What is a customer service survey?

A customer service survey is a mechanism employed by companies to obtain feedback from customers regarding their interactions with automated or in-person customer support. The aim of the survey is to gather information that can help the company understand the customer’s experience, determine improvement areas, and assess customer satisfaction with service processes and outcomes.

Typically, a customer service survey comprises a series of questions designed to elicit feedback on specific aspects of the customer experience. The questions can be open-ended or closed-ended and delivered through multiple channels such as email, SMS, social media, or in-person.

The common customer service survey questions usually inquire about the quality of service, speed of response, satisfaction levels, professionalism and friendliness of the representative, issue resolution, and the overall customer experience.

After collecting the survey responses, the company can scrutinise the data to identify patterns in customer feedback, pinpoint areas that need improvement, and make necessary changes to products, services or processes to meet needs and expectations, ultimately contributing to the overall performance of the business.

Why is collecting customer feedback so important?

How well is your customer support team performing? How great is your customer service? How happy are your customers?

For any size of business, it can be difficult to answer these questions, particularly as a business grows it becomes impossible to have visibility of every single customer support request or issue. Yet this is crucial to understand how happy your customers are, as the value of a positive customer service experience is immeasurable, making a huge different to profitability and future security

By distributing online customer service feedback surveys you can measure the quality of your support , improve areas where your team is struggling and help ensure high levels of customer satisfaction at every point of contact within your business.

67% of consumers and 74% of business buyers say they’ll pay more for a great experience. - Salesforce

Customer service survey questions

The better-defined your survey objectives the better your questions will illuminate the areas you want to assess. When it comes to capturing service feedback you could divide the customer service questionnaire to explore customer experience and expectations regarding the experience, the outcome, and the performance of the agent serving them.

Some examples are given below, whilst you could also make use of rating questions, open free-text fields and popular CX measurements such as CSAT, customer effort and NPS. Smart tip: see our long list of example customer service survey questions.

Questions about the experience

How would you rate the quality of service you received?

Were you satisfied with the speed of service?

Did our company meet your expectations?

Did you encounter any difficulties in contacting customer service?

Questions about the outcome

Did you receive a satisfactory resolution to your issue?

How would you rate the clarity of the information provided to you?

How satisfied were you with the overall customer service experience?

Was your issue resolved in a timely manner?

Questions about the representative

Was the representative friendly and courteous?

Did the representative make an effort to understand your issue thoroughly?

Was the representative knowledgeable about the product or service?

Did the representative address your concerns adequately?

Was the customer service representative professional in their approach?

Was the representative empathetic and understanding of your situation?

How customer service surveys improve your business

Keeps your customer service standards high

Regular surveys of your customer service advisors with ongoing feedback about how they are performing helps you to maintain the highest possible standards.

Quickly identify any areas you need to improve

The ability to distribute online surveys immediately after each interaction with your support team and analyse the results helps you to quickly see anything you should be doing better.

Share customer insight and enhance your company performance

Whether it’s new ideas or fresh actions that your customers want to see implemented, sharing their feedback throughout your business helps positively shape how you move forward, from establishing new procedures to setting new customer service targets.

Your customers recommend you to others

Do you know your NPS? A Net Promoter Score survey measures how happy your customers are with your business and how likely they are to recommend you to others. Companies with an excellent customer service team are more likely to have a high NPS score and be recommended to other businesses.

Helps strengthen brand loyalty

Providing great customer service and a positive experience every time, builds stronger client relationships and nurtures long term customer loyalty.

Increasing customer retention rates by 5%, increases profits by 25% to 95%. - Bain & Company

When to ask for customer service feedback

The best time to run a customer service survey will depend on the type of business, the target audience, and the purpose of the survey. Overall, the best time to run a customer service survey is when it will provide the most value to your business and customers.

Timing, frequency, and method of delivery should be carefully considered to maximize response rates and ensure the most accurate feedback possible. Below are some considerations.

Key considerations

Timing: The best time to send a survey is shortly after the customer interaction, ideally within 24-48 hours. This will ensure that the experience is still fresh in their mind.

Peak activity: Consider sending surveys during peak activity times, when customers are most likely to engage with your business. For example, if you run a restaurant, sending a survey during lunch or dinner rush could be more effective.

Customer lifecycle: Consider sending surveys at specific stages of the customer lifecycle. For example, after a customer has made a purchase, received a delivery, or used your service.

Event-based: Consider sending surveys after specific events or actions. For example, after a customer has contacted customer service, made a complaint, or completed a transaction.

Frequency: Be mindful of how frequently you send surveys. Too many surveys can lead to survey fatigue and lower response rates.

Essential tips for creating your customer service survey

1. Be open about what you are doing

Being transparent with your customers about what you are looking to achieve with an estimate of how long it will take them to complete your survey is more likely to generate a favourable response.

2. Identify your goals

To help maximise the value you will gain from your survey, it is essential to be clear about your goals and have defined processes in place for comparing your results.

3. Think like your customers

Creating simple, jargon free questions that your customers would expect to see, anything from “How well did your agent understand your query?” to “How clear was the advice they provided?” are more likely to be answered and leave a good impression.

4. Keep it short

To maintain your customers’ focus and increase their probability of completing your survey, keep it short. Our survey templates demonstrate the effective use of these principles.

5. Mix up your questions

With a range of different question types from multiple choice to open-ended ones with areas for comments, your survey is more likely to appeal and encourage customers to leave feedback.

6. Make it accessible

Distribute your survey via email or web link, post on social media, use a website popup or engage via SMS message. Make your survey as accessible as possible by using the channels that are most relevant to your customers. Leveraging relevant channels will encourage wider participation, improving engagement rates and providing you with more insight to drive action.

7. Compliance

It’s essential that you comply with current GDPR laws governing the safe collection, use and storage of personal data, as non-compliance can be extremely costly. Working with a compliant company like SmartSurvey, keeps you protected. As an ISO27001 accredited business we have some of the most advanced data security processes in place for our customers including hosting in a secure, UK based data centre.

8. Use an effective software survey tool

A software platform that is both flexible and easy to use can enable you to create an attractive survey that’s simple for customers to use and easy for you to collect and analyse their feedback.

84% of organizations working to improve CX report an increase in revenue. - Dimensions data

Create a customer service survey with SmartSurvey

Create

Get your customer service survey program up and running quickly:

• Use template customer service questionnaires, designed by CX experts; deploy as provided or customise them to meet specific needs
• Deploy out-of-the-box CSAT, CES and NPS questions and use our automated scoring features
• Extend your surveys to capture Customer Effort Score and more

Collect

Capture feedback from your customers at key touchpoints, at key times:

• Collect feedback across both online and offline channels, to cover the entire customer journey
• Automate the collection of in-the-moment feedback
• Differentiate the feedback collected across all customer service channels, to identify areas needing improvement or which excel

Analyse

Get straight to the key insight your service managers need, across the whole customer experience:

• Analyse data and feedback across the entire customer service journey
• Easily visualise data and trends with out-of-the-box charts
• Drill into and categorise complex qualitative data such as customer sentiment and anecdotal feedback

Customer service feedback templates

You can get further inspiration from one of our customer survey templates, which can be customised to suit your needs or used as is.

Get started quickly with the customer service feedback template or support survey template. If you need any help feel free to contact us and our friendly support team will be happy to help.