Taking a laissez-faire approach to brand perception does a disservice to your customers. It limits your innovation and how well your brand aligns with their values. This more relaxed approach could also contribute to decreasing loyalty over time. You’re showing them they aren’t worth trying to understand so you can better serve them.

It shouldn’t be a surprise when they jump ship toward a competitor that takes the initiative to ask for their opinions and iterates on them. But when you proactively reach out to customers asking for their feedback, you indicate how much their views are appreciated and valued.

And it starts by coming up with the right questions.

Creating surveys people respond to

When you’ve designed, yes designed, a survey that gets substantive responses, it can lead to gold for your business. They provide the when, where, why, what, and how behind peoples’ motivations for buying from you. Or even better, what stopped them from going to a competitor.

But getting these insights into your brand requires not thinking like a marketer. Remove any and all marketese and jargon from your questions. Pay special attention to how they’re worded, so respondents understand the question as you intended, without any confusion.

Take a look at the questions below. Which one do you think will get a better answer?

Question 01: Do you feel like [X-Brand] works for your everyday business needs?
Question 02: What was happening in your business/company that made you come to [X-Brand]?

The first question would get a “yes/no” response without much, if any, elaboration. Similar to asking someone if they like chocolate ice cream. However, the second question is more open-ended and requires a more thoughtful response.

Common survey types

Mail surveys: Nowadays, most surveys are conducted online, but there are a few instances where organizations send printed surveys. However, this increases the chances of people not completing or returning them due to the level of effort involved.

Telephone/Video surveys: In cases where you want to have an in-depth interview with customers where it’s easier to ask follow-up questions, telephone and now video calls can help you get more details.

Digital surveys: With companies like Survey Monkey and Typeform, it’s a more manageable—and budget-friendly—way to cast a wider net. You can quickly create a survey, send it to your customers via email, or place it directly on your site.

Survey goals

Each question needs to work towards capturing your customer’s honest feedback. After getting this data, you and your team can keep delivering on what customers want and review areas where you can improve their experience.

So think about how your strategic objectives for this survey. Are you thinking of rebranding? Do you want to understand what people think about some of your most/least popular products?

Spend time considering the themes and specific areas you want to touch on to get a sense of your customers’ satisfaction, likelihood to purchase, and whether they’ll buy again in the future.

It’s also helpful to layer in brand perception triggers that allow customers to give unbiased feedback to your questions. Here are a few ways to do it:

Cultural associations: These are usually softer questions revolving around how a consumer responds whenever they see or interact with a brand. Some questions could also include comparisons or references to popular culture or even local entities like sports teams. Many of these insights may reveal why a person feels more attached to one brand than another.

Question examples:

• – What are five words you would use to describe our brand?
• – Think back to your last experience with our brand. Which character would you most associate with it? (Choose one)
  • – Yoda (With each interaction with your brand, I learned something new)
  • – Princess Leia (I felt empowered by the entire experience)
  • – Darth Vader (I was deeply troubled by each interaction with your brand)
• – How has your perception of our brand changed over the past X-months?

Individual associations: Questions in this category are more personal and focus on “self.” They uncover the personal motivators, aspirations, and influencers that made someone buy in the first place and what would make them stay.

Question examples:

• – How has our brand made your life easier?
• – What were you dealing with before you bought from our brand?

Community associations: These questions are all about a person’s tribe. They reveal the outside forces that may or may not affect how they
perceive your brand—and if they’ll recommend it to others.

Question examples:

• – In your opinion, our products/services are ideal for…
• – When was the last time you suggested our product/services to a friend and family member?
• – Why would you recommend (or not) our products to coworkers, friends, or family?

After planning out the direction of your brand perception survey, you can finally move the people from good brand experiences to great ones. You also want to mix up the questions (multiple choice, open-ended, etc.) to not overwhelm the person filling it out.

Changing brand perceptions for the better

It’s always great to hear positive feedback about your brand. But negative feedback presents an opportunity to fill in any gaps causing your customers to think less of your brand—and save the sale.

Look for patterns in what people are saying in your surveys.

• – Are there product features or functionality causing confusion or frustration?
• – Do they still find your pricing reasonable? Or is it too expensive/cheap for what your product/service does?
• – What types of customer experience are they receiving? Do certain departments have a bad/good reputation?

Living up to your promise to customers means listening and adjusting based on what they say. Conducting brand perception surveys should be a regular part of your strategy to help you hone in on ways to make people’s interactions with your brand more fulfilling.

Brand perception surveys encourage progress

Brand perception surveys are essential to understand how your customers see your brand. But more importantly, it helps you evaluate positives and negatives straight from those who know best how your offerings affect them.

When you put in the time to send out these surveys, you’re enabling the loyalty cycle to continue because the data that comes back allows you to deliver better solutions instead of stagnating. Customers will understand that you value their feedback and use it to make improvements that benefit them.