How to Create a Survey for Customer Satisfaction + Examples

In our time, customer experience plays a decisive role in your customer loyalty and retention. A study conducted by Glance showed that 78% of customers reverse their purchase decision when they experience an unpleasant customer experience; and according to Business 2 Community, 88% of customers lost during this experience then turn to one of your competitors. When competition is fierce and only a minority expresses dissatisfaction, how do you improve your customer experience to stand out from the competition?

This is when knowing how to create a survey for customer satisfaction comes into play. By learning how to create a survey for customer satisfaction, you will be able to gather the true opinion of your customers in order to know their expectations and needs for your company. This will allow you to tailor your services according to their feedback to improve your customer experience!

Download now : -> FREE FRENCH EBOOK 3 Examples of Successful Customer Satisfaction Surveys

You don’t know how to create a survey for customer satisfaction? This article will provide you with the key steps and best practices to follow when designing a customer satisfaction survey for your business! We also will give you examples to help you create questions.

What is a customer satisfaction survey?

By definition, a satisfaction survey is a marketing tool used in customer relationship management. This is a crucial way to get to know your customers better: their answers will allow you to analyze their needs and implement a customer experience improvement strategy.

When you learn how to create a survey for customer satisfaction, it is important to keep your goals in mind. The questions in your satisfaction survey should reflect the type of information you would like to collect. Depending on the data chosen, certain types of mailings or questions should be preferred to facilitate the collection of your customers’ responses. This is a simple and efficient method to collect your customers’ responses and adapt your services according to their needs!

Why should you learn how to create a survey for customer satisfaction for your business?

Did you know that according to HubSpot, 67% of customers are willing to pay more for the services of a company known for its customer experience? In that sense, how do you manage to create a customer experience that will attract this type of clientele?

This is why you should learn how to create a survey for customer satisfaction. While a survey is a great way to communicate, it is also a tool to show your customers that they are important to you. By encouraging them to express themselves about their experience in your company, you prove that their comments have a direct impact on your future decisions. In this sense, designing a survey helps build trust and loyalty with your customers.

However, that is not all. According to a study by Esteban Kolsky, ThinkJar’s CEO and former analyst at Gartner, only one in twenty-six clients will express their dissatisfaction to a company. In this vein, knowing how to create a survey for customer satisfaction will allow you to gather the opinions of the other twenty-five clients to better understand the source of their dissatisfaction and readjust your services according to their needs. You will improve your customer experience while showing your customers the direct impact of their comments on your company. That’s why it’s important to create a customer satisfaction survey for your business!

How to create a survey for customer satisfaction : the steps to follow

Now that you know the importance of satisfaction surveys, it’s time to create yours. But how to create a survey for customer satisfaction for your business that will help you improve your customer experience?

To guide you through your process, here are five steps to help you design a successful customer satisfaction survey.

1. Determine your goals : what kind of information do you want?

Whether it is a store satisfaction survey, a hotel satisfaction survey or a restaurant satisfaction survey, You must first know what type of information you want to know before learning how to create a survey for customer satisfaction.

What are the triggers and information needs that drive you to create a customer satisfaction survey? For example, would you like to learn more about satisfaction with the reception at your points of sale, or what your customers think about your prices? Or do you want to know how likely your customers are to refer you to their entourage? You could even evaluate your employees and the quality of their service while learning how to create a survey for customer satisfaction!

There are a variety of things your customers can be asked to do to help you assess the customer experience. You just have to choose what you want to evaluate to choose the nature of your questions as well as the answers you will present during your survey. With your goals in mind, you’ll make sure you don’t stray from your game plan and ask unnecessary questions!

2. Determine the questions to ask according to the nature of your different objectives and determine the answer choices available

Once you have determined your goals, you can now proceed to learn how to create a survey for customer satisfaction, then create your questions. Keep in mind that you will have to adapt your questions to the information you want to collect from your customers.

Have difficulty determining which satisfaction survey template to use to collect your data? Here are some examples of questions to ask during a customer satisfaction survey.

To assess your clients’ overall satisfaction

A) If you want to evaluate your referencing probability, measure the Net Promoter Score

3 sample questions for the Net Promoter Score

The Net Promoter Score (NPS), allows you to calculate the probability that a customer refers to your company. With this score, you will know if your client had a positive enough experience within your company to refer it to a relative, a friend, or a family member. It is also with the Net Promoter Score that you can determine your number of detractors, passive and promoters customers, and convert your detractor customers into promoters of your brand.

While learning how to create a survey for customer satisfaction, it is important to base the NPS questions on the likelihood that a customer will recommend your services to a loved one.

• How likely is it that you would recommend our services to a friend or family member?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, would you recommend our software to your co-workers?
• How likely are you to do business with our company again?

Following your questions, propose answers on a scale of 1 to 10. To calculate your NPS, you will need to subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. Thus, you will get a score between -100 and 100 which determines your Net Promoter Score.

• A detractor is a customer with a score between 0 and 6;
• A passive, or indifferent customer, is between 7 and 8;
• An ambassador customer (promoter) assigns a score between 9 and 10. It is this type of customer who will make you known to his entourage and attract new potential customers..

There is no universal standard to determine what a good Net Promoter Score is, we recommend a score between 70 and 100 for your clientele to recommend your services to their loved ones.

B) If you want to assess the overall assessment of the experience, measure the Customer Satisfaction Score (CES)

3 sample questions for the Customer Satisfaction Score

The Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), lets you know if the customer has enjoyed their overall experience within your company. By learning how to create a survey for customer satisfaction and integrating customer satisfaction score questions into its design, you will be able to know what your customers think about their overall experience within your company, and thus tailor your services to their needs.

While learning how to create a survey for customer satisfaction, you can make sure to include a question to measure a customer’s CSAT by asking them general questions about their level of satisfaction with your company’s services. Here are some examples :

• Did you enjoy your overall experience in our business?
• Has our team lived up to your expectations?
• How satisfied are you with the work of our technicians?

If you see that the customer has been satisfied with your services, this is the perfect opportunity to invite them to leave a Google review on your Google My Business page or initiate a cross-selling. If not, you can follow up with an open-ended question to invite the customer to more openly develop the reason for their dissatisfaction. This way, you may be able to rectify the situation and regain their trust!

C) If you want to assess the perceived simplicity of your processes, measure the Customer Effort Score (CES)

3 sample questions for the Customer Effort Score

The Customer Effort Score (CES), focuses on the customer journey. This indicator measures the effort a customer had to make to access your services or make a purchase. With CES, you can improve the customer journey to improve the customer experience on your website as well as in-store.

When calculating the CES, you must formulate your questions as levels of effort. You may ask :

• How easy was it to do business with us?
• How would you define your overall shopping experience on our website?
• How easy was it to resolve your problem with us?

The response choices are then based on a five-level scale :

• Very easy = 1
• Easy = 2
• Neutral = 3
• Difficult = 4
• Very difficult = 5

The lower the score, the easier it was to do business with you. On the contrary, the higher the rating, the more effort your client has had to make and the greater the risk of returning to your business. By knowing how to create a survey for customer satisfaction, you will be able to use the CES to improve certain difficulties during your customers’ journey in your company!

D) To cross-reference data related to questions asked and socio-demographic factors

2 sample questions to draw demographic conclusions

When designing a customer satisfaction questionnaire, you may want to obtain information about your client demographics to tailor your services to the age or location of your clients.

To analyze the demographics of your clientele, you can ask :

• What age group do you belong to?
• What area do you live in?

There are generally two types of answers for demographic questions, open-ended and multiple-choice answers. An open response will allow your client to write their response on their own and will likely give you a more accurate geographical indicator. The answer choices, on the other hand, are a list of choices for a given question. For example, depending on the nature of the services you provide, for the question “How old are you?” you can submit the following answers :

• 18 – 25 years
• 26 – 35 years
• 36 – 50 years
• 50 years and older.

This will give you the demographic index of your clientele. Learning how to create a survey for customer satisfaction with a demographic index will allow you to adapt your customer experience according to the age and location of your main customer!

E) To assess the quality of service provided by your employees

3 sample questions to assess your staff

When you understand how to create a survey for customer satisfaction, you can also include questions to assess your employees to ensure that their service meets customer expectations. In this sense, you need questions related to the reception and professionalism of your staff. For example :

• Was the staff friendly?
• Are you satisfied with the reception in-store?
• Have employees answered your questions?

As with the CAST questions, we propose that you evaluate your customers’ satisfaction with your employees’ service on a qualitative scale of five levels. This will allow you to know if your customers are satisfied with the quality of service provided by your employees and to know what is happening at a professional level in your branches!

F) To assess the status of your branches

3 sample questions to assess the state of your store

Are you worried that your store will be out of order while you’re away? Are you concerned that the condition of your branch will have an impact on customer satisfaction? That’s why you should learn how to create a survey for customer satisfaction : you can ask your customers about their opinion on the state of the art when designing a satisfaction survey for your company!

For example, you can ask :

• Was the overall atmosphere in the store pleasant?
• Was the temperature of our premises adequate?
• How did you feel when you went to the store?

Afterwards, you can submit your answers with the options “yes” and “no” to allow your client to express themselves. You can also offer a choice of 5-step responses, ranging from very dissatisfied to very satisfied. If they’re dissatisfied, you can also program a branch with an open question for it to expand more precisely on the state of your store!

G) To assess the experience on your transactional website

3 sample questions to assess the quality of your website

It is not always easy to build your own website. When it’s something new for your business, it’s normal for the customer experience on a web platform to worry you. In this sense, you can learn how to create a survey for customer satisfaction to ask your customers if their experience on your website is reliable and enjoyable.

Here are some examples of questions related to your web platform :

• Did you generally enjoy your experience on our site?
• Is website navigation consistent?
• Was it easy to get help on our website?

To answer these questions, you can offer your clients CES-related response choices to measure the accessibility of your site, or CSAT to rate their satisfaction with the services offered online. This will allow you to adapt and optimize your online customer experience based on your customer feedback!

3. Be sure to incorporate good practices when formulating your various questions

Once your objectives are determined and your types of questions are chosen, to make sure you know how to create a survey for customer satisfaction, you must now validate your questions so that they capture the attention of your customers. But how do you frame your questions to encourage your customers to complete your survey to the end?

To guide you, here are five rules to follow when designing a questionnaire for your business :

• Choose simple and concise questions to avoid losing your customers ;
• Keep a courteous tone when formulating your questions ;
• Avoid putting words in your customer’s mouth ;
• Offer dissatisfied customers to explain the reason for their dissatisfaction with an open question ;
• Make sure your entire survey is short to avoid straining your customers.

4. Determine the appropriate order for your questions

When you know how to create a survey for customer satisfaction, whether it is a store satisfaction survey, a hotel satisfaction survey or a restaurant satisfaction survey, it is important to follow a logical order when asking your customers questions. In this sense, your survey must be structured, dynamic and consistent to motivate your clientele to complete it.

How to create a survey for customer satisfaction that will keep your customers focused until it is completed? To help you, here are two examples of structures to adopt when designing a satisfaction survey.

The funnel structure

When designing a customer satisfaction questionnaire, you can use the funnel structure to determine the order of your questions. This method involves asking general questions and then slowly moving to more complex and specific questions.

Here is an example of how to create a survey for customer satisfaction for your company using the funnel method :

• An introductory question : Did you enjoy your experience?
• A general question : Did staff meet your expectations?
• A specific question : Was the price of our services acceptable?

The hourglass structure

Like the funnel method, the hourglass structure begins with general questions before moving on to specific questions. However, rather than completing the design of a survey with specific questions, you return to an open or general question to complete your survey.

Here is an example of how to create a survey for customer satisfaction for your company using the hourglass structure :

• An introductory question : Is this your first experience with our company?
• A general question : Was the reception warm?
• A specific question : Was the employee who served you professional?
• A flag question : What age group do you belong to?
• Back to a general question : Would you recommend our services to a loved one?

5. Select a sending tool for your customer satisfaction survey

After designing a customer satisfaction survey, you must now choose its sending tool. However, depending on the type of your business and the clientele you wish to reach, it is important to select the medium that will be used to schedule your satisfaction survey before sending it.

How to create a survey for customer satisfaction by using the right sending tool? To help you make an informed choice, here are the best practices to apply when sending them according to the chosen platform.

Program the sending of surveys in automated ways by selecting the correct sending platforms

Once you understand how to create a survey for customer satisfaction and the design is complete, you can now choose your shipping platform. Among the many choices available to you, there are two that allow a completely automated sending: emails and SMS.

Sending your survey automatically saves you many hours of management when sending your surveys. Using this method, you will not have to send each survey individually, nor will you have to rewrite each of your messages.

However, when scheduling your satisfaction survey, there are a few general rules to follow. This is how to create a survey for customer satisfaction that is automated :

• Sign with your company name to avoid being confused with spam ;
• Schedule the mailing time approximately one hour after your meeting with the customer ;
• Give your client the option to complete the survey anonymously ;
• Include a call to action at the end of your survey ;
• Provide a contact if there is a technical issue when completing the customer satisfaction survey.

Best practices when sending an email satisfaction survey

When you have completed the design of a satisfaction survey, sending an email is the most traditional method of contacting your customers : it is a medium controlled by more people than SMS and allows a personal contact with your customers. This is why it’s important to understand how to create a survey for customer satisfaction that is adapted to automatic scheduling, like email and SMS surveys.

When scheduling an email survey, you must :

• Optimize your message subject line ;
• Sign your email to prevent the customer from confusing it with spam ;
• Keep the email short and structured so as not to lose the customer ;
• Include a call to action at the end of the email.

Best practices when sending an SMS satisfaction survey :

If you want to program your survey to be sent electronically, SMS is also a great option. Following the design of a satisfaction survey, they will allow you to reach your customers directly, regardless of the time of day, since most of them still have their phones in hand.

Once you learned how to create a survey for customer satisfaction and how to program it to be sent automatically, you can program your SMS survey. Here are some rules to guide you :

• Keep your message clear and brief, like an email ;
• Include your company’s name to avoid being confused with spam ;
• Attach a call to action at the end of your message.

Good practices when using a paper satisfaction survey :

Once you have finished designing a satisfaction survey, you may want to get a hot reaction, face to face with your customer in store.

In this case, it would be possible to print your customer satisfaction survey on paper and invite your customers to answer it at the end of their purchases in your store. However, you should be aware that this is not a recommended method, especially since it takes much longer than automated programming of your survey. In addition, using a paper survey does not directly record data from your customers’ responses on your computer. Finally, you may also disturb your customers, who may want to return to their homes directly after their purchase. They may also be uncomfortable sharing their dissatisfaction with you. In this sense, it’s better to learn how to create a survey for customer satisfaction adapted to be sent by email or SMS.

If you still want to use the paper survey method, here are some tips to help you :

• Politely invite the customer to complete your post-purchase survey ;
• When designing a survey, make sure that all your questions can fit on a single page ;
• Choose a clearly legible font so as not to discourage your customers ;
• Avoid disturbing your client when completing the survey.

Best practices when doing an over-the-phone satisfaction survey :

When you want to design a customer satisfaction survey to get feedback from your customers on a particular service or product, you can survey your customers over the phone. However, keep in mind that this is a less efficient option than email or SMS, since you will need to call each client individually to survey them, which takes a lot of time. In addition, you may disturb your customers during the call, or the customer may have difficulty telling you the truth in person.

If you still want to do a telephone survey, here are some rules to help you :

• Introduce yourself to the customer at the beginning of the call ;
• Ask if this is a good time to do a survey ;
• Keep a courteous tone throughout the survey ;
• Focus on short and specific questions ;
• Avoid asking intrusive questions ;
• Invite them to leave additional comments if desired.

Although it may seem difficult to choose the right tool to send your customer satisfaction survey, we recommend that you choose an option that will allow you to automate its sending. This way, you will be able to contact your customers at the right time, without fear of disturbing them. This will encourage them to complete your survey whenever they want and will allow you to collect more reviews to improve your customer experience!

How can InputKit help you design high-performance customer satisfaction surveys?

If you don’t know how to create a survey for customer satisfaction or how to formulate your questions, InputKit is here to help. With its automated Customer Experience Assessment and Improvement solution, you will be able to create a survey that reflects your company to assess your customers’ satisfaction and tailor your services to their needs. Our easy-to-use interface with unlimited French support and our satisfaction survey templates will allow you to design your own survey without any difficulty. It will also help you to understand how to create a survey for customer satisfaction!

With a response rate of 45% via email and 57% via text message, InputKit also offers a personalized and automated follow-up that will allow you to send your satisfaction survey to your customers at the right time, without having to spend management hours to schedule each of your surveys. This will allow you to focus on other priority tasks!

While learning how to create a survey for customer satisfaction may seem complex, there are several ways to simplify the task. Keep the objective of your survey in mind, frame your questions based on what you want to measure, structure your survey logically, and then choose the right tool to send your questions to your clients based on the type of clientele you are targeting.

When designing a survey for your business, don’t forget to keep your questions short, use a courteous tone, avoid putting words in your customers’ mouths, and end your survey with an open-ended question. Make sure you know how to create a survey for customer satisfaction by following each key step and best practices. This will make your customers more likely to complete your survey, which will ultimately allow you to improve your customer experience based on their feedback!

Following the understanding of how to create a survey for customer satisfaction, do you know how to improve your company’s customer experience? If you need help, please check out our article “How to Deliver a Successful Customer Experience? 7 Steps” or plan your free demo with our team of experts!