Customer Satisfaction Survey Questions & Best Practices

Surveys are a great versatile tool for measuring customer satisfaction. Through surveys, you can reach a large number of customers and get various types of feedback. However, survey fatigue is a real issue. If you want to get responses, you need a strategic well-crafted customer satisfaction survey.

In this article, we explain how to create a customer satisfaction survey, discuss the rules for effective survey questions, and share best practices for conducting and analyzing customer satisfaction surveys. 

What Is a Customer Satisfaction Survey?

A customer satisfaction survey is a tool used by businesses to assess the level of customers’ satisfaction with certain products or services. It involves asking a series of questions to gather feedback on various customer touchpoints. 

The purpose of customer satisfaction surveys is to gauge customers' opinions and gain insights into areas that need improvement. Thanks to customer satisfaction surveys, companies can better understand customer needs, expectations, and preferences. Leveraging that information, they can make data-driven decisions and improve the overall customer experience.

Through conducting customer satisfaction surveys and analyzing responses, businesses can identify their perceived strengths and weaknesses, incorporate customer feedback into the product roadmap, and track the success of iterations over time. Customer satisfaction surveys deal with a range of topics such as product quality, customer service, ease of use, responsiveness, pricing, brand loyalty, etc. 

How To Create a Customer Satisfaction Survey?

Creating a customer satisfaction survey requires planning and preparation. The survey needs to be well-timed, have a logical flow, and include clear unbiased questions. Follow these steps to carry out a successful customer satisfaction survey. 

Define your objectives

What is the purpose of the survey? What do you want to measure? Ask yourself these questions to make sure your survey is effective and straightforward. 

Select the survey tool 

Online survey platforms allow you to create user-friendly well-designed surveys in no time. There are many customer satisfaction survey tools available, such as Typeform or SurveyMonkey, so choose one that matches your needs and expectations. 

Craft the survey questions

With your key objectives in mind, come up with clear and concise questions. Your questions need to be specific without nudging the respondents toward any particular answer. Put the questions in a logical order that imitates your customer’s journey with your product. 

Use rating scales

Rating scales such as 1-5 or Likert scale are a great way to gather quantitative customer feedback. Make sure you stick to one rating scale throughout the survey and invite the respondents to follow up on their rating with a more detailed answer. 

Keep it short

While you might want to gather as much feedback as possible, longer surveys have a lower participation rate. Keep your surveys brief so that they don’t take up too much of your customers’ time. 

Run a test

Before launching the survey, test it with a small group to make sure it fulfills its purpose and has a logical flow. Edit or replace unclear questions.

Distribute the survey 

Send out your survey through the channels your customers use the most. This may include email invitations, website pop-ups, or social media posts. Consider incentivizing participation to encourage higher response rates.

Analyze the results 

After collecting the responses, analyze the data to identify patterns and areas of improvement. Choose an appropriate data analysis tool depending on your survey method and the type of collected data. An AI-powered customer intelligence tool like Essense will not only analyze your data in seconds but also will extract actionable insights for your business.  

Customer Satisfaction Survey Questions

To get the most out of your survey, you need to craft questions that directly address your survey objectives and are easy to understand for your respondents. Consider these guidelines when writing your survey questions. 

Use different question types

To get as much information as possible, use a mix of multiple-choice questions, rating scales, and open-ended questions. Collecting both quantitative and qualitative data is a good way to ensure the accuracy and applicability of the survey results. 

Ask specific and targeted questions

If your questions are too vague, you will be left with no actionable feedback. Focus on the purpose of your survey and address it directly in your questions. You can choose to ask your customer about their overall experience with your product or select one aspect and analyze it in depth. For example, if you want to assess customer service, ask about response times, professionalism, and problem resolution.

Use clear and simple language

To make the survey relevant to your customer, write your questions in simple language your customers use. Avoid business terms and jargon that may be unfamiliar to the respondents. You can use your existing qualitative feedback to get an idea of what words your customers use to describe your product. 

Balance positive and negative feedback

Craft your survey questions in a way that would help you get a better understanding of both your strengths and weaknesses. Thanks to criticism, you can learn to better satisfy your customers' needs, thus improving your retention rate and customer satisfaction. On the flip side, if you know your strengths, you can highlight them in your marketing materials and make sure that particular feature doesn’t get removed anytime soon. 

Provide response options

When it comes to multiple-choice questions, make sure you provide the respondents with a variety of response options. Consider the extremes but don’t forget to include several neutral answers as well. Add options such as “not applicable” or “not sure” for more accurate results. 

Consider the customer journey

In your questions, address specific touchpoints to discover potential hurdles. Ask about pre-purchase experiences, the purchase process, product usage, customer support, and post-purchase follow-up to get a holistic understanding of the customer experience. 

Include open-ended questions

While your questions should cover the most important aspects of your product or service, chances are you will miss some things that are important to your customer. Leverage open-ended questions that allow your customer to provide additional comments and discuss something that was not covered in the survey questions.

Sample Customer Satisfaction Survey Questions

Your specific survey questions should largely depend on your business and the purpose of the survey. However, here are some customer satisfaction survey question examples that can help you get started. 

1. How would you rate your overall satisfaction with our product?
2. How likely are you to recommend our company to others?
3. How would you rate the quality of our customer service?
4. How easy was it to navigate our website?
5. Did our product meet your expectations? Please explain.
6. How satisfied are you with the resolution of your issues?
7. How frequently do you use our product?
8. What improvements would you suggest to enhance your experience with us?
9. How well does our product address your needs?
10. Is there anything else you would like to share about your experience with our company?

Customer Satisfaction Survey Best Practices

• Send the survey at an appropriate time in the customer journey, for example, after purchase or interaction with customer support. This way, you’re reaching out to the customer while they still remember their experience in detail and can give you more specific feedback. 

• Many users will want to take your survey on their smartphones, so it should have a mobile-friendly design and be easy to navigate on small screens. 

• If your survey is longer, include a progress bar to let respondents know how many questions they have left. This can prevent unnecessary frustration and improve your survey response rate. 

• At the beginning of the survey, assure respondents that their feedback will be kept confidential and will not be attributed to them personally. Anonymity and confidentiality can help your customers feel more comfortable with expressing valuable criticism. 

• Compare your survey results to industry benchmarks or internal historical data to gain insights into how your business is performing compared to competitors or past performance. With this information, you can identify trends, gauge the success of your iterations and identify areas you need to work on. 

Customer Satisfaction Survey Software

To carry out your customer satisfaction survey and close the feedback loop, you will need specific tools to carry out the survey and analyze the results. Some online survey platforms such as Typeform or SurveyMonkey provide basic analysis. However, if you want to dig deep and analyze your qualitative feedback, you can leverage specialized feedback analysis software. As an AI-powered customer feedback solution, Essense can take care of your customer satisfaction survey analysis and extract ready-to-use actionable insights in seconds.