What to Know About Creating Good Customer Survey Questions

Introduction  

In the business world, your product revolves around the customer and their expectations. Customer surveys are designed for two purposes: to solve customer problems and fulfil their needs. Customer surveys help companies measure satisfaction, perform market research, and gauge expectations. They are a method for getting constructive consumer feedback. Such surveys can be valuable if you ask the right questions that are neutral in tone, close-ended, transparent, and clear.  

Focus on Asking Close-Ended Questions  

Close-ended questions save time and effort for customers. Customers do not wish to sit in front of a survey for more than five minutes. Close-ended questions motivate the customer to feel interested in doing the survey. It is also much easier to analyze the responses at the end of the survey. These questions are simple and to the point. Examples of such questions include:  

  • Was the product helpful to you? 
  • What color is your product? 
  • What’s your product’s serial number?  

These questions allow the respondents to give a true opinion of how they feel about your product. With close-ended questions, respondents are more likely to answer questions pertaining to sensitive topics as well.  

Keep Questions Neutral 

When you create your survey, you want to keep the tone as neutral as possible. A biased tone is not the best tactic to present your survey to the public audience. Being neutral on your survey shows that you are willing to accept constructive feedback. It also gives the respondents an opportunity to announce their opinion about your product. Including an opinion in the question itself prompts the respondents to exit out of the survey and not take it at all. An example of a neutral question would be “On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate our workplace culture?” Questions like this can help respondents provide a clear response on how they feel about the organization they work in.  

Don’t Ask for Multiple Things at Once 

At the end of the day, respondents are only human. Their brains can consume one question at a time. Asking for multiple things at once can confuse respondents and cause them to give an answer that will not reflect their true opinion of your product. For example, if you ask a customer, “What can you tell us about the quality of our product and do you have any improvements for it?” Such questions can put the customer in a confused head space. You want customers to be in a stable state of mind while they take your survey.  

Provide the “Not Applicable” or “Prefer Not to Answer” Option  

Nobody should feel forced to respond to a question. It is better to give an option of either “Not Applicable” or “Prefer Not to Answer”. An example of such a situation would be the question of gender identification. Some respondents don’t necessarily feel comfortable with exposing their gender identification publicly. This is when the “Not Applicable” or “Prefer Not to Answer” option comes in handy. Such options show that you care about your customers and don’t have any desire to force any information out of them.  

Conclusion  

Customers and customer opinions are what matter the most when it comes to improving your organization and its products and services. Sign up for PxidaCX to find out how your customers feel about your products and services.