Ready to create a winning customer satisfaction survey? In this article, we’ll dive into methods of measuring customer satisfaction, which customer satisfaction KPI and qualitative questions to include in your customer satisfaction questionnaire, and how you can best follow up on your customer satisfaction survey results.
How to create the best customer satisfaction survey
The ideal customer satisfaction questionnaire is a combination of measuring performance with a customer satisfaction KPI (Key Performance Indicator) and obtaining Voice of the Customer feedback. How to measure customer satisfaction in your satisfaction survey?
Pick one of these methods of measuring customer satisfaction
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
NPS measures customer loyalty over time with the question, “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague from 1 to 10?”
This customer satisfaction KPI is great for tracking performance across time and locations. NPS provides customers’ overall satisfaction and loyalty to a business.
Use NPS to monitor customer loyalty.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
CSAT measures how well a business meets its customers’ expectations regarding a particular product or service.
A commonly asked question, “How would you rate your experience of our ________? Ranked from very satisfied to very dissatisfied.”
Businesses utilise a CSAT score to track customer satisfaction at specific, one-time interactions.
Use CSAT to see if your specific touchpoints are meeting customer expectations. So, if you’re not getting a high customer satisfaction score at a key touchpoint, you’ll know how to quickly make an improvement.
Customer Effort Score (CES)
CES tracks the ease of the customers to complete a task. A commonly asked CES question is, “How easy was it for you to resolve your issue with us today? Ranked from very easy to very difficult.”
While not a direct measurement of customer satisfaction, CES allows brands to draw conclusions about customer satisfaction and get insights on what corrective actions they need to take to improve it.
Use CES to check on your product/service usability.
For further details on these metrics, check out our article, How to measure customer satisfaction KPI: NPS, CSAT, and CES.
Add qualitative questions
As mentioned, you’ll want to use one of the above metrics to monitor performance, but you’ll also need to snag more qualitative feedback by utilising one or two follow-up questions. So, give customers a voice in your customer satisfaction questionnaire.
- Tell us more! Why did you give us this rating?
- What can we do to improve your experience?
- How would you describe us to a friend?
- Name one thing we can do differently that would make you happier.
- How likely are you to purchase from us again?
- Do you have any additional feedback to give us?
Follow-up customer survey questions are a great way to explain the relationship between customers’ needs and expectations and customer satisfaction measurements. They’re also great monitoring techniques for customers’ complaints as you can ask them directly what went wrong or how you can improve.
If you use a Voice of the Customer program you can monitor trends, segment customers, and get semantic analytics from customer feedback to understand the meaning behind their words.
Review these 7 tips
Now that we’ve gone over the customer satisfaction survey questions, consider these 7 tips when planning your next customer feedback form.
- Determine your goal. What do you want to learn, why, and at which touchpoint(s)?
- Set your metric(s). Based on your goal, select NPS (customer loyalty), CSAT (customer expectations), and/or CES (usability).
- Pick follow-up questions. Select 1-2 qualitative questions to include with your metric question in your satisfaction survey.
- Be brief. Google Studies revealed that 75% of people will complete a survey of 5 or fewer questions, so keep ‘em short!
- Customise. Use your brand voice, logo and colours when making your survey to ensure a greater connection to your business.
- Select channel(s). How do your customers prefer to provide feedback? Whether it’s email, SMS, phone call, in-store tablet or QR code, or even on paper, match their preferences.
- Say thanks. Make sure to set up a thank you page, email or pop-up message thanking the customer for taking the time to fill out your survey.
If you’d like to dive into further details about customer satisfaction, we’ve got you! See Why customer satisfaction is important: A guide for businesses.
Then, act on the results!
So, no matter how great your survey is, it’ll be worthless if you don’t do anything with your customer satisfaction survey results.
Monitor & analyse
Track responses over time, location, touchpoint, or all 3, depending on how your survey is set up. Consequently, the comparisons will help you determine where changes need to be made.
Utilise a customer satisfaction software with semantic analysis to see what customers actually mean with their words and to keep an eye on trending topics.
Respond
Make sure to respond to all complaints as well as suggestions. For example, if your company took an action based on a customer’s feedback, let them know! You’re showing them that their voices matter (as they should!). This will be certain to increase customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Evolve
Your customer satisfaction KPI will let you monitor satisfaction at a glance, while your qualitative questions will clue you into specific needs and desires of your customers. Make changes to your product, services, and interactions based on customer feedback. Trust us, the benefits of customer satisfaction strategising are well-worth the investment.
Curious about getting the Voice of the Customer feedback beyond customer satisfaction? Download Voice of the Customer survey kit here with example questions covering brand loyalty, concept testing, segmentation, and more.
