5 Customer Feedback Survey Examples To Improve Your Surveys

Customer feedback surveys are an easy way to find out who your customers are, what they’re looking for, and how you can provide a better experience. There are many different types of customer feedback surveys, and it’s important to choose carefully so you don’t overwhelm your customers. We’ve collected and analyzed 5 different customer feedback survey examples to give you a starting point for your own surveys, and help you decide which might best suit your needs.

5 Customer Feedback Survey Examples: What They Do and Which You Need

1. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) Example: Subway

The Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score gives you an easy and measurable way to assess any part of your business. CSAT uses a scale of one to three or one to five, and asks customers to rate their satisfaction.

Subway provides a good example of a CSAT customer feedback survey, as well as an NPS^® survey (see below). This simple, three-part customer feedback survey provides an overall satisfaction score out of ten, satisfaction ratings on individual features of the restaurant, and an open-ended box where the customer can provide more information and the business can learn more about specific problems or advantages.

This type of customer feedback survey has several advantages

• Easy for customers to fill out
• Easily quantifiable
• Easy to compare against averages or year over year
• Provides general and specific information
• Pictures make the survey easy to read and understand

This survey is ideal when you need the following:

• Quantifiable information to compare year over year or month to month
• Information on the most important aspects of your business
• Collecting customer feedback quickly

2. Net Promoter Score^℠ (NPS) Example: Ting

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is similar to CSAT, except it asks customers a specific question: “How likely is it that you would recommend our company?” You can calculate your overall NPS by subtracting the percent of “detractors”—those who responded with a number between zero and six—from the percent of “promoters”—those who responded with a nine or a ten. Since these numbers are calculated as percents, the total NPS score can be anywhere between 100 and -100, regardless of the number of customers surveyed. NPS has been shown to correlate with other business metrics, like customer retention and revenue, so it’s a good indicator of how your business is doing overall.

The phone service Ting provides a good example of an NPS customer feedback survey. The survey asks the simple NPS question—”How likely are you to recommend Ting to a friend?”—and a simple, open-ended follow-up question—“Tell us a bit more about why you chose this number.” This way, customers can state the things they particularly liked or didn’t like. This gathers essential information without overwhelming the customer with questions.

This customer feedback survey example has several advantages:

• Provides meaningful data
• Allows you to gather many responses quickly
• Provides data for comparing overall performance year over year
• Provides a good indicator of overall company performance

This survey is ideal when you need the following:

• Compare overall company performance month over month or year over year
• Assess the impact of a particular campaign or initiative on customer satisfaction
• Quickly collect customer feedback data in a measurable form

3. Customer Effort Score (CES) Example: Starred

The Customer Effort Score (CES) measuring how difficult a particular task is to complete. Using numbers of images, a customer can describe how easy or difficult it was to complete their task. This is usually used to assess customer service responses or purchasing experiences, though it has other uses as well.

Customer survey application Starred provides a great example of a CES survey. Pictures make it easy to quickly choose the right response, and eliminate any confusion. A brief follow-up question allows customer to describe any obvious problems they encountered or things they found especially convenient.

This customer feedback survey example has several advantages:

• Allows you to assess particular activities
• Gives you numeric data to compare
• Is easy to submit and collect

This survey is ideal for the following:

• Assessing the online purchasing experience
• Assessing customer assistance responses

4. Learning About Your Customer Example: Hubspot

Most customer feedback survey examples are about your customer’s responses to your business, however some surveys are used to gather more information about your customers specifically. Knowing who your customers are, their concerns, their jobs, what they expect from your business, and other information can help you better serve them. The best way to gather this information is to ask using a customer survey.

These types of customer surveys are usually longer and more detailed than other surveys. The marketing automation platform Hubspot provides a good example of this data-gathering customer survey. Using a series of questions about their customers’ jobs, responsibilities, technology use, and more, Hubspot was able to see what concerns and challenges their customers faced, and how they could best deliver a solution.

This type of survey has a number of advantages, including:

Finding the best ways to reach your customers
Finding what features or benefits customers would most enjoy
Finding topics and information that are most relevant to customers

This survey is ideal for:

• Getting direction on developing new features or expanding your business
• Understanding customers’ wants and needs
• Improving your marketing messages and media

5. Identifying Problems Example: Skype

Customer surveys can be used to assess a customer’s overall experience or feelings about your business, or they might assess a single interaction. Some customer survey feedback can be used to see how your product or service actually works. After a visit or use, a brief customer feedback survey can show what worked well and what didn’t. This type of customer feedback survey works best with apps, where you can immediately provide and submit a survey within the platform.

Skype provides a great example of this type of customer feedback example. After each Skype call, this customer feedback survey gives customers a quick overall assessment, and then a list of the most common problems experienced on a call. Though one survey isn’t much help by itself, collections of customer surveys show Skype which problems are most common, whether problems have been reduced, and an average call quality reported by customers.

This type of survey has many advantages, including:

• Identifying issues with your business or service
• Assessing whether or not issues have been resolved
• Quickly determining the frequency of issues using a multiple-choice list

This type of survey is ideal for:

• Determining the impact of a particular problem
• Assessing the overall quality of your product or service
• Determining the impact of improvements over time

Use these customer feedback survey examples to get started on your own customer feedback surveys. Consider what you want to accomplish with each one, and choose a survey that fits your goals. With the right survey and the right tools to collect it, you can get the data you need to move forward.