People have a love/hate relationship with surveys.

Nobody loves them and everyone hates them… unless you keep them short and/or incentivize the completion.

There are four main surveys that you can use to make everything about your business better–especially your marketing and retention.

Below is a list of the ones I like to use and some questions I like to include:

1. Post-tour surveys

The goal of these surveys is to get an idea of your prospects’ first impressions of your space and what they are looking for in an office environment. This stuff is gold.

Their responses literally become your ad copy and marketing messaging.

Typical questions might include:

1. What are you looking for in an office space?
2. What did you like about our space?
3. What was missing that would make us a perfect fit?

After your prospects tour your space, tell them you’ll be following up with a quick survey link in exchange for a small reward.

Doing this also gives you a reason to follow up with them as part of your sales process.

And don’t underestimate these responses. I wasn’t joking when I said they are gold.

2. Onboarding surveys

When new members join, it’s a key time to gather more information about their needs, goals, and where they heard about you first.

Make this a mandatory process. It will become invaluable to you over time.

Here are some key questions:

1. Where did you hear about us first? (i.e. Google, Social Media, Referral, Event, Billboard/Flyer, Other)
2. Do you anticipate your needs changing in 6-12 months? If so, how?
3. If you could wave a magic wand, what could we do to provide an 11 out of 10 experience for you?

As a marketer, the first question is the most important to me. Tracking where your members found you and having that data over time is absolutely critical.

You might just find that you get most of your members from one source (i.e. Google). Or that members with the highest lifetime value come from referrals. Or members who are happiest find you through the events you host.

Whatever this is, it’s crucial to get this info up front so you can retrospectively see trends and proactively make your space even better-suited to their needs.

The rest is gravy.

3. Member feedback surveys

Much like the up-front onboarding survey, the member feedback survey helps you gauge the satisfaction levels of your members and also determine if their needs/wants/goals are changing so you can adapt.

There are lots of ways to do these feedback surveys and don’t expect most of your members to reply. Keep them short (3-5 questions) and try to ask questions most likely to give you actionable data.

If you can incentivize the completion of the surveys it will go a long way.

Sample questions:

1. What feature or benefit of our space do you enjoy most?
2. Why did you decide to choose us over any other coworking space?
3. What could we do to better serve your needs (no ideas are off limits)?

Your questions will vary, but real member feedback is what makes a great experience possible.

4. Exit surveys

When your members leave, you have two option:

1. Be disappointed
2. Use it as an opportunity

Running exit surveys can tell whether people are leaving for the new WeWork location or because they’re moving into a traditional office lease.

While you may already know why each member leaves, there’s nothing like having a spreadsheet with all that data to review in the future.

Not only can you act on it quickly—and even retain a few members along the way—but you can also find hidden sources of dissatisfaction and fix them.

Again, keep it simple and make it part of the process when they hand back their key.

Some ideas:

1. Why are you leaving?
2. Where are you going next?
3. What could we do to get you to stay?
4. How can we improve our services for other members?

Surveys may seem like a chore to you and your members, but they don’t have to be.

Offer incentives for completion (free meeting room times, movie tickets, local coffee shop gift cards, etc.) or just keep it short and informal.

You could even walk around with an iPad if you wanted to ask people quick questions as you see them in the hallway. It doesn’t need to be complicated.

Are you running any cool surveys? I would loooooove to know what you do. Hit me up.