Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Knowing Where to Start

When you're deciding which changes to implement, you can base part of your decision on an outstanding resource: your customers! Implementing a customer survey is a quick way to get the facts about your site. Keep these suggestions in mind when you're conducting this type of online research:

• Identify the basics. Choose only the most critical information that you want to discover about your site. An all-inclusive survey becomes long and complicated, so pick only three to five areas. Including more areas in your survey warrants bringing in a professional to administer it.
• Keep it simple. Web surfers have limited time and limited attention spans. Your best results come from keeping a survey simple and short.
• Offer an incentive. Always thank customers for taking the time to share their opinions. Better yet, offer a small incentive (a discount on their next purchase, for example) in exchange for feedback.
• Select your customers. Determine who will take your survey: potential customers or loyal customers who know your business.

Terrific online survey tools are available for you to use. Try SurveyMonkey (www.surveymonkey.com), which offers a full range of survey products and template options that start at just under $20 per month. The site also offers a free basic survey option that's ideal for quick surveys or for small sites. Another one of our favorite survey tools is Zoomerang (www.zoomerang.com), which provides surveys and polls with (almost) all the bells ...