Customer satisfaction surveys help you understand your customers' needs and expectations, as well as any potential issues they may have with your products or services. However, to ensure the survey yields useful responses and insights, it must be prepared correctly. The tips we cover today will guide you through the process.

The purpose of conducting customer satisfaction surveys is to identify your customers' expectations at every touchpoint of their buying journey. Information about what customers like during their purchasing process helps you highlight the procedures that are working effectively. This allows you to focus even more on what creates a positive customer experience. Satisfied customers are more loyal and will make more purchases.

Read also: The most common methods for measuring customer satisfaction.

A well-structured survey provides valuable insight into the customer experience. We have compiled a few tips on how to prepare a customer satisfaction survey that delivers actionable responses.

Recommendations for Preparing a Customer Satisfaction Survey

1. Start by asking for an overall company satisfaction rating. This gives you an excellent initial impression and allows you to compare the score with those from previous periods. You will immediately see whether satisfaction has improved or not. If you implemented changes based on past feedback, this score will reflect their success. Since this question is at the beginning, even customers who might abandon the survey halfway through will likely answer it.

2. Include open-ended questions for customer feedback. Open-ended questions provide more concrete opinions and descriptions. With closed questions (where the customer selects from pre-determined answers), you might only learn that a customer is "partially satisfied," but not why they gave that rating. In an open-ended question, the customer can describe what happened and likely what they expected. Although analyzing these is more time-consuming and complex, such answers offer incomparably higher informational value.

3. Optimize the questionnaire for mobile devices. Most customers will complete the survey on their mobile phones. It is crucial to consider this during the design phase. The user experience must be smooth; if you optimize the survey for mobile devices, it will be easy to complete on a computer as well (whereas the reverse is not necessarily true).

What to Avoid When Creating an Effective Survey

1. Do not ask ambiguous or overly broad questions. If a question could refer to different things, you won't know which specific aspect the customer is rating. Customers may also get confused and stop answering if they don't know exactly what you are asking.

2. The satisfaction survey shouldn't be too long. As always, there are exceptions, but generally, a survey should not exceed 10 questions. In longer surveys, customer attention wanes, and they are less likely to complete it.

3. Do not use terms the customer doesn't understand (even if they are standard in your industry). The customer must fully understand the question to provide a relevant answer. Do not confuse them with technical jargon, even if you use it daily.