Automate Customer/Retailer Surveys at BTL Activations (Secret to Smarter Insights)

Let’s learn how to automate customer and retailer surveys at BTL activations to gain market insights and improve engagement.

Surveying is an essential part of BTL marketing. By collecting customer or retailer data like their feedback, preferences or pain points, BTL promoters can create targeted campaigns and improve audience engagement.

However, the survey data collected has to be error-free and easy to analyse. This isn’t possible to achieve with manual surveying methods like using paper forms. This is where field force automation software comes in.

But before we learn how to automate BTL activation surveys, let’s take a look at some common data collection challenges.

Challenges in Manual Survey Collection at BTL Activations

Here are the most common challenges employees face while collecting data during BTL campaigns.

1. Manual data entry

On ground promoters often record customer data on paper or spreadsheets which is not only time-consuming but also error prone. Plus, it’s not efficient to collect data of hundreds of consumers/retailers using paper forms.

It can lead to incomplete or inaccurate data recording. Plus, physical forms can be lost and there is no centralised database.

2. Fake Reports

How can you verify if the retailer feedback or customer details are correct or not. Many promoters, just to complete their targets, falsify customer interactions and fabricate the survey data to meet their goals. This practice is more common when field survey executives know no one is keeping a watch on them.

3. Delayed Survey Data Analysis

Manual data recording is a time-consuming process and involves multiple steps. First, an agent logs the customer data on a paper form. Then the form is accessed by the managers who digitalize the form. The customer data is then segregated and analysed using outdated spreadsheet formulas.

These steps can cause delays in making campaign adjustments. Lack of necessary fields in forms can lead to inconsistent or incomplete user responses.

4. Lack of survey team tracking

Lack of real-time tracking of employees collecting surveys can affect their accountability and ownership of tasks. They may reach important sites with potential customers late, may misreport their visits, can put in fake visits and whatnot. There, the efficacy of surveys and their collection process is questionable.

How to Automate BTL Data Capture with TrackoField?

A BTL promoter at a mall kiosk encounters hundreds of potential customers/retailers. Their feedback, challenge or specific demands can be instrumental in optimizing future BTL campaigns. Take a look at how TrackoField automates survey data collection.

1. Survey Data Collection with Custom, Easy-to-share Forms

TrackoField allows managers to create survey documents with customized forms. Managers can use it to add columns and fields, with all necessary fields and attach them to specific tasks.

TrackoField offers more than 10 types of fields to capture BTL activation data. These fields can be pre-set by managers or modified by BTL agents. The fields can contain text, images, signatures, dropdown menu, checkboxes and numbered fields. Managers can also make filing the fields optional or mandatory depending on the responses’ importance.

How can agents access these forms?

Agents access these forms through their app and can share them with customers via a URL or QR code. The links can be sent through SMS or emails as well. Customers simply click on the link or scan the QR code, fill in field survey data asked for, and the information is recorded & shared with managers.

This approach helps speed up the slow and traditional survey process. It also simplifies the collection and analytics of customer preferences, product ratings, service feedback, additional inquiries, and more.

2. Efficient Survey Task Management

TrackoField allows BTL managers to create and attach survey forms in the tasks of their promoters only. This helps maintain a timeline of the surveying process. Managers can view when and where the task was started/completed and how many survey forms the agent collected.

Often times, BTL promoters record valuable survey data using audios or images. These can be uploaded by promoters in their app through an attachment option in their task. On-ground BTL promoters can also attach digital signatures of customers or images of successful completion of tasks like maybe sample distributions.

The best part? All the media files are time-stamped and geotagged for further authentication.

3. Live Tracking of Survey Process Across Activation Sites

As a BTL marketing manager, you need complete visibility of the field survey teams. You have to know where they are operating and if they are completing the tasks on time. Using real-time tracking, TrackoField provides live updates on BTL promoters’ field movements and visits.

You can also check their survey progress in real-time and rectify any issues that may affect the entire survey process. Live tracking also prevents untruthful visits to retail outlets or customer sites. BTL promoters can verify if surveys were done at the actual customer or retailer sites by comparing the locational activity with the task timeline.

Types of Surveys in BTL Activations You Can Manage with TrackoField

Here are 4 main important types of surveys in BTL advertising that matter and can digitized and automated with field force automation software like ours.

1. Customer Feedback Survey

These surveys collect data related to customers’ feedback or opinions on products and services. This helps gauge customers satisfaction, tackle their pain points and identify areas of improvement.

2. Retailer Feedback Survey

This type of survey is meant to understand retailers’ POV on product performance, customer demands, and any sales challenges they face.

3. Event Experience Survey

BTL promoters often hold product demonstrations and workshops. It’s important to know how these events went to check their efficacy. Thus, agents take immediate feedback from the audience on the product, the venue and staff presentation.

4. Brand Awareness and Market Research Survey

BTL activation teams have to be aware of new developments in their field and what are the latest trends among consumers. Surveying is done to gather insight on brand perception in the market, new trends and consumer behaviours.

Wrapping Up

Surveying is an essential part of BTL marketing campaigns. Gathering valuable feedback from customers and retailers helps to understand the market, consumer sentiments and improve marketing strategies. However, this requires accurate data collection on a large scale which is only possible using automation.

Manually filling forms is an inefficient way of data capture and leads to time and resource wastage. The alternative? Well, field force automation software like TrackoField speeds up data collection using shareable forms which can be filled by users themselves.

Employees can also capture images and voice notes for feedback. This way, employees get to simplify their job and engage with more customers while managers get error-free and organised survey data. To learn more about automated surveying, schedule a free demo of TrackoField.

FAQs

• How can automation improve customer and retailer surveys at BTL activations?

  Automation makes the data collection process fast and error-free. Field agents don’t have to rely on manual form filing and can use digital forms to instantly capture customer and retailer responses.
  This method of surveying improves accuracy, prevents discrepancies and helps collect data on a large scale.

• How can mobile surveys enhance customer participation in BTL activations?

  Mobile surveys are fast and easy to carry out. They are less prone to errors as the data is logged by customers themselves. They can file in their feedback, preferences and suggestions in digital survey forms. Hence, mobile surveys make customers feel more valued leading to better engagement.

• How can an agency use survey data to optimize future BTL campaigns?

  Surveying helps to collect customer or retailer data quickly and on a large scale. Software like TrackoField can generate detailed excel reports using this data.
  Managers can analyse these reports to identify which strategies work and which don’t, work on issues based on customer feedback and make better long-term decisions.