Without customers, there is no business, so it is crucial for a company, regardless of its sector of activity, to evaluate the quality of the customer experience . To do this, it is necessary to collect customer opinions in order to establish a level of satisfaction . This is done in particular through the customer satisfaction survey . What is the point of a customer satisfaction questionnaire ? What questions should be included in the form? How to create a quality customer satisfaction questionnaire? This is what we will cover in this article on the customer satisfaction survey .
Why set up a customer satisfaction survey?
As we mentioned, customers are essential to ensure the sustainability of a business . Faced with increasing competition, it is therefore essential for companies to offer the highest quality customer experience .
They must therefore take into account customer opinions in order to best meet their needs, and thus build loyalty. To understand customer feelings, there is nothing like a customer satisfaction survey . This marketing method for measuring customer satisfaction has many advantages . In particular, it allows you to:
- Identify customer needs and expectations
- Identify the factors of satisfaction and dissatisfaction
- Define a plan to improve customer satisfaction
- Track the evolution of customer satisfaction
- Improve customer loyalty
- Improve your turnover
- Developing your sales force
- Optimizing customer relations
- Developing your brand reputation
But that’s not all. The customer satisfaction survey also allows companies to show their customers that their opinion matters .
In addition, creating a customer satisfaction questionnaire represents an economic advantage. Indeed, compared to other methods of measuring satisfaction , the questionnaire is more economical . It allows you to quickly (and at a lower cost) have a sufficient number of usable and representative responses.
The different times to set up a customer satisfaction survey
In addition to the quality of the satisfaction questionnaire , you should also pay attention to the timing of sending to obtain the best results. In particular, you can create a satisfaction questionnaire :
- Every 6 months
- After losing a contract (to understand the reasons)
- After a contract renewal
- At the time of purchase cancellation, termination…
Satisfaction survey example: subscribing to an internet subscription
- Immediately after purchase : as soon as the customer has subscribed to your services, whether online or in a physical store. Asking for customer feedback immediately after a purchase allows you to understand whether they are satisfied with how the purchasing process went. “Immediately” responses are often more honest. This can be done by email or via a terminal located in store.
- After using the service : After starting the internet subscription, you can send an email to find out how it is going. Is the customer satisfied with his purchase? Did he encounter any difficulties?
- After contacting customer service : if the customer contacted customer service/after-sales service . Did they get the answers they wanted? This will help you improve this aspect of the customer journey. This is obviously easier data to collect if you have customer service software .
- After 6 months : send a satisfaction survey after a few months for several purposes. In addition to obtaining feedback on the services, this helps maintain customer relations.
- After using the mobile application : if the customer uses the mobile application, for example to track their consumption, ask for feedback . This will help you improve the interface if necessary.
Of course, the ideal timing depends on the type of products or services you offer. Do some testing to see what works best for you.
The main indicators of customer satisfaction
1. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
The NPS (Net Promoter Score) is undoubtedly a key indicator for measuring customer loyalty .
It measures the attachment of customers to your brand, and their propensity to recommend your company or brand . Which is crucial to ensure the success of a business. The NPS which was created by Bain & Company takes the form of a very short survey . It is generally the following question:
How likely are you to recommend brand A/B/C or services X/Y/Z to those around you?
To answer, the customer must assign a score often ranging from 1 to 10. 1 means “not very likely” and 10 means “extremely likely”. The NPS has the advantage of being a quick and simple survey . In addition, the NPS score is very easy to calculate .
2. Customer Effort Score (CES)
As its name suggests, the CES measures the effort that the customer had to make to meet their need . It is therefore possible to use this indicator after a purchase , after a complaint. Or even after the return of a product to the after-sales service .
CES satisfaction survey example:
How much effort did it take to get your request processed? To purchase the product? To contact customer service?
CES is mainly used to assess post-purchase satisfaction . It is very often used in marketing to implement customer loyalty strategies .
3. Customer Satisfaction Score (Score CSAT)
Another interesting indicator: the CSAT score , it allows an effective evaluation of customer satisfaction . This survey is therefore generally carried out following a purchase or subscription to a service . This questionnaire often takes the form of a Likert scale . That is to say a graduated scale. The customer must evaluate his satisfaction, ranging from “not at all satisfied” to “very satisfied”.
This type of survey is generally appreciated by customers because it is simple and quick to complete . It also allows you to quickly have a large panel of easily exploitable data .
Types of questions for a customer satisfaction survey
#1. Socio-demographic questions
These questions are essential in any customer satisfaction questionnaire . And this is true regardless of the objective of the survey. They allow you to better understand your customers , and thus, to be able to segment the target .
Examples of socio-demographic questions:
- How old are you? Answers can be made via a numeric field or a checkbox depending on the age range.
- Are you? Male/Female/Do not wish to answer. Can be done as a drop-down list or checkbox.
- Where do you live? Again, this can be a drop-down list with departments or regions, depending on the desired precision.
Defining groups will allow you to better target the needs of your customers .
#2. Overall satisfaction questions
Usually located at the beginning of a survey, this is most often a Likert scale . Each customer is asked to rate their satisfaction and experience .
Examples of overall satisfaction questions:
- How would you rate your overall experience? Scale from “no opinion” to “very satisfied”. Or scale in the form of a number (from 0 to 5 for example).
- How likely are you to recommend our company to others? For example, Likert scale from 1 to 10.
By averaging the responses, you get an overall customer satisfaction rating .
#3. Open questions
It is important to have some open-ended questions in the customer satisfaction survey. This approach allows customers to clearly express their answers or provide clarifications (for example, if they answered “no” to the previous question). Therefore, it is necessary to provide a free text field for this type of question in a survey .
Examples of open questions:
- What is your opinion about the company/brand?
- How could we improve your experience?
- Do you have any other comments or suggestions?
While these questions are important, they are usually more difficult to analyze .
#4. Questions of dissatisfaction
In addition to measuring customer satisfaction, the satisfaction questionnaire helps to identify dissatisfied customers . Which is equally important to identify what can be improved.
Examples of dissatisfaction questions :
- Can you specify the reason for your dissatisfaction? This can be a checkbox between several options (quality/price/design…)
- Can we contact you to find a solution to your problem? Check box (yes/no). If “yes”, remember to ask for contact details.
To refine goals and improve marketing strategy , it is important to understand the reasons for customer dissatisfaction.
See also: Direct marketing: definition and examples of objectives
DIRECT ARKETING: DEFINITION AND EXAMPLES OF OBJECTIVES
#5. Questions about products and services
This type of question is essential to improve the offer proposed , and thus, promote customer loyalty.
Examples of questions to ask:
- What do you like most about our product/service? Checkbox between several choices (design/price/quality…).
- How often do you use our product/service? Checkbox (less than once a month/1 time a month/Every day…). The scale is to be defined according to the type of products/services and the desired precision.
Service/product satisfaction surveys allow the company to better understand how customers use them . They are essential for obtaining feedback on the customer experience .
1. Objectives of the questionnaire
Before you start thinking about how to write the questions to ask, you need to clearly define the objectives of the questionnaire. A satisfaction survey can be conducted to achieve various objectives. In fact, it can be used to:
- Know: to learn more about your customers, understand their feelings and expectations… The goal is to better identify their needs in order to respond to them appropriately.
- Measure: The goal is to obtain data on the performance of a product or service. This allows you to evaluate the added value of your company compared to its competitors.
- Explain: It is possible to direct the customer satisfaction questionnaire if you want more details on a specific point. For example, if you want to know how customers perceive your products.
- Solicit: the satisfaction survey can be a great way to get new ideas. Or ideas for areas to improve.
For qualitative data , it is important to have only one satisfaction questionnaire objective.
2. Define the themes
After the objectives, you need to define the themes . That is, the areas of your business that you want to evaluate. This could be, for example:
- Customer reception
- The quality of after-sales service
- Delivery times
Once the themes have been identified, it is necessary to go further in the questioning. In the case of customer reception in particular, the survey can be broken down into several points to be evaluated. Such as the friendliness of the staff, the waiting time, etc. The more precise the questionnaire, the more qualitative the results will be.
3. Structure of the satisfaction survey
Then you need to go into more detail about the structure of your survey . This concerns the type of questions (open/closed/multiple choice, etc.). But also the rating system.
As we have seen, several choices are available to you:
- Verbal scale : from “not at all satisfied” to “very satisfied”.
- Rating scale : from 1 to 10 for example. This is the easiest to understand.
- Scale using pictograms : can sometimes be difficult to analyze.
To encourage people to respond , it is important to offer surveys with a clear and pleasant structure .
4. Dissemination mode
The questionnaire is ready, now you need to choose the means of distribution. Three models are available to you:
- On paper : Sending a paper survey allows you to target a large geographic area at a relatively low cost. However, it is difficult to predict how many people will respond.
- By phone : The advantage is direct contact with the customer. However, this takes time and can be seen as invasive by the customer.
- By email or social networks : the most common questionnaire today. Economically advantageous, it allows you to reach a wide target without being too intrusive.
Before launching your questionnaire, consider carrying out several tests (format/distribution method, etc.). These tests will help you find the best solution and improve the satisfaction rate .
5. Upload the collected data to your CRM software
It is important to collect data on your customers, but if you want this data to be usable, remember to upload it to your CRM software .
Depending on your CRM tool this can be done:
- natively by sending an internal questionnaire to the CRM tool, the data of which will be automatically sent back
- via a native or external connector (eg: Zapier, Make.com, …).
- or manually via .CSV file export
FAQ – Customer Satisfaction Survey
What tools for a satisfaction survey?
There are many tools for creating and distributing a satisfaction survey . This is particularly the case for SurveyMonkey , Drag’n Survey and many others.
There is Google Forms in particular , which is particularly interesting because registration is free. It is therefore possible to create several types of forms quickly and for free.