A product or service is more likely to flop without backing from the masses. And what better tool to understand customer needs and preferences than a good old customer survey?
Customer feedback surveys help businesses fine-tune offerings, generate positive reviews and improve online reputation.
In this blog, we’ll discuss:
• Types of Customer Satisfaction Survey
• 6 Types of Questions To Include in Your Customer Satisfaction Survey
• 6 Best Practices for Creating Feedback Survey Questions
• Why Customer Feedback Is So Important for Online Reputation Management
Types of Customer Satisfaction Survey
Different types of surveys offer different insights. Choosing the right one will help you find the information necessary to address product, service or customer experience issues.
Here are five main types of surveys for collecting customer feedback:
• Net Promoter Score (NPS): A customer satisfaction survey focusing on single questions that assess the likelihood of customers recommending your products or services. Participants use a scale of 0 to 10 to rate their willingness to recommend.
Via: Typeform
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): Uses a scoring system to rate customer satisfaction with your products, services or business interactions (e.g., 1 to 5 or 1 to 10).
Via: Google Forms
• Customer Effort Score (CES): Measures customer effort when interacting with your business or resolving issues with your customer service team.
Via: Survey Monkeys
• Post-Purchase Feedback Surveys: Used to gather customer feedback on product quality, shopping experience and issues encountered. They usually consist of multiple questions and employ a combination of CSAT, NPS and CES surveys.
Via: Jotform
• Milestone Surveys: Conducted at specific points in the customer journey, such as after onboarding, completing a transaction, reaching a membership level or subscribing to a service. This type of customer satisfaction survey online collects feedback on customer experiences, satisfaction levels and areas for improvement.
Via: Jotform
6 Types of Questions To Include in Your Customer Satisfaction Survey
Here are different types of survey question examples for feedback to include in your data-gathering process:
1. Questions on Product Usage
Understanding the satisfaction levels of your users offers product teams valuable insights on improving marketing strategies for better customer retention.
Obtain the answers you need with these product feedback question examples:
• How frequently do you use our product or service?
• Which specific features or functionalities do you use most often?
• How does our product contribute to your daily workflow?
• Have you encountered any challenges while using the product?
• What aspects of our product could be improved?
• What additional features or improvements would you like to see in our product?
• How likely are you to recommend our products to others?
• How likely are you to continue using our product in the future?
2. Demographic-Based Questions
Demographic questions aid in creating buyer personas for various segments of your target audience. These personas offer valuable insights into customers’ distinct characteristics, preferences and behaviors, enabling you to improve marketing strategies effectively to connect with each segment.
Here are demographic survey question examples for feedback:
• How old are you?
• Where do you reside?
• If relevant, what is your gender?
• What is your current employment status?
• Are you married, and do you have children?
• What is your highest level of education?
• What is your annual household income?
• Where do you work, and what do you do for a living?
• Which industry do you work in?
3. Psychographic Questions
These feedback questions help brands understand customer preferences, habits, behaviors and motivations. These questions aim to extract the reasons behind customer actions, allowing you to serve them better.
Here are some psychographic survey question examples for feedback:
• Do you prefer shopping on your phone or laptop?
• What is your top priority when it comes to (industry-related topic)?
• What is your biggest obstacle (related to our product or service)?
• How much time do you spend on (specific social media platform you use for advertising)?
• How important is sustainability to you when making a purchase?
• How do you feel about (product type)?
• What aspects of (product type) do you dislike?
• How many hours a day do you spend on (activities related to your product or service)?
4. Satisfaction Scales
Ask customers directly for their feedback using a satisfaction scale. There are three methods: a scale from 1 to 10, a descriptive scale with response options from unsatisfied to satisfied or a picture scale with emojis representing different satisfaction levels.
Feedback question examples for satisfactory responses look like this:
• Please rate your in-store experience today on a scale of 1 to 10.
• How likely are you to recommend our product or service to others?
• Please rate how satisfied you are with how our team handled your problem.
• Did our team respond to your inquiry promptly?
• Was your issue successfully resolved?
• How likely are you to buy from us again?
• How likely are you to revisit our website?
5. Open-Text Questions
Open-text questions provide participants with a text box to express their opinions and thoughts freely. While analyzing open-text responses can be time-consuming, they provide an opportunity to understand customer sentiments and uncover areas for improvement.
Here are some examples of open-text feedback survey questions you can include in your survey:
• How would you describe your feelings about our company or product in your own words?
• What suggestions do you have to enhance your experience with our company?
• What aspects are currently working well for you and why?
• How can our employees improve their service?
• How can our employees better support your business goals?
• What suggestions do you have to enhance your experience with our website or physical store?
• Why did you choose our product over our competitors?
• Choose one word to describe us and explain why you selected that word.
• Do you have any additional comments or feedback you’d like to share?
6. Longevity Questions
These customer feedback survey questions allow your team to engage with the same customers in the future, especially when introducing changes and seeking updated feedback. You can frame these feedback questions in various ways, such as:
• Would you be open to participating in future surveys or providing feedback as we make updates or improvements?
• Can we contact you in the future for further feedback or to keep you informed about our latest developments?
• Are you interested in joining our customer feedback panel to have ongoing input in shaping our products/services?
• Is there a preferred method of communication for us to reach out to you in the future for follow-up discussions?
• Could you please provide your contact information if you’d like to be involved in future discussions or updates?
6 Best Practices for Creating Feedback Survey Questions
Crafting a customer satisfaction survey online that encourages high response rates and gets filled requires careful consideration of various factors.
Follow these best practices to create customer feedback survey questions that are more likely to be completed by your target audience:
1. Define a Goal
Refrain from overloading your survey with too many feedback questions. Focusing on a specific touchpoint or metric will make it easier to interpret responses, identify trends and draw conclusions.
This targeted approach facilitates data analysis and ensures respondents are not overwhelmed, increasing the likelihood of completing customer feedback questions.
2. Keep It Short but Sweet
Ask only the essential feedback survey questions. Prioritize the key aspects that align with your survey goals and ensure each question serves a specific purpose.
Remember, brevity is key when creating an efficient, user-friendly survey that boosts participant engagement.
Instead of relying solely on staff brainstorming, conduct pre-survey interviews with a few key customers to understand their priorities and identify what customer feedback questions to include in your more extensive survey.
3. Use Closed and Open-Ended Questions
Incorporating closed and open-ended survey questions offers customers multiple opportunities to provide feedback. Closed-ended questions help collect specific responses, while open-ended questions allow customers to provide general feedback and suggestions.
This combination enables companies to understand their customers better and improve marketing approach accordingly.
4. Use Neutral Language
Observe a neutral tone when creating your survey. The absence of biased language allows customers to provide genuine opinions without feeling guided or influenced.
You are also creating an environment where customers feel comfortable sharing their feedback, even if it includes constructive criticism or suggestions for improvement. This valuable input can help you understand areas of your business requiring attention.
5. A/B Test Surveys
A/B testing is a powerful method to evaluate the effectiveness of your surveys. To conduct an effective A/B test, make small changes and focus on one variable at a time. This allows you to accurately track the impact of each change and attribute any differences in responses to that specific modification.
Some areas you can modify include the order of questions, question types, survey types, wording, survey length and visual design.
6. Turn the Feedback Into Actions
Collecting data without taking action is a waste of time and resources. Establish a systematic process to implement changes within your company based on the insights gathered from a customer survey. This way, you can effectively address any areas of improvement and enhance the overall customer experience.
Why Customer Feedback Is So Important for Online Reputation Management
Studies indicate that 89% of consumers want companies to ask for feedback. It makes them feel valued, knowing their opinions matter (Microsoft, 2020). However, there are other benefits to collecting customer feedback.
• Customer feedback fosters a sense of value and importance for customers.
• It helps companies understand and address customer needs and preferences.
• Feedback provides valuable insights for improving products, services and overall customer experience.
• It allows companies to identify areas of improvement and make necessary changes.
• Customer feedback enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• It helps companies stay competitive by staying in tune with customer expectations.
• Feedback contributes to product development and innovation.
• It builds strong customer relationships and fosters brand advocacy.
• Companies that actively seek and listen to customer feedback are more likely to succeed in meeting customer demands and staying ahead in the market.
Improve Online Reputation With Customer Surveys
Customer surveys are vital for shaping your brand’s reputation and long-term success. They provide valuable feedback that can be used to drive improvements, enhance satisfaction and build strong customer relationships.
To recap, every effective survey should have:
• Goal-oriented questions
• Clear and concise wording
• Appropriate survey length
• A mix of closed-ended and open-ended questions
• Neutral language to avoid bias
• Utilization of technology for convenience and data analysis
• A/B testing to optimize survey effectiveness
• Acknowledgment and gratitude toward survey respondents
• Actionable steps to implement feedback
Thrive Local, a leading online reputation management solution, offers survey campaign management such as review response and review generation services to help businesses improve client relations.
Our review response services help you manage and respond to online reviews effectively, while our review generation service focuses on generating positive feedback from satisfied customers.
Other online reputation management services we provide include online review checking, review monitoring and review generation. You can also download our free review widget to showcase positive reviews on your website.
Schedule a demo today to see how Thrive Local helps brands improve online reputation.
