The Problems with Paper Surveys

Companies that request feedback from their clients are far more likely to be successful. That is because the only way that a company can grow is if it prioritizes its customers and learns from them. Customer satisfaction and customer feedback are a crucial part of growing a successful business.

But HOW you collect that data matters. One of the ways some small businesses collect data is with paper surveys. Yet paper surveys have their problems.

The following is a real story of a company in Northern California that used paper surveys to collect data on their clients, and the value it brought to their business.

In 2007, a successful landscaping company decided they wanted to provide better customer service. Between 2007 and 2014, they believed it would be a good idea to collect data on customer satisfaction so that they could both figure out how to improve on their business and make sure that the customer was satisfied (in case they needed to follow up). At the end of a project they hand a paper survey over to their client and ask for feedback.

They then gather the responses in a pile and review them to see if anyone gave a bad review. All of their data was collected on paper and placed into a file cabinet.

Any customer satisfaction survey is better than no customer satisfaction survey. The company was able to make sure that their customers were satisfied and they were able to follow up and try to save any relationship that could have led to a worse reputation, especially in an age where review websites like Yelp can affect revenue by thousands of dollars.

But all those paper surveys come with their own challenges, and in the case of this particular landscape company – and similar companies that collect via paper survey only – those challenges drastically hurt the usefulness of their data collection efforts: Impossible Analysis – Although they have collected mountains of data on thousands of clients, all of that data is essentially useless once it’s been filed. It cannot be analyzed for trends, it cannot be analyzed by date/year, and it cannot be analyzed by staff. It would have to be entered into the computer manually, and that task would be overwhelming after all of this time.

The company has no idea if they have a high or low satisfaction score overall, the percentage of positive satisfaction, etc. They also have no way to note response rate. Surveys without analysis are interesting, but cannot drive opinions.

Rushed Answers – Paper surveys must also be filled out by hand, and for many that is not something that the client wants to do. So many rush through the survey, offering an “A” grade (or the same grade) for everything unless they have reason to point out something negative. Online surveys and digital data collection methods are faster for the respondent, so they are more likely to get varied responses based on the feelings of the individual answering.

The only way that data is meaningful is if it is accurate, and those that are rushing through their surveys are likely not answering as accurately as possible. Biased – Clients are handed the paper, so they know that their answers can be linked to them. Even if they were not handed to them directly by the landscaper, they would have had to be mailed back which, once again, would have been linked to them (by the return address).

While the landscaping company wanted to use the surveys as a way to track client satisfaction, which is fine, there are some forms of survey response – such as taking it online or via some form of text – that are more likely to get honest responses even when the client knows that it can be linked to them. Messy – Finally, there is also the issue of messiness. This particular company would handwrite the name of the employees that worked on the job onto each paper.

Not only does this make analysis difficult and introduce the likelihood of error, it’s also simply a messy way of collecting data. These are all examples of the problems that this landscaping company had with its paper surveys, and problems that others that collect data with paper surveys will have. The only way to fix the problem would be to enter in all of the data manually into some type of database, like Excel or Access.

But: The time it would take to enter that data would be substantial. You would be at risk for introducing error. The accuracy of that data would still be in an issue.

In terms of the total amount of time that it would take to enter that data, you could simply purchase a tablet PC and use some type of online survey software for less than the cost of paying an employee or outside company to enter in all of the data and try to make sense of it. Paper surveys are more expensive overall and do not have the same value as other forms of data collection. This landscaping company found out the hard way that their great intentions were lost when they used paper surveys for all of these years.

Companies that research customer satisfaction will always be better off than a company that does not. But it’s still important to think hard about the choices you’re making with regard to those surveys if you’re planning to do that research. Online survey software is simply a better option for any type of company, and will give you an opportunity to get a lot more valuable data from your customers.