3 Big Benefits of Creating Small Business Surveys

In today’s ultra-competitive market, businesses of all sizes and scopes are looking for ways to gain a competitive edge. While small businesses might not have the budget or resources of mega corporations, there are still a number of strategies at their disposal for growing their business. Better yet, many of these strategies don’t require big budgets or limitless resources either. This includes the use of small business surveys, and we’re going to tell you all about those today.

What are Small Business Surveys?

Remember what we said about gaining a competitive edge?

Regardless of your business size, one of the best ways to gain one is by hearing directly from consumers. When you know exactly what they want, what they like, what they want to spend, and everything in between, you have a far greater ability to meet those needs. With the help of small business surveys, you can poll these consumers directly. With real-time data and results, you can pivot your small business in a direction that better serves consumers, and ultimately, better serves the mission of your business.

How exactly do these surveys do that? Truthfully, in a number of ways. But today we will focus on three of the biggest benefits of small business surveys and why it’s time to employ this strategy at your own business.

Benefits of Small Business Surveys

If you’ve been in business for a while, you probably already know the value of customer feedback. The problem is, you might not be sure how to collect it. Or perhaps you’re utilizing outdated, ineffective means for collecting it.

With live small business surveys, you get virtually instant feedback on any subject you choose. Then, it’s up to you how you’ll use that data. But these three benefits of small business surveys will give you a great idea of where to start.

1. Competitive pricing

That fine balance between pricing that’s too low and too high can be tough to strike. You want to charge enough to earn a profit, but not too much that your consumers will look elsewhere for cheaper alternatives. Of course, a big part of pricing your own offerings means doing your research into what your competitors are charging. Combined with that research, hearing from consumers directly is especially helpful.

When your small business launches a survey inquiring about pricing, including for services, offerings, and even other costs like shipping, you can keep your finger on the pulse of what consumers are likely to pay.

Let’s look at a few survey question examples you might use to get pricing feedback from consumers.

Example #1: Comparing Pricing with Competitors

One way to use small business services is to get feedback about your pricing versus your competitors’, or at least how your target customers perceive it.

To get this feedback, your survey question could look like this:

Compared to Competitors, “Your Business’s” Products are Priced:

- A) Much Lower

- B) Lower

- C) Equal

- D) Higher

- E) Much Higher

Then, respondents could send their response by texting the letter that corresponds with their answer. The Swift Polling dashboard will track this data in real-time for you.

Example #2: Pricing New Offerings

Another way to put these surveys to work for you is for pricing new offerings. Before you launch or create a product, it’s helpful to know what your target audience would be willing to spend on it.

Here’s an example of the type of question that gets you this feedback:

I would be willing to pay $450 for (product/service/offering):

- Somewhat Agree

- Agree

- Strongly Agree

- Disagree

- Strongly Disagree

2. Improving your offerings

As terrific as your products or services are, they can always be improved, right?

Hearing directly from your customers about what would make them better is invaluable for small business owners. That way, you not only know exactly what they want, but you get helpful feedback specific not only to your market, but your particular offering.

For example, you could create an open-ended question to share with existing customers. This question could ask them to share what they love most about your offering, as well as what would make them love it even more. Based on the responses you get, you’ll get an idea of what’s working well, as well as what the majority of people want to see next.

3. Understanding your customer

The better you know and understand your target market, the better you are able to sell to them! That’s why many small business surveys are built around getting to know your existing customers. Based on these insights, you develop a better understanding of your target audience demographics. Then, you can use this data to target ads and other marketing efforts toward lookalike audiences.

(We cover everything you need to know about creating demographic survey questions in this post)

Create Small Business Surveys with Swift Polling

Now that we’ve covered three big benefits of small business surveys, it’s time for you to experience them for yourself! Swift Polling has all of the tools you need to get the feedback you’re looking for. Choose from SMS polling, web polls, Q&As, and all of the other audience interaction software you need to get the job done.

Sign up for free today and start polling!