14 Survey questions examples for optimal feedback & tips

One of the most important assets an organization can capitalize on is customer satisfaction. 

81% of customers say a positive customer service experience pushes them to make another purchase. You need to get them to express their honest opinions to find out how happy your customers are. 

And an effective way to do this is by analyzing important customer survey questions and carefully planning a survey. 

Looking for survey ideas for inspiration? 

In this blog, we’ve listed 14 good survey question examples to get optimal feedback, outlining various question types and best practices to help you create effective surveys. 

Understanding the purpose of surveys

Surveys are designed to gather information and opinions from a targeted audience. They help businesses, researchers, and organizations make data-driven decisions, identify trends, measure satisfaction levels, and understand customer preferences. 

By formulating appropriate survey questions, you can collect valuable data to gain insights into your audience’s thoughts, behaviors, and experiences.

Choosing the right survey methodology

Before diving into the specific survey questions, you have to select the right survey methodology that aligns with your goals. 

Common survey methods include:

• Online surveys
• Phone interviews
• In-person questionnaires, and focus groups. 

Each method has its advantages and limitations, so consider your target audience, budget, and the type of data you wish to collect when choosing a methodology.

These survey ideas are also some great text messaging examples you can get inspiration from. 

But before you start implementing, let’s look benefits you get from doing customer surveys. 

3 benefits of customer surveys

Designing effective survey questions requires careful consideration of the survey’s purpose, the target audience, and best practices in question design. Here are the top 3 benefits of conducting customer surveys and how they can unlock valuable insights for your business.

1. Get valuable customer feedback

Customer satisfaction survey responses provide valuable feedback on any concerns your customers may have. 

• Depending on how you structure your questions, you can determine how satisfied your customers are with your business.
• You can also leave open-ended questions to allow them to express reasons behind their level of satisfaction and expand upon their answers. 
• Use these as feedback to identify opportunities to improve the customer experience and capitalize on them.

Use these as feedback to identify opportunities to improve the customer experience and capitalize on them.

2. Retain customers

The results from a customer satisfaction survey can alert you to which customers are unhappy and likely to churn. 

If your customers are satisfied with your customer experience, they’re far more likely to stay with your business. However, if your customer survey results indicate that your clients are not happy with the quality of your products or services, they’ll choose your competitors. 

You can reach out to those customers and take steps to mend the relationship to improve your retention rate. 

Prevent customer churn and retain more by: 

• Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of your products, services, and customer interactions.
• Involving your customers in the early stages of product ideation and:
  • Gather their opinions through surveys
  • Gain insights into their preferences and desired features

To work on potential areas of improvement. 

• Assessing brand perception and loyalty. Some survey idea questions you can ask:
  • Their idea about the brand image
  • Likelihood to recommend to their peers 

After identifying these,  tailor your marketing strategies and brand messaging to resonate more effectively with your target audience.

3. Helps you understand your customers

Every business’s responsibility is to understand customers on a holistic level – not based on how they serve their customers, but on their feedback.

You need to know your customers deeply to get the coveted 5-star ratings every time. So: 

• Compare their experiences with those of your competitors
• Analyze areas where you may need to improve to stay ahead in the market
• Regularly collect reviews (both positive and negative) and analyze recurring patterns

Gaining a deeper understanding of your customers drives more informed decision-making to improve the customer experience.

Types of surveys

While surveys are great for collecting feedback, there’s no one-size-fits-all survey that can be used for all situations. Depending on the stage in the buyer’s lifecycle, companies use different types of surveys to capture different types of feedback. 

The most common types of surveys used by companies are: 

1. Product surveys

These help companies learn what their users think about their products. Running a survey before launching a product helps you see what people want and need. Product surveys for an existing product allow you to see how customers are enjoying their experience and how the product can be improved.

2. Customer Experience (CX) surveys

These help collect constructive customer feedback about their experience at different touchpoints. 

Different types of CX surveys are:

• Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSAT)
• Net Promoter Score Survey (NPS)
• Customer Effort Score(CES)

3. Brand and Marketing surveys

Allow you to articulate your brand positioning, then develop further messaging that resonates with your future customers.

The questions you craft for each type of customer survey are crucial to getting a strong response rate. 

Let’s take a look at 14 customer survey question examples that can help you get the meaningful information you want.

4 Product survey questions examples

Question 1: Does our product help you achieve your goals?

Knowing this informs you whether your product is hitting or missing the mark and indicates if improvements need to be made. Your customers’ responses will give you clear insight into how consumers are receiving your products. This question can also be structured as an open-ended question to understand the reasoning behind their response.

Question 2: What would you improve in the product/service if you could?

Customers’ needs constantly evolve, so there’s always room to improve your product. This question will help inform you on how to update your product.Additionally, actioning changes based on customer feedback will help to strengthen customer relationships and drive brand loyalty.

Question 3: If you could suggest a new feature, what would it be and why?

Regularly offering innovative product updates is highly valued by consumers, and your customers may potentially give unique suggestions that you wouldn’t have otherwise considered. 

Question 4: Which alternatives did you consider before purchasing this product?

Sometimes customers consider companies that are not on your radar or new companies you may not know. This insight informs if messaging with prospects and existing customers creates a clear image of your product that is coherent with your vision.

4 Customer Experience survey questions examples

Question 5: How was your experience with us today?

This is a common question used to determine the customer satisfaction score (CSAT score). It helps to identify if your business is offering a quality, memorable customer experience. It helps identify if your business offers a quality, memorable customer experience.

To calculate your CSAT score, divide the number of satisfied customers by all your respondents. Then multiply the result by 100. You’ll end up with a percentage where the higher it is, the more satisfied your customers are.

Question 6: What could we have improved on/done better?

This is a great follow-up question to ask on a CSAT survey. Knowing whether your customers had a good or poor experience with your business helps you understand how you’re doing.  also need to know what contributed to the quality of their experience. 

If you want to glean the most information from your CX survey, then you will want to look into open-ended questions like these.

It will highlight exactly what you’re doing well and what needs improvement. 

Question 7: How would you explain our product/service to a friend, family member or colleague?

This open-ended question can provide insight into how customers perceive your offerings. 

• What do they consider to be your value proposition, and how it meets their needs? 

Analyzing responses to this question can inform your marketing messaging and improve customer acquisition. 

Question 8: How likely are you to recommend our business?

This question is the foundation of the Net Promoter Score (NPS) system that gauges the loyalty of a company’s customers. 

Data scientists have determined a strong connection between Net Promoter Score and revenue growth. 

You may want to ask this question once per quarter, post-purchase. A true NPS uses a 11-point system (0 to 10). 

Brand and Marketing customer survey questions examples

Question 9: How did you hear about us?

You stretch your budgets to market on all channels to convert customers. It is important to learn how your customer learned about you and to identify channels that bring the most traffic and the traffic that makes a purchase.

Double down on those channels that are driving maximum ROI. 

Question 10: How would you search for our business on Google?

Identify new keywords that lead to customer acquisition. If you want future customers to find your business online, you need to know everything you can about the keywords and phrases your customers use when looking for companies like yours. 

• Identify common keywords used by your most profitable customers. 
• Combine these inputs with the NPS to customize your inbound SEO strategy.

Question 11: What is the primary reason you chose us over competitors?

Discovering a product or service “differentiator” is the kind of competitive intelligence that pays huge dividends. You may already have some thoughts on this, but set those aside for now and let your customers tell you why you are different.

Question 12: Could you easily find the information you were looking for on our website?

Your customers should be able to seamlessly navigate your website to find information. The happier they are with the user experience on your website and the time it takes to get the information they need, the more likely they are to become repeat customers.

This question will inform you if your website needs to be updated to provide a better customer experience. 

Question 13: What’s one thing you love about our company?

It’s imperative to understand what your customers love about your company so you can get to know their preferences and build upon your strengths.

 Is it your awesome customer service or your amazing collection of products, or your low prices?

Question 14: Do you have suggestions?

It’s better to be proactive rather than reactive. Take the first step by asking customers to express themselves. This can help you find gaps in your offerings and discover potential advocates.

At the same time, it lets your customers know you care about their experience and appreciate their improvement ideas.

Increase your response rate with smart surveys

Asking the right questions is imperative to gleaning valuable customer feedback. Of equal importance is providing an intuitive survey experience. 

We launched Pulse Surveys to innovate the traditional survey experience that boosts conversion rates to a whopping 50%!

• Use text to send your survey – Texts get much better open and response rates than email. 

Refer to any of the text messaging examples mentioned above. This makes them great at getting real-time feedback. 

Birdeye’s Pulse surveys use 2-way texting, which allows you to have a back-and-forth conversation with your customer (ask a question – get an answer) without missing a beat. 

• No survey link – When there are no links to click on, you increase your chances of getting a response. 
• Fewer questions = more responses – While sending texts, you don’t need to type a bunch of questions. Only super relevant and measurable ones.

Furthermore, you can use conditional logic (skip and display logic) to enable your respondents to bypass irrelevant questions. 

• Skip Logic allows you to send respondents to a future point in the survey based on how they answer a question.
• Display Logic displays or hides a question based on any information you already have about the current respondent.

It’s almost like creating a custom path for each respondent through the survey that varies based on the respondent’s answers. 

Did you know: 42% of companies include some sort of survey logic to ensure quality data collection while preventing respondent survey fatigue?

Tips for writing effective survey questions

To ensure your survey questions yield accurate and meaningful results, follow these best practices:

1. Craft questions that are clear, concise, and easy to understand. 
2. Avoid using technical jargon or complex language that may confuse participants. 
3. When creating multiple-choice or rating scale questions, ensure the response options are balanced and cover the entire range of possible answers.
4. Arrange survey questions in a logical and sequential manner to maintain the flow. 
5. Consider how one question may influence the perception or response to subsequent questions. 
6. Avoid combining multiple ideas or concepts in a single question. 
7. Share the survey with a small group and gather feedback to identify any areas of confusion or improvement.

Pro tip: Long surveys with numerous questions can lead to survey fatigue and lower response rates. Keep your surveys short, focused, and relevant to maximize participant engagement and completion rates. 

Faqs on survey questions examples

Start boosting your survey response rates with Birdeye

The customer survey questions examples we’ve shared with you are meant to inspire your surveys to help get more meaningful insights. 

Download, use, and test to improve your business strategies.

With a wide range of customer surveys and distribution methods now available, you can empower your VoC program and strengthen your CX strategy. 

Want to get started collecting feedback and improving your customer experience? 

Birdeye’s award-winning survey platform can help you achieve your feedback goals and fuel business growth.

Originally published Aug 11, 2023