You’re excited to survey your customers. What will they think of your business? What are you doing right? Where can you improve? The answers to these questions are invaluable.
But there’s one small problem.
There are many types of customer surveys and you’re unsure when exactly to send them to clients.
Where do you start? And what questions do you ask?
The whole process can be a headache, not to mention incredibly time-consuming. But read on, because we’ve done all the hard work for you..
Below you’ll find a list of questions you can copy and paste into your own surveys. By using these resources, you’ll gain insight into your customers’ loyalty, how satisfied they are with your current offering, and where you can improve your product or service.
The questions vary depending on the type of survey metric (such as CSAT, NPS or CES) and the specific customer event (onboarding, service completion, cancellation).
Top customer service metrics
Service metrics are at the core of any customer survey, and they all have one thing in common—they provide a numerical rating you can use to quantify individual or aggregate feedback.
Below are five popular service metrics. Choosing which one to use depends on your industry, your relationship with the customer, the specific customer event you’re surveying, among other factors. Regardless of which survey you use, each starts with a simple question and can then be followed up with additional questions to help you gain more context.
1. CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) survey questions
Usually sent immediately after closing a ticket, CSAT survey questions are used to measure a customer’s satisfaction with a specific event or agent—not overall sentiment or loyalty toward your brand.
CSAT survey results help customer service managers coach their teams or implement transparent systems where agents can quickly identify their own areas for improvement.
| Question |
|---|
How did we do on this request?
|
| Was there anything in particular we did that delighted you? (if positive) |
| Can you share your experience and how we could have done a little better? (if neutral) |
| We’re sorry to have let you down, how could we improve? (if negative) |
2. NPS (Net Promoter Score) survey questions
Usually sent on a recurring basis, NPS surveys measure customer loyalty. These surveys can be automatically sent out every quarter, for example, and will help you understand how your clients feel about your business, and how likely they are to refer you to their associates.
| Question |
|---|
How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?
|
| Was there anything in particular we’ve done that has delighted you? (if promoter) |
| What could we do to get closer to a 10? (if passive) |
| We’re sorry to have let you down, what could we do to get closer to a 10? (if detractor) |
3. CES (Customer Effort Score) survey questions
While most business owners believe the best way to win customer loyalty is through service that “wows,” one study of 75,000+ people says otherwise: loyalty is created by making it easier for customers to feel they have completed a task. That’s why CES surveys measure how much effort a customer needed to exert to get their issue resolved.
This type of survey is best used immediately after any customer service touchpoint, like when a customer uses online support.
| Question |
|---|
How easy was it to solve your problem today?
|
| Was there something in particular that made it so easy? (if positive) |
| How could we have made it easier? (if neutral) |
| We’re sorry to have let you down. How could we make it easier next time? (if negative) |
4. 5-star survey questions
Typically used immediately following a customer service interaction or service delivery, 5-star survey questions are common with the foodservice and hospitality industries, review sites, and apps. Because the 5-star rating is so ubiquitous, these surveys are easily understood by customers and deliver high participation rates
| Question |
|---|
How would you rate your experience?
|
| Was there anything in particular we did that delighted you? (if positive) |
| Can you share your experience and how we could have done a little better? (if neutral) |
| We’re sorry to have let you down, how could we improve? (if negative) |
5. RATER survey questions
Our final survey identifies five qualities based on the RATER acronym: Reliability, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy, and Responsiveness. A RATER survey can be added onto a CSAT or NPS survey to gather additional customer feedback.
| Question |
|---|
Reliability: How likely are we to get things right the first time?
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Assurance: How confident are you in our abilities to serve you?
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Tangibles: How easy is it to use our help desk and online support materials?
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Empathy: How often have you felt we knew precisely what you wanted or needed?
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Responsiveness: How promptly do we answer your questions and requests?
|
Follow-up questions, and when to survey your customers
Almost every survey starts with one of the five core metrics discussed above. To gain more insight into your customers’ true feelings about your service and brand, we recommend asking additional follow-up questions.
There are many situations where you may want to survey customers. Below are six, each of which calls for specific follow up questions. Feel free to copy and paste the sample questions into your own customer surveys.
1. Survey questions for customer onboarding
A stellar onboarding process can set the tone for a long lasting, healthy customer relationship. Use these survey questions 1-3 months after a client has signed up for your service to ensure your onboarding is streamlined and effective.
| Question |
|---|
| Was there anything we did that you were particularly impressed with? |
| What could we have done to make your onboarding experience better? |
2. Survey questions for solved support requests
Support tickets are usually associated with a specific situation (like a billing issue or question about how something works) and an individual agent. Follow-up questions can reveal strengths and weaknesses in your support delivery, helping you improve your product, service, or service team performance.
| Question |
|---|
| How would you rate the technical knowledge of our support team? |
| How would you rate our team’s ability to solve your problem? |
| How satisfied are you with the amount of time it took to resolve the problem? |
| What could we have done to make this experience better? |
3. Survey questions for completed transactions/purchases
According to the Baymard Institute, 27% of all abandoned carts are a result of an overly complicated checkout process. In other words, a positive transaction experience can generate more money, while a negative one can cost you sales and referrals.
Send these survey questions, which measure the ease of a transaction, immediately after a customer makes a purchase or a few days later.
| Question |
|---|
| How easy was it to make an online purchase? |
| How did you find out about us? |
| Did the overall customer experience meet your expectations? |
| What other solutions were you considering? |
| What can we do to improve the experience? |
4. Survey questions for completed projects
While post-support surveys can identify specific problems in your service or product, gathering feedback after a big project can help you understand if customers are satisfied with the overall end result. Use these questions to to get the big picture of how your service is meeting expectations.
| Question |
|---|
| Were the objectives in the project defined clearly? |
| Was there adequate communication during the project execution? |
| To what degree did the project remain on schedule? |
| What could we have done better? |
5. Questions for recurring surveys
If you have long-term, ongoing relationships with your clients, then sending recurring surveys is a wise choice. They enable you to regularly survey all your clients—not just the ones active in your helpdesk— to measure their loyalty and determine if you’re providing enough value.
| Question |
|---|
| Which aspect of our service do you value the most? |
| Do you see yourself using our services in one year from now? |
| What is one thing we could do to make you happier? |
6. Survey questions after customer cancellations
Finally, cancellations. They are an unpleasant fact of life. That said, even though the customer might not be paying you anymore, their feedback is still extremely valuable. It helps you gain insight into why they left and what you can do to keep others from leaving too.
Was the issue quality? Price? Service? Did they choose a competitor’s product/service over yours? Why?
A customer cancellation survey can salvage this important information from the loss.
| Question |
|---|
| What are the primary reasons you want to cancel your service? |
| What will you use as an alternative? |
| Is there anything we could have done to keep your business? |
| How likely are you to recommend our service to friends within the industry? |
| What would it take for you to reconsider cancelling? |
Why it’s crucial to survey clients now
When it comes to surveying your customers, the most important thing is to start collecting something. Any data is useful data. You can always adjust the questions later. But if clients leave before you survey, you’ll never know why. And you’ll be missing out on a golden opportunity to improve your business, attract and retain more customers, and ultimately earn more profits. Don’t overcomplicate the survey process. Keep it simple, useful, and fun! That’s the way our Simplesat customers like it. And we’re confident yours will, too.Try our software now with a free 30-day trial at no cost to you. Sign up here in 30 seconds No credit card required. Easy to set up.