Sweet Successful Surveys

Surveys can provide valuable information that may help you run your business more successfully. However, getting customers to take surveys has always been a challenge. So we have gathered some great tips that will make encouraging your students and parents to take surveys much easier!

Short & Sweet

In an ideal world, you would get an in-depth response on every aspect of your customer’s experience. However, in the real world, this is not possible. Keep your surveys short and sweet! Try limiting yourself to five or six questions; you can have various surveys based on the information you would like to receive (our next tip).

Design Different Surveys

Your surveys should fit the person you are requesting information from. Have separate surveys for recreational, pre-professional, and competitive classes. Differentiate between student surveys and parent surveys. Most importantly have different surveys for current students (or those who continue to enroll) and students who are leaving. Finding out why a student is leaving will give you insight into how to avoid losing students in the future.

Provide an Incentive

Even a five-question survey takes time, and time is money. Provide a small incentive for a survey based on what you believe its estimated value to be. For example, offer $2.50 off of tuition when a student returns a survey and an additional $2.50 if the parent also returns a survey (allowing $5.00 off total). Use this incentive for students leaving also; they can get a $5.00 discount on their last bill by completing your survey.

Make It Look Easy

Instead of printing your survey on a large piece of paper, print it on a half sheet and then cut the paper in half.  The smaller paper will seem less intimidating and time-consuming.  Paired with an incentive, the survey will appear as in easy discount which customers will appreciate, yet will still provide you valuable information.

Example Survey

Here are two surveys geared towards a student who has decided to LEAVE the studio; one is for the parent and one is for the child. You can change this survey in any way to direct the survey taker toward the information you are interested in.

Student Survey:

  1. Why have you chosen to leave the studio?
  2. Will you continue dancing?
  3. What was your favorite thing about the studio?
  4. What was your least favorite thing?
  5. Please provide one or two sentences about how you think we could make the studio better.

Parent Survey:

  1. Why has your family elected to leave the studio?
  2. Were you satisfied with the education your child received from our studio?
  3. Were you satisfied with the classes we provide your child? If not, what would you have liked to see change?
  4. Would you consider recommending us to a friend? If not, how could we have earned your recommendation?
  5. Please provide one or two sentences on how you would improve our studios.