A couple of days ago a reader asked me if I was aware of any online survey tools that would redirect a survey taker to a a series of web pages based on their response to a chosen question.

I was aware of at least one (I’m sure many can do this) because I use it myself in several campaigns aimed at measuring satisfaction and then generating reviews and testimonials.

The survey and form building tool I use is called Wufoo and it allows you to assign rules to questions and answers that help control what happens when the survey taker chooses a certain answer. So if they say yes to a certain question they can be directed to the page created for yes answer or if they say no, they go to the no page or get the no email. Because Wufoo integrates with a number of the more popular email service providers, this can be a great way to certain responders into a drip campaign or niche newsletter based on their specific response.

Measuring results and getting feedback from customers offers one of the surest ways to get better. Any organization that gets great reviews and tons of referrals makes the collection of data from customers a high priority.

Simply asking your customers how likely it is that they would refer your business to friends and colleagues, ala Fred Reichheld’s The Ultimate Question, is a great, simple way to gauge how you are doing and open doors for reviews and referrals.

With that thought in mind here’s a very practical way to integrate data collection with the generation of referrals or proactive stimulation of reviews on sites like Google Places and Yelp.

• Create a survey using a tool with rule setting like Wufoo
• Use a simple question like – Would you refer us on a scale of 1-10
• Set up rules for the 1-6 folks that sends them to a form to try to figure out what went wrong or create a process to call them and see what you can fix
• Set up rules for 7-8 folks that sends them to a form that tries to get them to tell you one thing you could improve upon
• Set up rules for the 9-10 folks that sends them to a page that features your Yelp or Google Place page reviews and outlines the process for how they might add a review (if you really want to push it tell them about a special offer you have for Yelpers only) or create a process to call them and ask if you could talk about reviews, case studies, referrals or testimonials

The process described above can be a great addition to the referral and review generation routines, but even if what you really find out is that you are getting mostly 2-3 scores, you’ll be on the path to fixing what needs to be fixed in order to turn your business into a referral engine.