But how can you stop surveys from being a hassle, encourage more glowing reviews and gain the insights you need to keep ahead of the competition with your customer service?

Marketers need a survey that ticks all these boxes without the need to tick too many boxes.

So what if you could run a surprisingly sophisticated customer service survey on every email your brand sends – as a banner header or as part of your email signature? 

Here are seven pointers for the perfect one-click email banner survey:

1. Make it quick

'If you’d like to answer our short survey, it’ll only take 10 minutes' – 10 minutes? I don’t think so. The shorter the survey the more chance of response. Responding to an email banner survey takes just one click. One click. Done.

2. Be clearly creative

Surveys are a serious business. The problem is, they look it too. Rows of black and white questions and boxes to tick. But with an email banner survey, you can keep your campaign creative to add to the impact – especially if it’s at the top of your email.

3. Make it the start of something

While the survey can give you a simple snapshot of your service, that single click can also trigger a range of follow-ups.

If it’s positive: Now’s your chance to dig deeper. A click on ‘good’ or ‘very good’ can direct the respondent to an online survey or ask them to write a Google review/comment on a specific website. It’s a great way to turn your customers into brand advocates.

If it’s negative ...

Let’s hope it never is. But if it is, then you’ve got a chance to put things right. You need a banner survey that will alert you to any service problems in real time so you can immediately contact the respondent, not wait for a report.

4. Reward the right people

A big advantage of an email banner survey is that it can be personalised for the sender (for example, individual members of your sales team) and the service they’re providing. So when the results are reported it’s clear who is rated highest by your customers and you can reward them accordingly.

5. Testing, testing

As with all email branding elements, you should A/B test to see which survey format gets the most responses. Test the survey question, the images or see if surveys added to everyday business emails get a better response than emails dedicated to the survey.

6. Check your tech

A one-click survey needs the tech to support it. Let’s say your satisfaction scale has five images (say, from a big frown to a big smile), each of these must be separately clickable and linked to triggering the correct follow-up. Make sure your email software has the image-mapping technology to achieve this.

7. Real Returns

Email banner surveys are yet another way that email branding can boost your ROI, especially if the surveys are run regularly over time so you can really see the resulting service improvements. After all, it’s helping you to keep customers, increase referrals and beat the competition on service. It’s a win, win, win.

It might take just one click, but it’s clear that a banner survey is surprisingly sophisticated.

You get feedback insights. You get more reviews. You resolve any issues. You reward the right people. And you get all the returns of great customer service.

For more information, visit www.rocketseed.com. You can also follow Rocketseed on Facebook or on Twitter.