The Ultimate Guide to Creating Customer Satisfaction Surveys: Questions to Ask and Best Practices

Best practices for creating customer satisfaction surveys as a way to measure customer satisfaction

As a business owner, it is crucial to measure customer satisfaction, understand the customer journey and know how your customers fell about your company and products to improve customer experience continually. The best way to gain insight into customer satisfaction and experience is through conducting customer satisfaction surveys.

However, to create an effective and valuable customer satisfaction survey, you need to know the right questions to ask and the best practices for designing and conducting them. In this comprehensive guide, we will share the different types of customer satisfaction surveys, popular customer satisfaction survey questions, and best practices for creating effective surveys that provide insightful feedback. The most important thing in measuring your customer's satisfaction and getting feedback is asking the right customer satisfaction questions, good follow-up questions and knowing the purpose of customer satisfaction surveys. 

Customer satisfaction survey or feedback survey questions to ask:

Before you start creating your customer satisfaction survey, you need to know the right questions to ask. Here are some questions you can ask to measure the level of customer satisfaction:

1. Overall satisfaction level: On a scale of 0-10, how satisfied are you with our product/service?

2. Net Promoter Score (NPS): On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our product/service to a friend or colleague?

3. Customer effort score (CES): On a scale of 0-10, how much effort did you have to make to use our product/service?

4. Specific service/product-related questions: What did you like or dislike about our product/service? Which feature did you find the most useful? Which ones do you think need improvement?

5. Open-ended questions: Is there anything else you would like to share about your overall experience with our product/service?

How to ask the right questions? Best practices for creating customer surveys. 

Customer satisfaction surveys can help if you make them correctly. To get the most out of your customer satisfaction surveys, it is essential to follow these best practices:

1. Define the purpose of the survey: Before you start, define the purpose of your survey and what you want to achieve from it.

2. Keep it short and straightforward: Limit your survey questions to 10-15 and keep them simple, straightforward, and easily understandable.

3. Use different types of questions: Mix it up and use different types of questions, such as multiple-choice, ranking, and open-end, depending on your survey's purpose.

4. Create a balanced rating scale: Ensure your rating scale is balanced and consistent across all questions to get accurate and useful feedback.

5. Use customer-friendly language: Use language that is easy to understand and relatable to your customers.

6. Test your survey: Test your survey with a smaller group of customers to identify any issues and improve the survey before sending it out to the entire customer base.

Types of customer experience surveys and types of customer satisfaction survey:

There are various types of customer satisfaction surveys, including:

1. Product/service satisfaction survey: This survey measures customer satisfaction with your product or service.

2. Customer experience survey: This survey measures the overall customer experience and satisfaction with your entire business.

3. Customer feedback survey: This survey collects customer feedback on areas of the business, such as customer service or marketing, to identify areas of improvement.

4. Customer effort score survey: This survey measures the level of effort customers have to put in to use your product or service.

Customer satisfaction survey examples to ask in your customer satisfaction surveys:

Here are some popular customer satisfaction survey questions you can use to create your surveys:

1. How would you rate the quality of our product/service?

2. How helpful was our customer service team?

3. How likely are you to buy from us again?

4. How did our product/service meet your expectations?

5. On a scale of 0-10, how easy was it to navigate our website?

You can also ask demographic questions to determine your target and learn how customers feel about your company or products in different social groups.

Types of questions to ask when you measure customer satisfaction:

When creating your customer satisfaction survey, there are different types of questions you can use, such as:

1. Close-ended questions: These are questions that have predetermined answer options, such as multiple-choice, rating questions, or ranking questions.

2. Open-ended questions: These are open questions that allow customers to provide free-text responses. These questions provide more in-depth insights into customer sentiment and opinions.

3. Matrix questions: These are a set of questions presented in a table format. They allow you to compare and contrast customer ratings across multiple items.

Customer support team, customer effort score team, customer service team, customer experience team and customer feedback team - additional questions to ask

Here are some additional questions you can ask customers in a satisfaction survey:

1. Why did you purchase our product/service?

2. What did you like most about our product/service?

3. What improvements would you suggest for our product/service?

4. Would you recommend our product/service to other customers?

(Customer Service Team related)
5. How satisfied were you with the response time of our customer service team?

(Customer Effort Score related)
6. How much effort did you have to make to use our product/service?

(Customer Experience related)
7. What was your overall experience with our company?

(Customer Feedback related)
8. Do you feel that we take your feedback seriously?

Now you know the benefits of customer satisfaction surveys and what question to ask. But at which point in your customer journey you should send a survey? 

Sending satisfaction survey is a great way to improve customer experience of your clients. To get the best results from customer satisfaction surveys, the timing of sending them is crucial. Here are some recommendations for when to send customer satisfaction surveys:

1. After a significant interaction or transaction: Send the survey shortly after a customer has made a purchase, completed a service request, or had a notable interaction with your business. This ensures that the experience is fresh in their minds, increasing the chances of accurate feedback.

2. When the customer's emotions are positive: Timing is important, so try to send surveys when customers are likely to have a positive emotional state. For example, if they've just received a product or service that exceeded their expectations or had a positive support experience, they may be more inclined to provide positive feedback.

3. Avoid immediate surveys: Sending a survey immediately after an interaction may not yield the most accurate or thoughtful responses. Give customers some time to reflect on their experience before sending the survey. This could be a few hours, a day, or a few days, depending on the nature of the interaction.

4. Regular follow-ups: Consider sending periodic surveys to gauge long-term customer satisfaction. This can help you track changes in customer sentiment over time and identify trends or areas for improvement.

5. Tailor surveys to specific touchpoints: If your business has multiple touchpoints with customers (e.g., website, customer support, sales), consider sending surveys specific to each touchpoint. This allows you to gather feedback relevant to that particular interaction and make targeted improvements.

6. Avoid busy periods: Be mindful of the timing in relation to your customers' schedules. Avoid sending surveys during peak hours or busy periods, when they may be less likely to respond or provide thoughtful feedback, and surveys should be sent at a convenient time for your customers.

7. Optimize for different channels: If you use multiple communication channels (email, SMS, in-app messaging), consider which channel is most effective for reaching your target audience. Some customers may prefer email surveys, while others may be more responsive to SMS notifications or in-app messages.

Remember that the best timing for customer satisfaction surveys may vary depending on your industry, target audience, and specific business circumstances. It's always a good idea to test different timings and analyze the results to refine your approach over time.

Benefits of creating customer satisfaction surveys:

Conducting customer satisfaction surveys provides numerous benefits, including:

1. Understanding of customer needs and preferences

2. Identifying areas of improvement in your product/service

3. Improving customer loyalty and retention

4. Enhancing customer experience

5. Making informed business decisions based on customer feedback

Conclusion:

Customer satisfaction is crucial in every business. Creating effective customer satisfaction surveys requires asking the right questions, using the best practices for creating customer satisfaction surveys, and understanding the different types of customer satisfaction surveys. By following the tips and techniques shared in this guide, you can get accurate customer feedback, learn what is a general level of satisfaction and enhance the overall customer experience of your business. So, use customer satisfaction surveys to measure satisfaction levels, collect customer feedback, and make changes in customer sentiment that can improve your business outcomes.