• by Jess Nelson , January 15, 2016

Email is the most popular channel for soliciting customer feedback, but response rates are a measly 2%, according to a recent study by mobile survey company SurveyMe.

The survey polled 2,500 businesses on their customer feedback strategies and discovered that 88% of companies believe that customer feedback is important, but only 50% of businesses actually have a strategy in place for collecting the thoughts of their customers. Only 43% of North American businesses are actively collecting customer feedback, according to the report.

Email is by far the most popular way of soliciting customer feedback, but SurveyMe’s study outlines several key issues with how marketers are using the email channel to collect feedback.

First and foremost, the average email response rate hovers between 1% to 2% and below national averages. MailChimp’s latest industry benchmark report on email engagement estimates that open rates range from 13% to 27% by industry and open rates to range from 2% to 5% by industry.

In addition to paltry metrics, customer feedback is also not being collected in real-time.

“You really need to get customer feedback at that real-time point of existence,” says Lee Evans, chief executive office at Survey Me. “It goes hand-in-hand -- the faster you get feedback the faster you can make better business decisions.”

Evans says mobile-driven geotargeting is the key to boosting customer engagement. Since it’s closer to their actual location, it is more relevant, he says.  

“Where do you want people to give you feedback from?” asks Evans. “What’s closer is what’s the most relevant for the consumer, and it helps companies see where market opportunities are, what channels they should prioritize, and where their resources should go.”

Evans also recommends that marketers consider rewarding customers who participate in a survey. Feedback response rates increased by up to 350 percent when a reward incentive was offered, according to the report.

 “At the end of the day it always comes down to three things: more customers, more customers coming back, and more customers spending more,” says Evans.