Customer Survey Examples: 15 Popular Use Cases

What's worth more than your customers' money? Their opinions!

In today's fast-paced business world, data is the new gold. It's worth more than any single purchase because it helps businesses improve and grow.

One brilliant way to collect customer perspectives is through surveys. However, with so many types of surveys out there, it can be downright overwhelming to decide which one to use. At SmartSurvey, we have over 125 survey templates in our toolkit!

Let's explore 15 customer survey examples that provide actionable insights businesses can use.

Common types of customer surveys

With the "why" covered, let's explore 15 go-to customer survey examples that deliver results. Each type serves a distinct purpose to help businesses learn and progress.

Customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys

The granddaddy of all surveys, a CSAT survey is useful for measuring overall happiness with your product or service. It casts a wide net, asking customers to rate their experience and share thoughts on different aspects of their interaction with you.

Happy customers stick around. So, send these after any significant interaction to keep your finger on the pulse of customer satisfaction.

Example: "How would you rate your experience with us today? What made you feel that way?"

Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys

Want to know if your customers are your biggest fans? NPS surveys measure loyalty by asking one simple question: "How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?"

NPS surveys use a 0-10 scale, followed by an open-ended question to understand the reasons behind the score. It's a quick and easy way to gauge how your customers feel about you.

Fun fact: 92% of people trust recommendations from friends over any advert. That's why NPS is pure gold!

Customer effort score (CES) surveys

Nobody wants to jump through hoops to give you money. If your product is up to par, you want to make it as easy as possible for customers to complete their desired action.

That's where CES surveys come in. They measure how easy (or difficult) it is for customers to do business with your company, use your product, or get help when they need it.

They're convenient after customer service interactions. Using a Likert scale, you might ask: "The company made it easy for me to solve my problem." (Strongly agree to Strongly disagree)

Product feedback surveys

Want to improve your products? The best way to know what customers want is to ask them directly. Product feedback surveys use a mix of open-ended questions and rating scales to gather feedback on specific features or overall satisfaction with the product. You can ask about things like:

• Price
• Usability
• Features
• Design
• Quality

As for timing, you want to give customers enough time to use the product, but not so long that they've forgotten their initial impressions. A good rule of thumb is about 2-4 weeks after purchase.

Here's an example question: "What feature of our product do you find most useful? Why?"

Customer loyalty surveys

It's hard to guess if customers will stick around unless you ask them. Even if they loved your product, there could be other factors that influence their decision to stay, like price, customer service, or competitors' offerings.

Loyalty surveys focus on gauging a customer's long-term commitment to a brand. They explore factors such as repeat purchases, brand advocacy, and likelihood to stay with the brand, providing insights into customer retention.

The best time to send these surveys is after a customer has had multiple interactions with your brand. This could be after several purchases or after they've been a customer for a certain period of time.

Example question: "How likely are you to choose our brand for your next purchase? Why?"

Customer service surveys

Up to 89% of consumers are more likely to make another purchase after a positive customer service experience.

Customer service surveys are best given after a customer interacts with your support team. They gather feedback on the quality of the service provided, assessing things like responsiveness, professionalism, problem resolution, and overall satisfaction with the service.

Ask things like "How would you rate the helpfulness of our customer service representative on a scale of 1-5? What could we have done better?"

Voice of the Customer (VoC) surveys

Let your customers speak their minds! VoC surveys might be one of the lesser-known types of surveys, but they're equally important. These surveys capture customer preferences, expectations, and needs in their own words.

VoC surveys are typically more open-ended, allowing customers to freely express their opinions about the brand, products, or services. This can provide rich, qualitative data that might uncover insights you hadn't even thought to ask about.

Example: "If you could change one thing about our product, what would it be and why?"

Use these to uncover hidden pain points and send them at various stages of the customer journey.

Post-purchase surveys

The hard work isn't over once a customer makes a purchase. In fact, the post-purchase experience can be just as important as the purchase itself. Post-purchase surveys gather feedback on the buying experience, including the checkout process, which is a vital part of the customer journey that affects overall satisfaction.

These surveys often focus on elements such as ease of ordering, delivery speed, product quality, and overall satisfaction.

Here's an example of a post-purchase survey question: "How satisfied are you with the speed of delivery? What could we improve about our delivery process?"

This goes without saying, but the best time to send a post-purchase survey is, well, post-purchase. However, you don't want to wait too long, so it's best to do it shortly after the customer receives their order.

Exit intent surveys

Exit intent surveys might not be suitable for all business types. They're usually reserved for membership websites or e-commerce sites where a "joining" act is required. If they can join, they can exit, so you want to know why they might be leaving.

These surveys are used when customers are about to leave a website or cancel a service. They aim to uncover the reasons for their departure, helping businesses identify barriers that are causing customers to abandon the site or service.

With this information in hand, businesses can make improvements to their website or service to prevent future exits and retain more customers.

As an example, let's say a customer hasn't used your app for a week or more. That could signal exit intent. You might ask them how likely they are to renew their membership next month and what you could do to make them more likely to stay.

Website usability surveys

A clunky website can cost you customers. In fact, 88% of online consumers are less likely to return after a bad experience. Mind you, people have different levels of tech literacy, so what might seem easy to navigate for you might be confusing for others. To get the truth, you'll need website usability surveys.

These surveys focus on how easily customers can navigate and use a company's website. Feedback on layout, speed, accessibility, and overall user experience helps businesses improve their website's functionality.

You'll want to submit them after a potential customer has interacted with your site for a little while.

Example of a website usability survey question: "How easy was it to find what you were looking for on our website today?

Market research surveys

This one is often associated with R&D departments and done before a product launch. Market research surveys collect data about customer preferences, behaviour, and trends within a target market. These surveys help businesses understand customer needs, identify opportunities, and stay competitive.

There's nothing quite as devastating as launching a product or service that nobody wants to use. Market research surveys can help you avoid this pitfall. One question you can ask is, "What features would you most like to see in a new [product type]?"

Onboarding surveys

First impressions count! When your business requires customers to sign up or enrol in a service, it's important to gather feedback on their onboarding experience. Customer onboarding surveys collect data about the customer's initial interactions with your company, including registration, setup process, and any challenges they may have faced.

It sounds like a little thing, but it has a big impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty. A smooth and streamlined onboarding process can set the tone for the entire customer relationship.

Here's an example of an onboarding survey question: "How would you rate the ease of setting up your account? What could we do to improve this process?"

Event feedback surveys

This one is pretty self-explanatory. After a company hosts an event—whether online or in-person—event feedback surveys gauge attendee satisfaction. These surveys assess aspects like content quality, organisation, and the overall experience to improve future events.

It's important to use these surveys because they help you understand what worked well and what didn't, allowing you to make each event better than the last. You should send these surveys as soon as possible after the event while the experience is still fresh in attendees' minds.

Try something like this: "On a scale of 1-5, how would you rate the overall quality of the presentations at our conference? What was your favourite session and why?"

Churn surveys

Remember the exit intent survey we covered earlier? Churn surveys are similar, but they're sent to customers who have actually gone through and cancelled a subscription or service. The aim is to understand the reasons behind their decision and what, if anything, could have changed their mind.

You usually submit this survey after or right before they cancel a subscription. If you're selling a regular product, you can also ask why they haven't ordered from you in a while.

You'll often see: "We're sorry to see you go. What was the primary reason for cancelling your subscription?" Then, list possible reasons and leave a blank box for them to write a different reason, if applicable.

Transactional surveys

Finally, we have transactional surveys. The name might be a bit misleading because it's not just about the act of transacting. These surveys are triggered by specific interactions or transactions, such as completing a purchase, visiting a store, or contacting customer support. They focus on that single event to gather targeted feedback on the customer's immediate experience.

Transactional surveys can provide concrete, actionable insights about particular touchpoints in the customer journey.

You should send these surveys immediately after the transaction or interaction takes place.

For instance, you could ask, "How would you rate your experience with our in-store staff today?

Wrapping up

Customer perspectives provide the insights needed to propel our businesses forward. By deploying well-crafted surveys during key moments along the customer journey, we gather feedback to strengthen our offerings.