Some examples of key questions to ask in a customer satisfaction survey

A customer satisfaction questionnaire is a way of finding out where your company is performing well and where it isn't, both in terms of products and customer service. The aim of such a questionnaire is to identify possible areas for improvement and find out what your customers expect.

To obtain a relevant questionnaire, you can call on a company specializing in customer satisfaction to create it for you. If you'd prefer to create it yourself, here are some essential questions to include in your questionnaire.

Recommendation rate: "Would you recommend X to a friend?

This question is generally placed in first position. This question directly identifies the profile of the person answering: either they like you to the point of promoting you, or they are passive towards your brand, or they denigrate you.

As it is in first position, the answer to this question will be more spontaneous and not influenced by previous answers.

Overall satisfaction: "Are you satisfied with your experience with / at X?"

This question is also placed in first or second position. It evaluates customer satisfaction on a scale of 0 to 10 or 0 to 5. This scale then provides an overall satisfaction rate by averaging all responses. This satisfaction rate can then serve as a key indicator that you can track over time by conducting regular questionnaires.

Open question: "Why did you give us this rating?"

This question, which follows on from the rating given in the previous question, enables you to find out exactly what led the customer to give you this satisfaction rating. If the same answers are given repeatedly, you'll know which part of your process to improve.

Satisfaction with an item: "Are you satisfied with Y?

This question provides answers on a specific element of the customer experience. In particular, it can be used to evaluate a service, a new action or an aspect of the product. For example, you could ask customers if they were satisfied with the welcome they received, the quality/price ratio of the product, etc...

You can ask this question several times about different aspects of the customer experience.

Customer suggestions: "Do you have any comments or suggestions for improvement that you would like to share with us?"

This open-ended question allows the customer to come back to a point they've already made, expanding on their thoughts. It also allows us to find out exactly where the problem has arisen, and what the customer's real expectations are in this respect.

Socio-demographic questions

Since customer experience and responses can differ from one group of people to another, it's also interesting to be able to segment responses. This allows you to find out what your target audience thinks of you.

These questions are generally based on criteria such as age group, gender, socio-professional category, etc...

As some people may feel offended by these questions, which may be considered too personal, it is important to place them at the end of the questionnaire. This position shows that these criteria are not decisive for the study.