Customer Satisfaction Survey: Meaning, Design Tips, Question Types [+ Mistakes to Avoid]

Do you know what your customers really think about your business? Are you aware of their needs, preferences, and pain points? A well-designed customer satisfaction survey can help answer these questions. These are insights that can help you identify a customer’s perspective and new competitive advantages. 

In this blog, we will give you tips on designing and publishing an effective customer satisfaction survey. 

What is a Customer Satisfaction Survey?

A customer satisfaction survey is a standard metric used by every business to determine if customers are happy with a certain interaction , product or service. The questionnaire brings insights on satisfaction levels, user needs, preferences and pain points. The responses from these questionnaires are used to improve products and services.

A short customer satisfaction survey usually consists of two questions which includes both qualitative and quantitative questions. A long satisfaction questionnaire will seek detailed insights into the usage levels, satisfaction metrics and other important details. The survey generally seeks responses based on product quality, post purchase experience, service quality or their interaction with a customer service representative. 

Why use customer satisfaction surveys?

These surveys are like a window to the thoughts and experiences of your consumer base. It is a goldmine of information like their emotions, thoughts, feedback, paint points and in some cases, competitive advantage. Here is why it is mandatory to opt for customer satisfaction surveys in a business:   

• Assessing experiences levels: There are two types of user base- brand advocates and people who are brand new to the ecosystem. Opinions of both types of users can keep a balance. Brand advocates will catch a slippage in service. New consumers will offer feedback on improvements. Both types of responses can give you a purview of what brands can work on.
• Preventing potential customer churn: Satisfaction surveys can be a source of red-alert for brands. You can detect the probability of people wanting to opt out of your products and services. You can catch dissatisfaction and close the feedback loop with feasible solutions. You can keep a tab on an unhappy user base and prevent churn rates.
• Identifying brand advocacy: Most of the positive marketing is done word of mouth by happy consumers. It seeps into the offline and online world creating a brand presence for your organisation. While attending to happy consumers, you can find ways to cross-sell and up-sell your business offerings. Make sure that your new offerings are inline with the standard customer expectations.
• Focusing on increasing revenue:  Investing in increasing brand advocates is worth every penny. This will in turn help you increase revenues with greater ROI. Happy customers come with repeat purchases and referrals. They are also more likely to purchase other products in your offerings. Keep a track on the analytics and double down on increasing revenues.

Who should use a customer satisfaction survey in a company?

Customer satisfaction surveys should be used by all teams within an organization that interact with customers-sales, customer support, and marketing teams. Use the customer data to make informed decisions about product development, marketing strategies, and customer service initiatives.

How To Design a Good Customer Satisfaction Survey?

Crafting an effective customer satisfaction survey requires careful planning and attention to detail.

• At what touchpoint will you deploy the survey? On that basis, define clear objectives and goals for the survey. Keep the questions short and focused on specific areas of interest.
• Avoid long question templates to prevent drop out rates. People can face survey fatigue. Keep it accurate enough to get the required response from your respondents.
• Seek both qualitative data and quantitative data from your respondents. People are expressive. They might want to add their own set of negative or positive experiences.
• Avoid double-barreled questions. Ask one question at a time to get precise answers in a short span.
• Start using omnichannel platforms to seek responses from your customer base. Omnichannel platforms include WhatsApp surveys, Facebook messenger surveys, website chat bot, dynamic email surveys etc. This can ensure a high response rate to help you make data-driven decisions.
• Include industry standard of metrics- NPS score, CSAT score, CES score templates.
• Avoid jargon, technical terms and complex words. This will deter respondents. Use simple language on templates so that people can understand and reply.

Best Practices: Create a Good Customer Satisfaction Survey

If you are looking to build an effective question template, here are some formatting techniques to keep in mind:

1. How to write effective customer survey questions?

Keep it goal oriented pertaining to that transaction or moment (example post interaction with a CX agent or right after a purchase). Use clear language that avoids leading or biased questions. Open-ended questions provide opportunities for customers to express their opinions. Strike a balance between qualitative and quantitative questions to capture the overall customer sentiment.

2. Distribution of customer satisfaction surveys

The only time a customer satisfaction survey can be called effective is when it reaches the intended audience. Use multi-channel platforms to map the customer journey. Seek buyer feedback via WhatsApp forms, Facebook messenger surveys, interactive email surveys and website chatbots. This can help customer service teams close the feedback loop faster.

3. Timing and frequency of customer satisfaction surveys

The timing can depend on various factors. These changes include how often the customer interacts with your business, the type of product and any significant product changes.

Surveys can be administered post-purchase or after a customer service interaction. Inmoment surveys are critical for a high response rate and authentic responses. However, do not overdo it. Too many surveys can cause survey fatigue and lower response rates.

Types of Market Standard Satisfaction Metrics Commonly Used

There are market standard satisfaction surveys. Net promoter score, customer satisfaction surveys and customer effort score. Here are the details:

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a popular satisfaction metric that measures the likelihood of customers recommending a product or service to others. Once the people fill in the responses, the scale can identify their promoters, passives, and detractors. This was a scale conceptualized by Bain & Company. 

Passives are people who are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. Promoters are respondents who are brand advocates. Detractors are people who are unhappy with the company and have a high probability of churning. 

However, note that NPS should not be used in isolation. Businesses should conduct other types of surveys as well to gain a comprehensive understanding of customer satisfaction.

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) surveys get people to rate their experience on a scale of 1-5 or 1-10. It is important to ask specific questions related to the product or service in question. CSAT surveys are best used for measuring short-term satisfaction and tracking improvements periodically. CSAT surveys can be implemented at short term purchases on in-app surveys or after a quick transaction. This also includes commonly used 5- star ratings to rate a product or purchase.

Customer Effort Score (CES)

The Customer Effort Score (CES) score measures how easy or difficult it is for customers to do business with a company. CES surveys typically ask customers to rate their level of agreement with statements. Example, “It was easy to find what I was looking for” or “It took me too long to resolve my issue.” The main aim is to understand if the brand-customer interaction needed maximum or minimum effort.

High effort denotes that the CX team should identify high friction touchpoints and create a seamless workflow for both the support team and the customers. The customer effort score formula is calculated based on the sum of effort rating to the total number of ratings.

Choosing the Right Question Types

Depending on your market research goals, you can choose the right type of question to present and collect feedback. Keep in mind that different people have different capacities to respond. Certain touchpoints need a certain type of questionnaire. So it has to be touchpoint specific. 

• Rating and ranking questions: These are popular in-app rating scales that collect experiences based on a certain transaction or a product. Ranking and rating scales are very popular. It is a part of a closed-ended question.

• Multiple choice question: This question type can be mainly used to assess multiple product features that are useful for your consumers. A customer will choose their preferred response from a list of options. 

• Emoji rating scale: This scale also comes in star ratings or emoji rating scale. Emojis can be used to gauge effort in customer effort score scale or CES. 

• Open-ended response option: With every quantitative question, you need to include a qualitative response option. Include a text box to allow people to share their expressions.  

Common Mistakes To Avoid in Customer Satisfaction Surveys

1. Survey design and question errors

Avoid leading questions that can steer customers towards a particular answer. Keep questions clear, and easy to understand. Avoid jargon that people may not be familiar with. When designing from scratch, maintain the order of the questions to maintain survey logic.

2. Survey distribution errors

Common errors include sending surveys only to select customers, over-surveying customers, and using outdated contact information. This also includes over-surveying people to the point of survey fatigue. 

Additionally, avoid platforms that take multiple tabs to open a simple survey. This means that people click on a click which directs them to a new browser that takes more time to load. To avoid this issue, opt for faster and more reliable platforms like WhatsApp messenger or Facebook messenger. 

3. Analysis and interpretation errors

Interpretation errors can lead to incorrect conclusions about customer data. Batch processing feedback can delay resolution times. This can also increase the backlog of support tickets. 

Open-ended questions need a manual or a humanized view for interpretation. People have a varied way of expressing themselves. So using AI for every aspect may not always be the best bet.

Conclusion

Customer satisfaction surveys are an excellent way to gather feedback directly from your customers. Design effective surveys and make data-driven decisions to improve customer satisfaction. Remember to avoid common mistakes such as poor survey design and distribution errors. Use the feedback you receive to improve your products, services, and overall customer experience.

To create your own customer satisfaction survey, sign up for a 14 day free trial here. Use Merren CX to upgrade your market research with our easy to use tools.You can also use our AI survey builder here for instant feedback surveys.