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Tips for Creating Customer Satisfaction Survey Questions

Customer Satisfaction Survey Questions Must Be Precise

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Customer satisfaction surveys can indicate to a business owner where improvements need to be made and lead to new designs of products and services.

The customer survey questions you ask should lead to specific testing results. "Do You Like Our Products?" is not effective as, "On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest score, are you satisfied with ABC product?" That question would be much more effective as part of the customer satisfaction survey questionnaire.

Without specific questions to get specific answers, a customer satisfaction survey questionnaire can wind up completely useless.

Customer Satisfaction Survey Questions Lead to Statistical Answers

Most people do not care much for writing out answers. Most people do like customer satisfaction survey questions that allow them to click on a scale of 1 to 5, for example, and give the opportunity to write more of their thoughts and opinions at the end of a survey.

Keeping that in mind many people just want to "click" their way through customer satisfaction survey questions. Gear your survey to an overall theme or what you want to know. Don't bombard your customers with questions that have no relationship to each other.

The Most Forgotten Customer Satisfaction Survey Question is…

"Would you recommend our products and services to your friends and family?"

Oddly enough, that question is often nonexistent in customer satisfaction survey questions. It seems it should be the top question, but many businesses forget to include it in their surveys.

Because of the anonymity of taking customer satisfaction survey questionnaires online, you might be surprised that the answer to that question is "no." This is why you will want to have an "Additional Comments" area at the end of your survey where the question can be answered in more detail.

Customer Satisfaction Survey Questions Must Include Other Statistical Information

man writingIf your products and services deal with a particular gender or age bracket (or even if they don't), these questions must always be asked:

1. What is your gender?

2. What is your age? (Give age brackets to choose from).

Most people will not answer survey questions about income because, consciously or unconsciously, they think they may get phone calls or spammed with email.

Your objective is to find out who likes your products and services, why, and what types of people make up the bulk of your customer base. With this information, you can not only know how to direct future product designs or service models, but also how to direct your advertising.

Customer Satisfaction Survey Questions Must Include…

"How can we improve our products and services?"

Give your survey-takers an opportunity to sit in the driver's seat and answer, "Given the chance, what would I do to change things at this company?"

Things to Remember

  • Develop customer satisfaction survey questions around a strategy to find out what you want to know about related products and services.
  • Be specific with your questions. Create clickable "scales" to determine satisfaction. Stay away from vague and general questions such as, "Do You Like Product ABC?" More appropriate would be, "Do you use product ABC on a daily/weekly/monthly basis?"
  • Allow areas for comments, giving people the freedom to add more if they wish.
  • Be sure to include these questions:
  1. Would you recommend our products and services to friends and family?
  2. What is your gender?
  3. What is your age?
  4. How can we improve our products and services?

Additional Resources for Creating Customer Satisfaction Survey Questions

Customer Satisfaction Survey Forms

Customer Satisfaction Survey Questionnaire Templates