your business. 

A high NPS score indicates that the majority of your customer base is happy and that your business provides an outstanding customer experience program. A low NPS score indicates a large number of unhappy customers and that some drastic changes need to be made to prevent the wrath of high customer churn rates. 

Net Promoter Score (NPS) vs Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)

Both NPS and CSAT play vital roles in a company’s customer experience management program. But they can’t be used interchangeably. Let’s take a look at the differences between the net promoter score and CSAT.

CSAT measures customer satisfaction based on certain experiences with your business, such as product purchases, calls with the support team, and onboarding & offboarding sessions. NPS, on the other hand, measures a customer’s loyalty based on their likelihood of recommending your brand to a friend or family member.

For fuelling business growth and revenue, NPS is the more trusted metric since it focuses on the customer’s overall experience and happiness with a brand long-term. Customer satisfaction concentrates mainly on a customer’s short-term experiences based on interactions at various touchpoints. 

The outcomes derived from CSAT scores help organizations improve specific processes and experiences where customers face issues. NPS outcomes help companies dig deeper into the underlying problems faced by customers due to the efficient segmentation of respondents into promoters, passives, and detractors. This leads to organization-wide improvements.

CSAT is calculated by dividing the total of all scores by the number of responses. In contrast, the Net Promoter Score is calculated by finding the difference between the percentage of promoters and the percentage of detractors. 

When to use Net Promoter Score?

There are two types of NPS - relational and transactional. A relational NPS is typically sent on a quarterly or annual basis to customers to gauge their overall perception and experience with your product or service. A transactional NPS, on the other hand, is sent right after various customer interactions with your brand, such as product purchases or resolving issues with the support team.

Net Promoter Score Methodology

The Net Promoter Score methodology is asking your customers the following question: 
“On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our product to a friend or family?”

For transactional NPS, the Net Promoter Score question can be framed in the following ways:

• Based on your recent purchase, how likely are you to recommend <insert brand name> with a friend or colleague?
• Based on your last interaction with customer support, how likely are you to recommend our product to a friend or co-worker?

Net Promoter Score Calculation

The Net Promoter Score ranges from -100 to 100. The higher the NPS, the better. The NPS scale divides the scores as follows:

Detractors are customers who are highly dissatisfied and are on the verge of churning. Passives are the intermediate customers that feel so-so about your brand. They’re not entirely unhappy to churn; neither are they loyal enough to promote your business. Promoters are those customers who absolutely love your brand overall and can be identified as brand advocates.

The Net Promoter Score calculation is as follows:

NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.

For example, suppose you have received 100 responses for your NPS survey. Out of which 40 are promoters, 30 are passives, and 30 are detractors. Passives are not included as part of the NPS calculation. 

So, the percentage of detractors would be 30/100 = 0.3

Percentage of promoters: 40/100 = 0.4

Therefore, your NPS is: 0.4 - 0.3 = 0.1 

What is a good Net Promoter Score?

In general, an NPS score that is above 0 is considered to be good in the competitive market. The main goal is to ensure that the number of promoters is higher than the number of detractors.

A negative NPS score indicates that you have a higher number of detractors than promoters. This means that your business needs to take some serious measures in order to retain customers and prevent losing them to competitors.

Keep in mind that a “good NPS score” varies by industry. So if you’re comparing your score to those of other companies, it’s better to run comparisons with companies that fall in your industry set to get an accurate idea. Benchmark your NPS to gain a better understanding of how your company fares in the customer loyalty department. If your score is higher than the average NPS in your industry set, give yourself a pat on the back! Your company is doing a stellar job in creating a customer-centric culture and should continue to do so.

Here are the NPS benchmarks by industries:

Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)

NPS caters to not just how a customer feels about your brand but also how your employee perceives the work environment at your company. The employee net promoter score or eNPS measures how likely an employee would recommend your workplace to a friend or family. 

It depicts an employee’s loyalty to your organization and is the key driver for boosting employee retention. eNPS can help predict employee churn and cause companies to act fast in terms of establishing a healthy work environment for their employees. 

The employee net promoter score is measured in the same way as the standard NPS. The eNPS question is as follows:

On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our workplace to a friend or family?

eNPS is also relational and transactional in nature. Transactional eNPS is measured after various touchpoints in an employee’s journey, such as:

• Employee onboarding
• Performance evaluations
• Appraisal meetings

Measure your NPS using SurveySparrow

We recommend the use of robust NPS feedback software to collect ratings from your customers and calculate your NPS proactively. Here’s how you can measure your net promoter score using SurveySparrow:

1. Click + New Survey on the top right corner of your survey dashboard and select NPS Survey.

2. Modify the survey title to your liking and click Next.

3. You can edit your NPS question and add variables such as contact details or custom variables to personalize your survey. This can be achieved by clicking the dollar sign($) next to your question.

You can also start the scale 1, customize the label texts, and enable the option to segment your scale to mark promoters, passives, and detractors. The colors are customizable.

4. For the open-ended follow-up question, you can edit as required and use question piping to pipe your respondents’ NPS scores into the question. All you need to do is click the dollar sign($) on the right-hand side.

Enable the Question Text by Rating option to send separate follow-up questions to Promoters, Passives, and Detractors.

5. Click +Add New to add more follow-up questions to your survey. You can have your pick from Multiple Choice, Rating, and Text question types.

6. Click the Globe icon on the left navigation bar of your survey if you wish to create custom variables and expressions.

7. Add a Thank You page to your survey and personalize using custom variables or contact details, if you’d like.

You have now successfully created your NPS survey!

8. Share your survey with your customers. Once all the responses are populated, head to the Results section of your survey and select the Overview tab. You’ll see your NPS score at the top.

Looking at NPS reports in SurveySparrow

After collecting all responses for your NPS survey, an NPS feedback tool with an in-built reporting module will come super useful for receiving valuable insights on customer feedback. 

Let’s see how we can carry out an in-depth analysis of NPS scores and feedback using SurveySparrow: 

1. In the Results section of your survey, under Overview, you’ll see a trend of NPS responses over time. You can adjust the trend to show responses daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or on a 30 day rolling average.

2. Widgets help you dissect your data better and gain deeper insights for your business. Select any of the widgets by merely clicking on the box or the Add Widgets button. The widgets we have are:

• Gauge Chart
• NPS Comparison
• Word Cloud
• Trend Graph

Gauge Chart

The Gauge Chart widget lets you segment your responses using filter groups and see the breakdown of promoters, passives, and detractors. You can add multiple segments to identify & track their performance.

Provide a title to your Gauge Chart and add filters as per your intent. Click Create once you’ve set the conditions.

NPS Comparison

With the NPS Comparison widget, you can compare the responses provided by different segments of respondents (for example, customers under different pricing plans).

Add a title, select the contact properties or variables available, select the values you wish to compare and click Create.

Word Cloud

The Word Cloud widget lets you identify and view the most commonly used words in NPS responses. The word cloud is a cluster of words with the size of the words indicating how often the word appears in your collected responses.

1. Provide a title to your widget.
2. Use the Max Words setting to determine how many words should appear in your Word Cloud. By default, this count is set to 100.
3. You can choose to filter out additional words by using the Stop Words feature. Simply add the word in the field and press enter.
4. You can also add additional filters by selecting Add Filter.
5. Click Create.

Trend Graph 

The Trend Graph widget shows you a trend of NPS responses over time and lets you apply a set of rules and conditions to slice through your data.

Add a title to your graph, add the necessary filters, and click Create.

3. Click the Responses tab to view a list of all NPS scores and feedback. Filter responses by Promoters, Passives, and Detractors, and by sentiment.

Sentiment analysis lets you process the information received and determine customer opinions based on the sentiment associated with their open-ended feedback. This level of analysis helps you understand whether or not your clients are happy with specific aspects of your brand, find quick solutions to customer issues, and understand the emerging trends. The possibilities are endless!

Net Promoter Score Best Practices

Businesses get very far by taking the initiative to delight their customers the right way. Happy faces all-round are all you need to conquer customer loyalty. So, let’s take a look at the 5 NPS best practices!

Keep it short and sweet

Customers are busy people, just like us. So, when you’re sending them NPS surveys, ensure that the questions are kept to a minimum. All you would really need is the NPS question with a follow-up. Lengthy surveys are one of the leading factors for survey fatigue.

Ensure open-ended feedback is optional

While asking for open-ended feedback is highly recommended for NPS surveys, we recommend marking it as “optional” for respondents. After all, it’s their choice whether they wish to provide feedback or not. Keeping the question mandatory may risk putting off customers and can cause a decline in NPS scores. 

Customize and Personalize

Whether you’re sharing it via email, weblink or in-app, survey customization & personalization is the key to good response rates and even better NPS scores. Modify the theme, colors, and text to set your brand tone. Include contact names in the questions to make your customers feel truly special with their very own personalized survey. 

Automate the process

Measuring NPS isn’t a one-time thing. It’s a continuous process that helps keep track of how your company is improving or declining in terms of customer satisfaction, revenue, and growth. Automate the delivery of NPS surveys using email workflows, automated scheduling, and integrations with software such as Salesforce, Intercom, Zendesk, etc. to become action efficient, always!

Close the feedback loop

Closing the feedback loop is one of the most important practices to follow for achieving a good NPS score and fuelling business growth on a major scale. Always follow up with unhappy customers and work on solving their problems from the get-go. This shows that you value their opinion and care about taking the necessary steps to provide the best possible experiences to them. Don’t just stop with the detractors - follow up with your promoters as well and gather customer testimonials that can help increase the value of your brand. Nothing brings in new customers than good reviews & ratings.

Net Promoter® and NPS® are registered trademarks and Net Promoter Score and Net Promoter System are trademarks of Bain & Company, Satmetrix Systems, and Fred Reichheld.

Hi everyone! :)

Welcome to our AMA event. The first of many! 

Shihab Muhammed, our Founder & CEO, will be answering all your questions related to creating a product roadmap on August 26th @10 AM EST.

He was one of the founding members of Freshworks (formerly Freshdesk), online cloud-based customer service software. Shihab has built and lead large teams from the ground-up in a career spanning more than ten years. 

As a Business Unit Head of Freshservice at Freshworks, he oversaw the business and brought it from zero to a multi-million dollar product.

Before Freshworks, Shihab worked with Zoho for four years as an engineer in the Manageengine division.

Please post your questions down below and get the answers for everything you need to know!

Greetings! Hope you're all enjoying your summer. While you're sipping on some lemonade in the hot summer breeze, let's take a look at the latest features this month!
 

• In a world full of boring meetings with severe disorganization, emerges Rate The Meeting. The free post-meeting feedback tool you need to elevate your meetings, dodge all deviations, and cover the agenda, proactively. Check it out now! 
   
• You can now increase the Rating scale in 360° assessments up to 10 scale points. Quite the enhancement to suit your assessment, wouldn't you agree?
   
• Multilingual auto-translate to make life easier for those who manually translate their surveys into a multitude of languages. We don't know how you do it!
   
• Because we want you to always be in the know about our latest releases, we've released a notification hub in-product. Hit the bell button and view all the latest updates, instantly!
   
• We've upgraded our chat templates to be more conversational than ever. Engage website visitors & customers with the best surveys to boost your business. 

More power to NPS

• Our NPS platform decides to one-up itself with its all-new interface. More responsive and engaging than ever before to help you raise those customer loyalty points!
   
• Use In-App NPS to embed your surveys on your website. Let your site visitors join in on the feedback experience. 
   
• Save yourselves ample time with the Audience Integration. Update contact information directly from NPS survey responses. Automation at its finest.

3 must-read blogs of the month

• Having awful meetings on an otherwise nice day? Let's change it
• 5 Best Online Video Conferencing Apps to Amp up your Meetings in 2020
• No-code: Why is it gaining traction

SparrowCast

Learn how to start your NPS program from the Customer Success expert herself, Maranda Ann! From planning and strategizing to closing the feedback loop, watch & listen as she walks you through the NPS lifecycle. 

See you next month with more additions & enhancements.

Until then, 
Cheers, and stay safe out there!

From all of us at SurveySparrow

Multilingual surveys let you translate your surveys into the languages of your choice. Respondents can have their pick from the list of languages and take the survey accordingly. Reach a wider audience on a global scale with Multilingual surveys!

For instance, let's say you want to conduct a CSAT survey across countries such as the United States, UK, France, Netherlands, and the Czech Republic. With Multilingual surveys, respondents can pick a language that they're comfortable with before starting the survey. 

Respondents will see the survey in their browser language if it's already supported in the survey. Otherwise, the default language will be English. For example, if the respondent's browser language is French, and the survey has been translated/created in French, they will see it in French by default. Respondents can also change the language from the list provided in the survey. 

Here’s a preview!

Let's see how it works:

1. After creating your survey, click on the Languages icon on the left navigation bar.

2. You'll see a list view of all your survey questions with English as the default language.

Click on + New Language.

3. Select a language from the list of available languages.

You'll notice an option for Google Translate at the bottom of the list of languages. Once enabled, you can allow Google Translate to translate your survey automatically.

4. In this case, we have selected French. So you'll get the following screen:

5. Edit the translation for each question by clicking any of the green ticks next to each one. This will open the Translation Editor.

Here, you can click each question to modify its translation.

6. Add variables and piping to the translated question, welcome, and thank you message by clicking the dollar sign($) icon.

Click Save.

Translate using manual download & upload

If you wish to translate your survey using other methods, here's how it works:

1. Click on the down arrow button to download your survey questions in Excel format.

2. Once you have finished translating your survey questions, click on the up arrow to upload your translated excel file.

Note: Only .xlsx format is supported.

3. If the translation was successful, you'll see a green tick next to each question, as seen above.

4. If your translation was unsuccessful, you'll see red alert icons next to each question as below:

In this case, try translating your survey again to rectify the issue.

Buttons & Hints

1. Click Buttons and Hints in the top right corner of your screen.

2. Pick a language from the dropdown to translate all the button texts and hints. You can also manually change the translations. 

Click Save & Close.

After Translation

Now, when a respondent is taking your survey, they can select their preferred language from the available options.

And you’re good to go!

What is the customer effort score(CES)? 
 

The customer effort score or CES is a metric that measures the amount of effort exerted by a customer in order to interact with a product or service.

Customer interactions can range from product purchases, creating an account, and subscribing to a newsletter to resolving an issue with customer support. The customer effort score is one of the critical parameters that help in increasing your customers' loyalty to your brand. Measuring CES at the right touchpoints of a customer's journey leads to valuable insights that can help steer your product’s customer service and user experience in the right direction. Ease of experience not only makes a happy customer but also helps increase customer retention. 

A high customer effort score indicates that your product/service has an excellent ease-of-use and helps customers get their job done with no hassle. A low CES, on the other hand, means that your customers go through tedious experiences to interact with your product and customer support and might lead to high churn rates. 

Keeping track of customer effort scores over time helps organizations uncover the pitfalls faced by customers and can fast-track pain point resolutions productively. These resolutions can help create effortless experiences for customers and drive brand loyalty. A stellar CES is one of the essential indicators of a sturdy customer experience management(CEM) system. 

Customer Effort Score(CES) vs Net Promoter Score(NPS) vs Customer Satisfaction Score(CSAT)

One thing that the customer effort score, NPS, and CSAT have in common is that they're all important metrics that assess the effectiveness of a company’s customer experience management system. However, each of these metrics conveys different aspects of a customer's perception of a brand. They are separate puzzle pieces that make up the full picture of where your organization’s customer experience stands. Let’s explore the differences between CES, NPS, and CSAT.
 

The customer effort score measures the amount of effort taken by a customer for various interactions with your product or service. NPS measures customer loyalty, while CSAT measures a customer's satisfaction levels with your brand.

The customer effort score is mainly a transactional metric. The Net Promoter Score is primarily a relational metric, although it can be transactional as well. CSAT can be both a relational as well as a transactional metric. 

While the Net Promoter Score focuses on a customer’s overall journey, the customer effort score and CSAT deal more with specific touchpoints of the customer lifecycle. NPS is measured using a 10-point scale, CSAT can be measured using any point scale, and CES is measured using a 7-point scale. 

The Net Promoter Score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. CSAT is calculated by dividing the total sum of individual scores by the number of responses received. The customer effort score is calculated by dividing the number of responses that scored 5 & above by the total number of responses. 

When to use CES?

CES surveys are mostly transactional in nature, although you can send out a relational CES survey every quarter to obtain an average customer effort score of your product/service. 

Usually, CES should be measured in the following scenarios:

• Post-interaction with your product that led to a subscription or purchase
• Post-interaction with your customer support team
• Immediately after a customer finishes reading one of your knowledge base articles
• Shortly after a customer onboarding session

What is the customer effort score question?

The CES question can be framed in various ways based on the type of customer interaction. Let's take a look at a few examples of customer effort questions:
 

• On a scale of 1-7, how do you agree with the following statement: <insert company name> made it easy for me to solve my issue today. (1 - Strongly Disagree, 7 - Strongly Agree)
• How much effort did it take to solve your problem?
• How easy was it to handle your request with <insert company name>?
• How easy was it to resolve your issue today?
• How easy was it to set up your account?

How is customer effort score calculated?

The customer effort score is calculated using a 7-point Likert scale that ranges from 'Very Difficult' to 'Very Easy' or 'Strongly Disagree' to 'Strongly Agree,' depending on how the question is framed. 

According to Gartner:
 

CES is calculated by the percentage of customers that at least 'somewhat agree' (those who give a 5 or above) that the company made it easy to resolve their issue.

So, you can divide the number of responses that have a score of 5 and above by the total number of responses and multiply it with 10. To get the CES percentage, multiple it with 100.

For example, let’s say you have received 100 responses in total, out of which 70 of them have scores of 5 and above, your total CES will be: 70/100 x 10 = 7

Measure your CES using SurveySparrow

A customer feedback tool would come in handy when you need to measure your organization's CES. Here's how you can calculate your customer effort score using SurveySparrow: 
 

1. Create a survey and add the Opinion Scale question type.

2. Frame your CES question, modify the scale points as per your requirements, and edit the labels at both ends of the scale. You also have the option to start the scale at 1. 

3. Complete creating your survey and share it with your respondents. Once all the submissions are populated, divide the number of responses that contain scores of 5 and above by the total number of responses received and multiply it with 10.

4. And, you have successfully calculated your customer effort score!

Looking at CES reports in SurveySparrow

Once you have gathered all the responses for your CES survey, you can make use of customer feedback software with an in-built reporting module to help you gain a deeper understanding of your customers' feedback. 

Here's how you can carry out an in-depth analysis of the scores and feedback received with SurveySparrow:
 

1. Head to the Results section of your survey to view and analyze your report.

2. Click + New Custom Report to create a custom report just for CES analysis. Customize the cover page by clicking the gear icon next to it.

You can modify details such as the description, font-pair, and decide whether to include the survey name, company name, and SurveySparrow branding. Click Save.

3. You'll see a graphical representation of the CES scores collected in the form of a histogram or pie chart.

You can customize it to your liking by clicking the gear icon next to the question.

Add a description, choose a chart type, have your pick from the display options, and customize the labels. Click Save. 

4. Click Filter & Compare to apply advanced filters to your survey data.

You can create filters for different segments of customers.

Click Apply.

 

Click Save Changes to save your custom report.

5. Next, share your report via public URL or export it to PDF for easy distribution to the relevant teams in your organization.

6. You can schedule the report to your inbox on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis.

7. You can also sync your CES survey data to spreadsheets on Google Drive by integrating your survey with Google Sheets. Further, connect with other third-party software and create custom data visualizations and dashboards for extensive analysis.

Customer Effort Score Best Practices

When it comes to measuring CES, the main objective to keep in mind is executing a trouble-free feedback collection process for your customers. With that being said, here are the 4 best practices to follow for conducting a successful CES survey!

Avoid complex questions

The whole point of CES is to offer seamless experiences to your customers. Nothing puts off a customer more than the use of complicated language in your survey. So, to prevent drastic increases in survey bounce rates, keep the questions simple and straightforward.

Add an open-ended question

Besides just asking your customers for a score, follow up with an open-ended question so that they can elaborate on the reasons for their ratings. This opens up an opportunity for them to share their most accurate feedback and concerns, which therefore helps in identifying the difficulties faced by your customers.

Optimize for all mobile devices

Ensure that your CES surveys are mobile-optimized. Most individuals check their emails on their phones or tablets. So having a mobile-first survey can provide the extra benefit of convenience to your customers. Nothing says ease of experience more than taking a survey from the comfort of your phone anytime, anywhere.

Automate your survey

Timing is everything when it comes to CES surveys. Integrate your survey platform with your website, online ticketing software, CRM, etc. so that surveys can be triggered after various customer interactions. It also saves up a ton of time, which would've otherwise gone into switching between multiple software.

Summer is here. Rising temperatures and oodles of sunlight to bask in. So while we enjoy this season to the fullest(while maintaining social distance, of course), let’s dive into the newest and coolest features this month to beat the heat!

360° assessments: Bolder & smarter by the minute

• The Custom Roles feature lets you create new roles in your assessments to match your organization’s performance review process. Create a 360° review team of your own. 
   
• Customize your 360° reports to suit your brand identity. Add more sections, modify existing ones, add your company logo, and style it the way you want. 
   
• Use open-ended questions across all competencies in your assessments. Collect profound feedback from participants and don’t miss out on any valuable inputs.

There’s no such thing as “too many” integrations

• Visit our Apps Marketplace to connect with 150+ useful software for all your automation needs. Wave goodbye to software juggling, now!
   
• G Suite Marketplace integration to connect all your Google Apps with SurveySparrow. Automate your daily tasks and unleash your inner productivity ninja. 
   
• Use MailChimp integration to power your email marketing workflows. Map question fields to subscribers and update your MailChimp lists on the go. No more manual efforts for us, please!

Oh wait, we have more!

• The Contact Form question type is now more advanced and functional. Add more fields, customize existing ones, and gather the necessary details from respondents. 
   
• Use Conversational Avatars to transform your chat surveys into powerhouses of customer engagement. Pick an avatar from the ones available or upload your own. 
   
• Our Mobile SDK share now supports iOS too. Gauge your customers for feedback through your iOS applications, gain all the insights you need, and boost customer interactions.

Must-read blogs of the month

• Why We built our Culture Code Early as a Startup
• 10 Work From Home Tips and Tricks to Stay Productive
• Guidelines to Return to Work after COVID-19 | SurveySparrow

SparrowCast

Ever wondered how to create ‘wow’ moments for your customers? Enrich your minds from CX expert Dennis Snow, as he takes us through his experience with Disney!

Stay tuned for next month’s batch of freshest additions. 

Until then,
Cheers and Stay Safe!

From all of us at SurveySparrow