Customer Surveys: A Small Business Guide

Customer surveys are incredibly beneficial to a company. They are a concise and straightforward way to get valuable consumer feedback. All-encompassing, they provide helpful information in several ways, including:

Determining expectations to see the ever-evolving public mindset
Measuring satisfaction to find out what works or needs improving
Performing research for marketing as well as marketable products and services
Detecting buyer motivation to give the customer what they want

Short, simple questionnaires tend to go over well with customers. What turns people away is a long survey packed with off-topic or overly personal questions. So it’s critical to design a simple survey that caters to customers who lead busy lives.
Next, let’s go over some ideas that offer many points to consider when creating a customer survey. From the initial thought to implementing results, these suggestions can help generate custom ways to gain optimum potential for your own particular needs.

Key Points and Facts About Customer Surveys
Survey Types

CSAT, NPS, and CES are the three most common survey types, each measuring something different — overall satisfaction, likelihood to recommend, and effort.
CSAT surveys typically use a 1-5 scale, NPS surveys use a 0-10 scale, and CES surveys use an easy-to-difficult scale.

Response and Completion Rates

Recent industry benchmarks put the median survey completion rate at about 82%.
Completion doesn’t decline in a straight line as surveys get longer — very short surveys and very long, high-interest surveys can both do well.
Recent benchmarks show response rates vary by channel: email typically sees 15% to 25%, web surveys around 29%, and text messages 40% to 50%.

Incentives

Prepaid incentives get a much bigger response boost than incentives you only promise.
Prize drawings tend to have only a small effect on response rates.

Define the Goal of Your Customer Survey

The purpose of customer surveys can vary dramatically. Sometimes, you may require general feedback on products and services. Other times, you might want to put your feelers out to see how interested consumers would be in a change of practice or introducing new goods. Determining the precise objective should always be the first move in the survey creation process.
Once you know what you want, you need to figure out what you’ll do with the information before going any further. With this type of focus, you’ll be able to prepare the survey to reach your goal.

Types of Customer Surveys

Businesses have created countless types of customer surveys to boost profit. The right choice depends on a tailored strategy built around your specific objectives.
Let’s have a look at some of the popular survey types.

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Survey

The CSAT is the easiest indicator of a customer’s experience. Typically it’s only one question, which measures on a scale of 1-5 how satisfied a customer is with the overall service.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) Survey

Another method of simply posing one question, the NPS, is a 0-10 scale that asks how likely a customer would be to recommend the company to others. This variant offers a more detailed and fine-tuned response.

Customer Effort Score (CES) Survey

Based on customer service interaction, the CES asks how easy it was for the consumer to get the help they needed. Scales can vary, and the addition of a follow-up question to briefly explain a response is not uncommon.

Post-Purchase Survey

Post-purchase surveys assess the level of service provided at the point of sale or after a client has had the opportunity to utilize a product or service. It’s often graded on the same 1-5 scale as the CSAT.

Product Development Survey

Also known as concept testing, product development surveys expose customers to a new idea to seek advice. Often designed for loyal patrons, this survey is more extensive, revealing the concept, a description or sample, and cost.

User Experience (UX) Survey

UX-related surveys focus on ease of use for goods, apps, services, or websites. In addition, this information-gathering method collects data related to demographics, problems, solutions, and more.

Churn Survey

A churn survey focuses on customers who are canceling or decreasing their services. The goal is to identify why the client canceled or downgraded.

Important Points to Make and Avoid Regarding Your Customer Service Questionnaire

When it’s time to come up with questions, base your ideas on what you’ve learned so far. Some approaches are highly beneficial, while others you’ll want to avoid.

Be Clear

Ask precise questions that will get you specific answers, as vague questions will only yield vague statements.

Limit Topics

Addressing multiple subjects usually leads to messy and useless data. Therefore, it’s essential to keep things simple and direct.

Refrain From Opinions

Swaying your audience one way or another won’t get you honest answers, so keep your questions neutral.

Less is More

Don’t go overboard with the number of questions. The more time-consuming your survey is, the less likely people will be to respond.

Cover All Points

Ensure that your questions are specific to your needs and provide answer options. Don’t forget to include an “other option” field so the user can provide information other than what’s on your list.

Keep an Eye on Formatting

Sticking to one or two styles of questions, such as multiple choice or comment boxes, keeps the survey neat and easy to understand.

Brand yourself

Don’t forget to add your business colors and logo to your survey, as it’ll be a coordinated and consistent reminder of who you are.

Keep it Interesting

Ultimately, you want your survey to be attractive and simple to fill out. Anything complex will discourage your surveyees.

Offer an Appreciation Incentive to Take Your Survey

A huge part of a company’s goal is to make a sale. Take this notion and apply it to surveys, too. Just as you want to sell a product or service, you need to sell your survey.
Most consumers don’t actively seek out a survey, so you’ll want to draw them to it. However, you have to come on strong from the beginning. Offering incentives is a great way to increase the number of responses while showing appreciation.

What Stimulates Response

Incentives give a business more flexibility when conducting surveys. You don’t want to create a survey so long that customers abandon it, but an incentive lets you bend that rule a little. Recent industry benchmarks put the median completion rate at about 82%, and shorter surveys generally do best — a single question can see completion rates above 85%.
Even so, customers are more willing to finish a longer survey when you offer them something for their time. The following are some instances of incentives:

Discounts
Free products/services
Gift cards
Prize drawings
Promotional items

Not all incentives work equally well. Prepaid incentives — giving something upfront rather than promising it after — get a much bigger response boost than promised rewards, and prize drawings tend to produce only a small lift, since entrants often see the odds of winning as too low to be worth the effort.

Self-Promotion

Incentives also provide advertisement. When a person fills out a survey and receives a reward, your business is more likely to stay in their head, increasing the chance of them returning in the future and promoting you to their friends. In addition, giving incentives can keep your company in the public spotlight, particularly if you give away branded promotional products that your customers will use daily.

Review Your Survey

Treat your survey just like any other written piece. First, review it and edit it. After that, put it away for a few days. This way, you’ll have a fresh perspective, so check for grammatical errors, typos, awkward phrasing, and anything else that makes your survey look unprofessional.

Email Tips Related to Your Survey

Email is, by far, one of the best ways to initiate a survey. To generate a high volume of responses, you need to grab people’s attention. In an email, you’ll have to say a lot in a small amount of space. Make it short, sweet, and to the point, but remember that you need to motivate people from the get-go.
Recent benchmarks show response rates vary widely by channel. Email surveys typically get 15% to 25% response, compared to around 29% for web surveys and 40% to 50% for text messages, so it helps to set your expectations accordingly.

Enticing Subject Line

The email subject line can make or break your survey — a bland one gets ignored, no matter how good the survey inside is.
Use catchy words to grab people’s attention. Make the subject line inclusive and personal. Let the customer know that they are valued and appreciated. Revealing the incentive you’re offering will also help. Some ideas include:

Have a minute? We’d appreciate your feedback!
Get 50% off your next item by taking our quick survey!
Receive a thank-you gift card just for telling us what you think!

Call to Action (CTA) Invitation

The email body should be simple and easy to understand. Use a welcoming tone and be honest. Briefly explain the survey and its length, revisit the incentive item if applicable, and wrap it up – this shouldn’t take more than a few sentences. At the end of the email, include a clear CTA link to the survey.

Check Your Email for Spam

Before you send it, make sure to run your email through a spam checker. The last thing you want is your email ending up in spam folders.

Select a Cross-Representation Group

It’s best not to send out your survey to all recipients immediately. Instead, it’s a good idea to dip your toe in the water first.
If you send your survey to everyone on your list and no one responds, you’ve wasted a significant amount of time and effort. Sending to a small test group first lets you measure the response volume, or lack of it, before going wider.
You may need to revisit your subject line, incentive, wording, layout, or clarity. Ask yourself a few questions, and adjust your survey depending on your results.

Are certain questions being avoided?
Do written answers seem consistently vague?
How is the overall reception?
What’s the rate of return?

Change It Up: Use a Split Test

Another great idea is to create two different emails while still sticking with a small test group. This split test will provide valuable insight into which variant provides better feedback. Allow some time for response, analyze these results, and go with the email people liked more.

How to Send Out Your Survey

Repeat your testing until you see effective results. Once you have this necessary data, it’s time to send the email to the remainder of the group. After a few days, consider sending a brief reminder to those who have yet to participate in the survey. Then, include the link once again.

Use The Data Received

One of the most crucial things to complete is to put the information you’ve gathered to good use. If you don’t act on the valuable knowledge that took a lot of time and effort to acquire, the whole procedure is a waste of time.
It’s essential to act as soon as the results start coming in.

Organize Your Data

When you first designed your survey, you thought about what you’d do with the information. Now is the moment to put your thoughts into action. Organize, analyze, and utilize your data as it comes in to enhance your goods and services.

Send a Follow-Up Email

In addition to any potential incentive, it’s a personal gesture of gratitude and appreciation to let the customer know they’ve helped you. Offer more than just a simple thank-you.
Explain to them how their contribution helped change or keep particular products and services.
It’s not necessary to dive into great detail here. However, you very well may want to do so. Some companies go so far as to create cause-and-effect reports on survey results and how they directly affect sales and or policy.

Building for the Future

You’ll gain expertise that helps with future efforts once you’ve defined your goals, designed a survey to match them, sent it out, collected the data, and put the findings to use.
Done well, surveys can improve your business in several ways, even though they cost time, effort, and money. Track how your ideas played out, and carry those lessons into your next survey.

Action Steps for Customer Surveys
Plan Your Survey

Define the specific goal of your survey before you write a single question.
Decide what you’ll do with the results before you send it out.

Choose the Right Type

Pick a CSAT, NPS, CES, or other survey type that fits your goal.
Match the survey to the moment — right after a purchase, after a support interaction, or periodically for loyal customers.

Write and Test It

Keep questions clear, limited to one topic each, and free of leading language.
Send it to a small test group first, then adjust based on the response.

Send and Follow Up

Choose your channel with response-rate benchmarks in mind.
Send a reminder to non-respondents after a few days.

Use the Results

Organize and analyze the data as it comes in.
Send a follow-up thank-you and act on what you learned.

Checklist for Customer Surveys

Define your goal
- Know what decision the results will inform.
Pick a survey type
- CSAT, NPS, CES, or another type that fits your goal.
Write clear questions
- One topic per question, no leading language, an “other” option where needed.
Test with a small group
- Check the response rate and wording before sending it wider.
Choose your incentive
- Prepaid incentives outperform promised ones.
Send and remind
- Pick your channel, then follow up with non-respondents.
Analyze and act
- Organize the data and apply it to your products or services.
Follow up with respondents
- Thank them and tell them how their feedback helped.

FAQ: Customer Surveys
How long should a customer survey be?

Shorter is generally better. Completion rates tend to be highest for very short surveys, though very long surveys can also do well if the topic matters to the respondent.

What’s the difference between CSAT, NPS, and CES?

CSAT measures overall satisfaction, usually on a 1-5 scale. NPS measures how likely a customer is to recommend you, on a 0-10 scale. CES measures how much effort a customer spent getting help.

Do I need to offer an incentive?

No, but incentives increase response rates. Prepaid incentives work better than ones you only promise.

What’s a good survey response rate?

It depends heavily on your channel. Recent benchmarks show email trailing other channels, landing in the 15%–25% range, while web surveys run closer to 29% and text messages reach 40%–50%.

How do I write better survey questions?

Be clear and specific, stick to one topic per question, avoid leading language, and include an “other” option where it fits.

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