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I’m sure you understand the value of satisfied customers. However, how can you know whether customers are truly satisfied with your customer support, your product, or even your onboarding process? In many cases, you need to ask them directly, which is where customer feedback surveys play a key role.

When you ask the right questions, using the right feedback management tools, you can dig deeper into customer needs and understand what matters to your customers when it comes to your brand.

What are customer satisfaction surveys?

Customer satisfaction surveys are tools businesses use to gather feedback from customers about their experiences with products, services, or overall brand interactions.

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These surveys typically include questions about product quality, customer service, ease of use, and overall satisfaction. Businesses use the results to improve their offerings, address customer concerns, and enhance the overall customer experience.

Customer surveys are an "active" form of feedback solicitation, but you can also leverage social listening tools for passive feedback collection across social media and other online platforms. I always suggest a mix of both.

Steal These 75 Customer Satisfaction Survey Questions

Here’s a list of 75 customer satisfaction survey questions, organized by theme:

Overall Satisfaction

  1. How satisfied are you with our product/service?
  2. How would you rate your overall experience with our company?
  3. Would you recommend our company to a friend or colleague?
  4. How likely are you to continue using our product/service?
  5. What is the main reason for your satisfaction/dissatisfaction?

Product or Service Quality

  1. How well does our product/service meet your needs?
  2. How would you rate the quality of our product/service?
  3. Have you experienced any issues with our product/service?
  4. How satisfied are you with the value for money of our product/service?
  5. How often do you use our product/service?

Customer Support Experience

  1. How satisfied are you with our customer support team?
  2. How quickly did our support team respond to your request?
  3. Was your issue resolved to your satisfaction?
  4. How knowledgeable was the support representative?
  5. How friendly and professional was our support staff?

Ease of Use & Accessibility

  1. How easy was it to find the information you needed?
  2. How would you rate the ease of use of our product/service?
  3. Did you encounter any difficulties while using our product/service?
  4. How accessible was our website/app?
  5. How would you improve our product/service’s usability?

Purchase & Checkout Process

  1. How easy was it to complete your purchase?
  2. Were there any difficulties during checkout?
  3. Did you find our pricing clear and transparent?
  4. Were there any hidden costs or unexpected fees?
  5. How would you improve the buying experience?
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Delivery & Shipping (If Applicable)

  1. How satisfied are you with the delivery time?
  2. Was your order delivered in good condition?
  3. Did you receive accurate tracking information?
  4. How would you rate the packaging of your order?
  5. How can we improve our delivery process?

Website & Online Experience

  1. How easy is it to navigate our website?
  2. Did you find the information you were looking for?
  3. How would you rate the speed and performance of our website?
  4. Did you experience any technical issues while using our site?
  5. How visually appealing is our website?

Pricing & Value for Money

  1. Do you feel our product/service is worth the price?
  2. How would you compare our pricing to competitors?
  3. Are there any features you’d pay extra for?
  4. How frequently do you take advantage of promotions or discounts?
  5. What would make our pricing feel more fair?

Loyalty & Retention

  1. How long have you been a customer?
  2. Have you ever considered switching to a competitor? If so, why?
  3. What keeps you coming back to our company?
  4. What could we do to improve your loyalty to our brand?
  5. Have you participated in our loyalty or rewards program?

Competitor Comparison

  1. How do we compare to similar companies you’ve used?
  2. What do you like about our competitors that we don’t offer?
  3. Why did you choose us over a competitor?
  4. What could we do to stand out from competitors?
  5. Would you consider switching to a competitor? Why or why not?

Brand Perception

  1. How would you describe our brand in a few words?
  2. How trustworthy do you find our company?
  3. How well do we align with our brand values?
  4. How would you rate our company’s reputation?
  5. How likely are you to engage with us on social media?

Suggestions & Open-Ended Questions

  1. What do you like most about our product/service?
  2. What do you like least about our product/service?
  3. What one improvement would you suggest?
  4. Are there any features or services you wish we offered?
  5. What’s one thing we could do to improve your experience?

Customer Service & Interaction

  1. How satisfied were you with your recent interaction with us?
  2. Did our staff meet your expectations?
  3. How respectful and professional was our team?
  4. Did you feel valued as a customer?
  5. How could our customer service be improved?

Problem Resolution

  1. Have you had any issues with our product/service?
  2. How satisfied were you with how we handled your issue?
  3. Did you have to contact us multiple times for the same issue?
  4. Was your problem resolved in a timely manner?
  5. What could we do better in handling customer complaints?

Future Interest & Needs

  1. Would you be interested in new products/services from us?
  2. What other features or products would you like us to offer?
  3. How likely are you to upgrade or renew your service?
  4. Would you participate in a beta test for new products?
  5. What would make you more engaged with our company?

customer Satisfaction Metrics to Measure

What are you looking for when you send out customer satisfaction survey questions? It's important to pick a metric worth tracking before you start designing surveys. Here are some popular customer satisfaction KPIs:

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

CSAT is a survey that aims at understanding whether customers are satisfied with the service they receive from your company. There are three answers to choose from:

  • Satisfied
  • Neutral
  • Dissatisfied

Some surveys offer two more answers (very dissatisfied, very satisfied), but in my opinion, they are not necessary.

Here’s how to calculate the CSAT score: Divide the number of satisfied customers by the whole number of received surveys and multiply the result times 100. So, for instance, if you have 50 answers and 20 of them are positive, your CSAT is 40%. Again—the higher the result, the better.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

NPS is a customer survey that asks one question: "How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague?" The answer is based on a 1 to 10 scale. When it comes to the NPS survey, depending on their answers, customers are grouped into one of three categories:

  • Detractors (score of 0-6) - These customers are rather not satisfied with your brand. If you receive such results, it's important to analyze what may be causing this dissatisfaction.
  • Passives (score of 7-8) - These customers are neutral about your company. Their feedback indicates that there is nothing particularly wrong with your customer service, but there is also some room for improvement. Work towards better customer service, and you will get more loyal customers.
  • Promoters (score of 9-10) - This is the result you want to see. These customers are really satisfied with your company. Promoters are more likely to recommend your brand and products to their friends and family.

Now, in order to calculate your Net Promoter Score, you need to subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters (passives are excluded from the calculation). The resulting score can range from -100 (if all customers are detractors) to +100 (if all customers are promoters). For example, if you received 100 survey responses and 30% of customers are detractors, 10% are passives, and 60% are promoters, your NPS score would be calculated as 60% - 30% = 30.

A higher NPS score indicates better customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Additionally, you can also ask a follow-up question to understand why they answered in a given way.

Customer Effort Score (CES)

This survey measures how easy it was for your customers to complete a specific action. CES was designed to find out how intuitive and user-friendly your processes are. Typically, CES asks one question: "How easy was it for you to resolve your issue today?" Customers rate their experience on a scale of one to seven, where one means very difficult and seven means very easy.

How can you measure CES? Simply divide the number of people who answered five, six, or seven by the total number of people who took part in the survey.

Product-Market Fit (PMF)

The last survey concentrates on the product itself. A PMF survey helps you understand whether your product checks all the right boxes. As always, this survey is also based on just one question: “How would you feel if you could no longer use our product?” Respondents then rate how disappointed (or not) they would feel.

To calculate PMF, you need to focus exclusively on the first answer. If more than 40% of customers would be very disappointed because of losing your product, you have a good product-market fit. If people wouldn’t miss it, there surely is something wrong with the product.

Of course, I’m not saying here that you should limit yourself to just these four types of surveys. They are useful because they give you an overall view of what people think about your brand. However, more often than not, you need to dig deeper to get more insights. Let’s have a look at what kind of questions you can ask in your surveys.

Related read: Best Free Survey Tools for Collecting Feedback

Customer satisfaction survey best practices

So you decided to ask customers whether they are satisfied with your brand or product. That’s fantastic! It’s a good start to build more meaningful relationships with your target audiences and keep them involved for a longer period of time.

Here’s what you should keep in mind:

  • Keep it short and sweet: Trust me, you don’t want to ask hundreds of questions. This will only irritate your customers and give them one more reason to look for alternatives to your products/services. A perfect customer satisfaction survey should be completable within two or three minutes.
  • Ask the right questions: A good customer survey is a mix of open-ended questions, single and multiple-choice questions, and scale questions (typically from 1 to 5). Make sure every question in your questionnaire has some kind of practical value—don’t ask questions just for the sake of asking them. Later in this article, I'll share 20 examples of great customer survey satisfaction questions to show you what I mean.
  • Use the right tool: There are several ways of measuring customer satisfaction, which I will dissect in a moment. Analyze available tools and pick the one that will be the most convenient for your customers. This way, you will get more replies, and that’s the ultimate goal.
  • Offer something in return: Remember, it’s YOUR goal to collect feedback. If you want to get really good results, you should offer some incentive for filling out and submitting the survey. It shouldn’t be anything complicated or expensive. For instance, Starbucks generates a code after the completion of their customer survey that is redeemable for a free tall beverage. This way, respondents feel they haven't wasted their time, leading to higher response rates.
  • Opt for an online survey: Sure, if you run brick-and-mortar stores, you can conduct offline surveys directly in your stores. You can distribute it using your newsletter, social media profiles, or even QR codes located by the counter. The point is online surveys can be done at any time, so you’re not forcing your customers to spend more time in the store.
  • Be regular: A one-time customer survey is not enough. In order to grasp the whole picture, you need to measure trends in the way people think about your brand. This means conducting at least three or four surveys a year, or ideally, running your surveys continuously. Using reliable polling software can help in scheduling and automating your survey distribution so you'll receive continuous insights.
  • Use a small scale: In most cases, using a small scale (1-5 instead of 1-10) is enough to get accurate results.

Customer satisfaction survey question types

There are different customer satisfaction survey question types that you can use when collecting feedback. Each one has it's strengths and weaknesses.

Open-ended questions

The goal of these customer survey questions is to let users talk about their interactions with your brand in their own words.

For example, you could as this question, “What’s your overall experience with our brand?” Leave your customers space to write several sentences, but don’t set a minimum limit of words.

Some people will write a whole essay, while others will share just a few words. Both can be useful.

Likert scale questions

These questions measure either positive or negative responses to a specific statement, just like in the CES survey.

The goal is to understand what people think about a specific aspect of your customer service, e.g., the shipping process or the ease of use of your mobile app.

Rating scale questions

See NPS and CSAT above—you provide a question and ask people to rate their experience on a sliding scale. You can use scale questions to ask about product features, e.g., ease of use, reliability, design, or functionality.

In my opinion, rating scale questions are perfect for spotting trends and analyzing data with ease.

Single/multiple-choice questions

They ask a question and provide a set of possible answers. Sometimes, there’s also one additional answer (e.g., “other”) with the option to write down a different answer.

Single and multiple-choice questions are good primarily because they are quick; people don’t need to think about what the answer should be.

Benefits of customer satisfaction surveys

Asking what people think about your brand and your product/service is immensely important. According to a recent study conducted by Propel Software, for 54% of customers, one bad experience is enough to stop purchasing from a brand. With appropriate feedback surveys, you can get the information you need to keep your customers satisfied.

  1. Identify Strengths & Weaknesses: They help businesses understand what customers love and what needs improvement.
  2. Improve Customer Experience: Feedback helps companies refine products, services, and support to meet customer expectations.
  3. Increase Customer Loyalty: Satisfied customers are more likely to return and recommend the brand to others.
  4. Reduce Churn Rate: Addressing customer concerns early prevents dissatisfaction and reduces customer loss.
  5. Enhance Brand Reputation: Listening to customer feedback and making improvements builds trust and credibility.
  6. Make Data-Driven Decisions: Surveys provide real insights that guide better business strategies and investments.
  7. Gain a Competitive Edge: Understanding customer needs helps a company stand out from competitors.
  8. Measure Customer Satisfaction Over Time: Tracking feedback over time helps businesses monitor trends and adjust accordingly.

Never stop working on customer retention!

If you want to take your customer service to a whole new level, make sure to check back here every week. We're all about publishing useful, real-life experiences and tips to help you make your company more customer-centric. Building trust and loyalty with your customer base is always time well spent.

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Hannah Clark

Hannah Clark is the Editor of The CX Lead. After serving over 12 years working in front-line customer experience for major brands, Hannah pivoted to a career in digital publishing and media production. Having gained a holistic view of the challenges and intricacies of delivering exceptional experiences, Hannah aims to help CX practitioners 'level up' their skills by amplifying the voices of today's thought leaders in the space.