Our goal at KnoCommerce is to provide the tools you need to get to KNO (pun intended) everything about your customers.
But knowledge is only half the battle!
If you aren’t collecting the right data and asking the right questions, you could be sitting on a big pile of data that doesn’t really go anywhere. While we provide a question bank of 200+ questions to help get you started, you’ll still need to ensure you’re asking relevant questions to your customers that lead to real results.
This is where conversion rate optimization (CRO) comes into play.
Historically, KNO has been thought of as strictly an attribution-based survey tool. While we do offer in-depth attribution insights, there are a ton of ways KNO helps you improve growth across all digital channels.
But there are some tips and tricks you should follow to really drive your conversion rates using customer data.
In this blog, we’ll explore some of the crucial do’s and don’t’s of using KNO for CRO to drive your revenue sky-high.
But first…
What is CRO? And why use KNO to improve it?
Let’s get this out of the way for those unfamiliar. As we mentioned above, CRO is conversion rate optimization. It essentially means making changes to your site to improve your conversion rate.
With KNO, you can learn more about your customers and uncover what drives their purchases and also what turns them away. This lets you fine-tune the purchase funnel for individual customers through personalization, making the experience hyper-relevant to them.
If done strategically, CRO with KNO (that has a nice ring to it!) can not only help you get deeper knowledge of your customers, but it can help improve every other aspect of your business, from performance to ad creative and email.
Now onto the do’s and don’t’s!
The do’s for using post-purchase surveys for CRO
To maximize the impact of your post-purchase surveys, follow these essential do’s for using customer insights to drive meaningful CRO.
DO keep asking attribution questions
They’ll never go out of style!
Asking attribution questions is still important, but they must be more granular than just “social media” and “Google.” It’s important to understand if there are certain trends or characteristics aligned with different platforms.
For example, Facebook conversions could primarily be “for me” purchases, while TikTok may primarily be gift purchases. You won’t know until you ask—and that will help you craft messaging that resonates with your audience on each platform.
DO simplify questions where you have an idea of the answer
Complex = confusing.
Ask simple selection questions (e.g., single or multiple choice) when you already know the likely answer. This hooks customers early and shows the survey won’t be long.
If you’re a supplement brand, you could ask a question like, “What is your biggest fitness goal?” and provide easy-to-answer blanket options like
- Build muscle
- Lose weight
- Improve stamina
- Tone my body
From there, you can ask for deeper follow-ups, but you want to hook the customer as quickly as possible so they’re engaged to finish the rest of the survey.
DO use the FLIPR framework
While it may sound like a robotic fish, the FLIPR framework (frequency, lifestyle, identifiers, preferences, recipient) is actually a very useful framework to help guide your question selection.
Below are some examples of each part of the framework to demonstrate the nuances between them:
- Frequency
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- How regularly do you plan on using/wearing/taking our product?
- How often do you buy products like this?
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- Lifestyle
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- What other brands do you look up to?
- Which of these social media platforms do you use regularly?
- What are your hobbies?
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- Identifiers
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- What type of home chef are you?
- What kind of property are you purchasing for?
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- Preferences
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- How do you prefer your clothing to fit?
- Do you prefer your beauty products to be lighter, darker or to perfectly match your skintone?
- What results are you looking for immediately?
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- Recipient?
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- Who are you purchasing for?
- What is your relationship to that person?
- What made you feel this would be a good gift?
DO ask problem statement questions
Your window of relevant information gathering is limited, so make the most of it by cutting out the obvious.
Some objections are obvious or previously known, so take those out of the equation when asking problem statement questions and really drill down.
To accomplish this, you could ask something like, “Outside of price, did anything almost prevent you from purchasing?” or cut straight to the chase and ask, “What problem are we solving for you today?”
This way, the customer can respond with something that isn’t so surface-level.
DO ask 6 – 10 questions
It’s totally fine if customers don’t complete every question. At KNO, we see an average 80% completion rate on surveys that are 6-10 questions. The response rate (i.e. how many customers answer the first question) averages at 45%.
No matter how far they get into the survey, we’ll capture all the data they’ve provided even if they quit early. However, it’s still advantageous to put the questions you’re most interested in receiving answers for closer to the start of the survey.
DO be strategic about open text question placement
Tying into the above, when asking longer open-text questions, place them either as follow-ups or at the end of the survey to avoid deterring customers intimidated by a lengthier response.
DO leverage emailed-out surveys
If you’re on KNO’s pro plan, you can use emailed out surveys to unlock further insights and learn more about your customers. This is sent with a simple link redirecting customers to a survey page—perfect for collecting data from shoppers after they’ve received your product and have had time to use it.
DO set up audiences
Setting up audiences gives you more dynamic lenses to view your data.
Whether you’re using a product lens, channel lens, demographic, or anything else, cross-examining survey responses against each other allows for more meaningful insights and provides deeper personalization opportunities.
DO segment surveys
One size doesn’t necessarily fit all in the survey world.
Asking different surveys to different groups simply provides more relevant data. When applicable, segmenting surveys allows you to go deeper and ask more relevant questions to customers.
For example, you can provide different surveys for new customers vs returning customers to understand how they found you or why they returned.
You could also segment surveys based on things like individual products. This is a great tactic to use for a new product launch so you can fine-tune your marketing moving forward after discovering what customers loved about your product as well as how they found it.
DO routinely update the survey
A little TLC is always a good thing!
Surveys should be updated with new questions every 4 – 8 weeks. This keeps it fresh for returning customers while also allowing you to fine-tune your questions based on customer responses, drop-offs, and more.
The don’t’s: CRO mistakes to avoid with KNO
When using KNO for CRO, it’s just as important to know what not to do as it is to know what works. Here are common pitfalls to avoid.
DON’T ask all open-text questions
This is THE #1 mistake of CRO agencies.
We get it—trying to gather as much insight as possible from one survey is tempting. But in reality, it’s a recipe for low completion rates. Instead, spread questions out over time and pair survey responses with tools like heatmaps and customer interviews for a more holistic view.
One of the tools we recommend is heatmap, which complements KNO by providing rich behavioral insights. It helps you understand customer actions and profiles without overwhelming them with overly detailed surveys.
As Dylan Ander, founder of HeatMap, explains:
“Heatmap is the only tool that tells you how to optimize your website’s performance year-round. As the only heatmap that ties revenue to every individual element on your website, you know exactly what on your website is/isn’t driving revenue for you. With very little time, you can optimize the most important parts of your website, such as mobile navigation, product pages, and more. All the other heatmaps show you clicks, not revenue… do you pay your rent with clicks? I don’t think so! Focus on what matters on your website, what’s driving revenue and what isn’t. That’s why we built heatmap.”
Dylan Ander, Founder, heatmap
DON’T try to get too creative with how you ask questions
Yes, there are a lot of features and a lot of cool things you can do with KNO. It’s easy to get carried away and create your magnum opus.
But reign it in! You need to keep your customer’s experience top-of-mind.
It’s okay to ask a simple yes or no question that then leads to follow-ups for deeper insights instead of going all-out right away.
DON’T just ask about the experience
While a customer’s purchase experience is super important, numbers don’t really tell much of the story.
Questions like “How would you rate your experience today?” and “How easy was it to navigate through our site?” get you a rating, not a response.
To dive deeper, we want to know the why. The problem statement questions mentioned earlier are the best route for this so you can gather more meaningful and actionable information.
DON’T lead with a qualitative question
Rate this blog from 1 – 10 😉
Just kidding (unless it’s a 10).
Traditions are traditions for a reason. In our opinion, you HAVE to lead with an attribution question. Customers are used to answering “How’d you hear about us?” questions first, so let them start with something familiar that’s still useful.
So, how’d you find this blog? (See what we did there?)
DON’T just ask 3 questions
We know this is a retread of one of the “do’s,” but it’s incredibly important.
By just asking 1 – 3 questions, you’re leaving money on the table. Since post-purchase surveys are optional—those who want to answer, will answer.
Plus, as mentioned above, we’ll still track responses from surveys that end up uncompleted.
DON’T set it and forget it
CRO is an ongoing effort, and your survey should reflect that.
KNO makes it easy to make quick changes and updates based on data, so you should be updating and optimizing your surveys frequently.
Need help or ideas? Just email steven@knocommerce.com or message him in Slack.
DON’T offer an incentive
Free stuff is nice, but incentives don’t really change engagement.
If anything, customers may rush through and answer dishonestly just to get something for free or a discount on their next purchase.
Instead, just use the survey as an opportunity for customers to share any thoughts they’d like, and if they don’t want to, that’s okay too!
CRO: an ongoing process
CRO is an ongoing process, but in the end, it more than pays for itself (literally).
It may all seem daunting, but we’re confident that if you add KNO to your CRO tech stack and follow this list of do’s and don’ts, you’ll continuously increase revenue through strong, consistent optimization based on a deeper understanding of your customers.
Interested? Start for free here.
Need more inspiration first? Download our question bank of 200+ questions.