[Client satisfaction surveys] Questions to include and tips to make sure your clients answer them

Sam Smith

Ecommerce Consultant at Doofinder

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What is it that your clients value most about your service?

Why is it that some of them buy from you over and over again but others never come back?

What you do think their opinion is after experiencing an incident (a problem during checkout or a damaged item, for example)?

If you’re drawing a blank or are unsure what the answer is, it’s probably because you’re still not sending satisfaction surveys to your current customers.

And that means we may have a situation here.

You need to know what you’re doing well and what needs improvement if you are to improve your service, help increase sales, and foster loyalty among your current customers.

Fear not because today we’re going to help you put an end to this by telling you:

• The benefits of sending customer satisfactions surveys.
• 4 basic types of questions to create a survey for your e‑commerce (with examples).
• Tips to make sure every one of your surveys is completed.

Ready to get tons of feedback? 😉

👉  What a client satisfaction survey is and why your online store should have one from here on out

Here’s the definition, in case you’re not familiar:

A satisfaction survey is a tool that helps you get to know your clients’ opinions of your e‑commerce – both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Or, to put it simply, it’s like a thermometer.

It tells you if things are going well or not (and why) so you can act accordingly either way.

For example, the most typical survey type is the one you get after purchasing an item that asks your opinion about the service.

And there are quite a few advantages to using these surveys:

• Improved customer service.
• You get to know the needs of your buyer persona.
• You spot new business opportunities.
• It helps you gain clients’ loyalty (hint: they like to be heard).

Mind you, if you want them to work, you must ask the right questions – and in the right way. 😉

👉  4 types of questions you should always include in your satisfaction surveys

First of all, you need to know that there is no one-size-fits-all model for every shop and situation.

You’ll need to include different questions depending on your customers and the goals you’ve set for a particular survey (which we’ll go over later).

But in order for you to have a reference, we rounded up some of the most frequent types.

They’re divided into four sections:

1. Questions about the product
2. Customer experience questions
3. Questions to track loyalty
4. Open questions

Let’s start with the first one.

✅  1. Questions about the product

The catalog is the core of every e‑commerce.

If your clients aren’t satisfied with the products you sell, anything you do to get sales will be in vain.

That’s why these questions should always be part of your survey:

• How happy are you with the product?
• How accurate was the description of the product? (Sometimes the problem is not the product itself, but how it’s described on the product card).
• How likely are you to recommend this product to your friends and family?

You could also include questions about why they chose to buy that particular product or for what specific use. This will help you better understand your buyer persona.

✅  2. Customer experience questions

This section comprises everything related to the purchase process, from the moment someone decides to shop in your online store all the way to the moment the product is delivered.

This includes questions such as:

• Why did you choose to buy in our shop?
• How convenient was it to navigate through our website?: Remember that poor navigability results in many sales opportunities going to waste.
• From 0 to 5, state how easy it was to find the product you were looking for: You already know about the importance of having a good internal search engine.
• How happy are you with the attention received?:In other words, with your customer service.
• How would you assess the shipping and the delivery times?: If you score low on this, you may need to find an alternative logistics operator.

Getting a low score in any of these aspects can have a strong negative impact on your sales, so if you still haven’t wrapped your head around the concept of “customer experience”, here’s a post you’ll find useful.

✅  3. Questions to measure loyalty

In a previous post about customer retention rate, we told you that finding new customers is five times as costly as retaining an existing one.

That’s why it’s so important for your satisfaction surveys to include some questions to help you understand why your loyal clients keep buying from you as well as to detect any issues causing lower retention rates.

For example:

• How long have you been shopping in our store?
• How often do you usually shop in our store?
• How likely are you to recommend our store to someone else?
• Why did you choose to buy from our website? (Because someone else advised them to, because they’re subscribed to a newsletter, because they got a discount voucher, etc.).

These questions can be sent as part of a periodical survey (released every three months, biannually, etc.) to help you find out if your loyalty programs are working.

✅  4. Open questions

This may well be the one type that must be included in all surveys.

We’ve only seen closed questions thus far, which means users’ answers are limited to the options you provide for them.

That’s why it’s important to always include an open‑ended question at the end, such as the classic, “Would you like to add any additional comments?”

This allows your clients to expand upon their answers, which may end up being an incredibly valuable source of information for you and your shop.

👉  Keys to getting surveys completed

No matter how happy (or unhappy) a client is with your service, they won’t spend more than two or three minutes filling out a questionnaire.

So make it easy for them. 😉

Here are some tips for you.

✅  1. Stick to what’s really necessary

What is it you want to find out exactly?

The survey shouldn’t be a collection of random questions. Each survey must focus on a specific goal and be as brief as possible.

Some of the goals include:

• To assess a customer’s experience after buying a product.
• To find out their level of loyalty.
• To spot gaps in your customer service or the user experience of your website.
• To get a better understanding of the needs of your target audience.

Your objective will determine the questions to include in your survey.

In other words, if you want to know how satisfied a customer feels after an incidence, it might not be the best time to ask how they discovered your shop or if they’d recommend it. 😉

✅  2. Assess one aspect of the product at a time

This is a rather common mistake found in many surveys.

You ask a customer to evaluate two aspects of your service but give them only one option to answer both of them.

For example, “From 1 to 5, how happy are you with our shipping and customer service?” But these are two separate issues, so what if they’re only happy with one of them?

In this case, clients should be given the opportunity to answer them separately.

✅  3. Avoid biased questions

Sometimes you think so highly of your product’s quality that, without noticing, you’re biasing the user’s answer.

Here’s a silly example that will help you understand it.

Instead of asking something like:

 “How much did you like our amazing muffins?”

Instead, you should ask something like:

 “From 0 to 5, how would you rate our muffins?”

It’s the same question, but the phrasing and the image you convey are very different depending on which one you use.

✅  4. Be careful with Yes/No questions

You don’t need to get rid of them altogether, but it’s advisable to avoid them when possible.

Why? Because these two options don’t allow for any nuances, so you prevent the client from expressing any detail about how satisfied (or unsatisfied) they are with your product or service.

For example, if your survey includes the question “Did you like our muffins?”, the only possible answers are “Yes” or “No”.

Instead, if we phrase it as, “How did you feel about our muffins?”, some possible answers could be:

• I would never buy them again.
• Decent.
• They were good, but I’ve had better.
• Delicious.

This will also give you much more accurate feedback.

✅  5. Be as specific as possible

Avoid hypothetical questions.

Not only are they harder to answer (which could lead them to leaving the survey unanswered) but you will also find the answers are of little or no use.

Here’s an example: “Would you like our muffins to be different?”

Instead, try asking: “How could our muffins be improved?” and give them multiple choices:

• I’d offer different sizes.
• I’d include more flavors.
• I’d make them fluffier.
• I’d like different toppings (nuts, chocolate, frosting).
• Other.

You could also choose to leave this question open.

👉  Ready to implement client satisfaction surveys?

With everything we’ve told you in this post, you have all the right tools to create your own satisfaction surveys.

Now it’s time to get started and use your customer feedback to improve your service (and your sales numbers).