Writing a Channel Partner Satisfaction Survey? Here Are What Questions to Ask

Great leaders listen. They understand the importance of keeping their ears – and a line of communication – open when it comes to their teams. With channel partners, modern tools like PRM platforms make it simple to continuously monitor KPIs. But there’s nothing like a good, old-fashioned survey to net honest and straight-from-the-horse’s-mouth opinions from partners.

How do you best administer a survey to channel partners? Keep the KISS principle in mind (Keep It Simple, Stupid). You’re going to get the best results from a survey when the questions are simple and easy to understand.

A busy channel partner is going to be discouraged by surveys administered too frequently, or are overly complicated. Be respectful of their time and keep surveys to-the-point and easy to answer. There’s a reason why clickable 1-5 scale or agree/disagree-type answers are so popular: they’re simple and quick. Use them, when appropriate. Fillable text answer fields are necessary for some questions, but be strategic with their use because they’re time-consuming. Another absolute must: make survey responses anonymous. You’re much more likely to get honest – and thus, insightful – responses.

How do you best administer a survey to channel partners? Keep the KISS principle in mind (Keep It Simple, Stupid). You’re going to get the best results from a survey when the questions are simple and easy to understand.

A busy channel partner is going to be discouraged by surveys administered too frequently, or are overly complicated. Be respectful of their time and keep surveys to-the-point and easy to answer. There’s a reason why clickable 1-5 scale or agree/disagree-type answers are so popular: they’re simple and quick. Use them, when appropriate. Fillable text answer fields are necessary for some questions, but be strategic with their use because they’re time-consuming. Another absolute must: make survey responses anonymous. You’re much more likely to get honest – and thus, insightful – responses.

Survey Questions About The Fruitfulness of the Relationship

• How profitable are we to work for?
• Generally, how easy is it to sell our products?
• Did we accurately represent the sales cycle and process during onboarding?
• Will you still sell our product/service a year from now?
• How motivating are our program incentives?
• Are our partner tiers clear? Do they seem fair and achievable?
• Are you overall satisfied with the relationship?

Survey Questions About The Perceived Quality of the Products

• Do you believe in the quality of our product/service?
• How do you believe our products measure against the competition?
• Do you co-sell similar or competing products?  
• How often do you receive customer feedback? Is customer feedback usually positive or negative? What feedback have you received about our product/service from your customers?

Survey Questions About Partner Training & Sales Enablement

• Do we provide all the learning resources you need? How effective is our training format? What’s the biggest hurdle in completing training and learning tracks?
• Do we offer a sufficient number of partner resources? How easy are resources to find? How easy is it to understand how to use them? What hurdles prevent you from using partner resources?
• How effective are the sales and marketing materials we provide? Do you understand how to use them?
• What new materials could we provide to better support you in sales interactions?

Survey Questions About Partner Interactions with CAMs & the Company

• When you reach out to us, how helpful is our support team? How easy is it to get in touch? What are the barriers to reaching out? Do you feel listened to when you contact us?
• Do you feel like a valued member of our team? Do you feel that you know what’s going on at our company? Do you understand our strategies and goals?
• How helpful are meetings with your CAM?
• If you could change one thing about our partner program, what would it be? Do you have any ideas you’d like to pass along to us? Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Gaining insights into all of the above questions would no doubt benefit your program, but you simply can’t expect partners to spend more than a few minutes on your satisfaction survey. Therefore, you have to strategically prioritize which insights you need more.

This is why partner program KPIs are so important, particularly those tied to measuring engagement. Firstly, you will need a PRM solution that tracks interactions and organizes them by partner, sub-group, individual materials, material type, and specific interaction (click vs. share).

Analyze how current data compares to past periods and possible weak spots. These observations should then lead to hypotheses that you can test with the channel partner satisfaction surveys. For example:

• If an audit of your partner content library reveals that materials generate fewer clicks than a year ago, focus survey questions on whether partners like the topics and chosen medium, as well as whether there’s confusion finding relevant pieces within the portal.
• If registered deals stay flat despite an increasing number of activated partners, design questions to find barriers to finding leads, such as subpar materials or a lack of training.
• If your program churn rate is high, probe into what could be the source of partners’ dissatisfaction, possibilities ranging from an enticing competitor to mismanaged expectations or lackluster incentives.

Keep in mind, not every query needs to be driven by partner data, alone. Other good reasons to include a question in your satisfaction survey include:

• You haven’t addressed the talking point in a while – circulating through various themes helps you minimize blind spots.
• Your CAMs notice patterns emerging in their conversations with partners, suggesting that there may be underlying issues.
• You recently made significant changes to your partner program framework, PRM system, or materials and want to gauge the level of success.
  

The wealth of information your channel partner survey collected shouldn’t be shoved in a corner to collect dust. Use it! Are there things that survey results indicate you’re doing right? That’s great – continue with the good work. Are there some rough patches revealed by partner responses? Here are tips on best leveraging this useful insight:

• Use noteworthy or surprising survey satisfaction results as a possible talking point between CAMs and partners.  The downside of a survey based on numeric ratings is that it misses important context as to why channel partners may be dissatisfied. Coach your account managers on how to gather further intelligence (and properly document the responses) without coming across as defensive during the conversations.  

• Present the satisfaction survey results with channel partners to convey transparency and trustworthiness. Want to really be an open book? Share the results with partners, not shying away from not-so-flattering results and asking for input on a correction. Chances are, they’re already aware of shortcomings and may have some useful ideas for improvement. What’s more, this action emphasizes the reciprocity you share with partners, as well as suggests an increased level of accountability to improve.

• Benchmark satisfaction survey results to compare results over time. Don’t look at surveys as islands unto themselves. They’re just a snapshot in time. Comparing a survey’s results to past ones will shed light on trends and help you see if the process paths you’re taking to improve are the right ones.
  

Your satisfaction survey questions no doubt will illuminate opportunities to improve your channel partner program (no one is perfect, after all). With knowledge in hand, use the articles below to inspire your future strategies.

• 7 Steps to Successfully Onboard Partners – An unfortunate number of programs experience steep drop-offs in participation before partners even finish onboarding. If your PRM data and survey results suggest that partners are dissatisfied with this early stage of their journey, compare your practices against our seven steps for onboarding to determine potential program shortcomings.

• 8 Strategies to Avoid Channel Conflicts With Partners – You don’t need a channel partner satisfaction survey to tell you that conflict can immediately sour a relationship. Limit this common source of contention by having the right tools and strategies in place.
• Partner Portal Best Practices and Design Checklist – An outdated program portal (or lack thereof) can cause frustration or disinterest amongst channel partners. If your satisfaction survey results suggest that users are failing to find relevant resources or experience lags in turn-around time, it may be a sign that you need to revamp your PRM solution.
• The Ultimate Partner Journey Map Template – A newly recruited partner will have wildly different expectations and needs than a seasoned program vet. Use this template to define your partners’ journeys and hold your team accountable for creating tailored enablement strategies.