When is the best moment for taking a customer satisfaction survey?

All brands want to know what consumers really think about them and their products. The customer satisfaction survey is the best tool to gain this insight.

What is a customer satisfaction survey and why is it needed?

A customer satisfaction survey is a very useful and interesting tool to gain a clear vision of the brand’s placement in the consumers' mind which consists of a questionnaire designed with specific questions to help brands understand what customers think about their products or services.

The reason that motivates companies to prepare and submit a customer satisfaction survey is simple: brands want to know what consumers really think about them and their products. So what’s the best way to learn this information if not asking key questions directly to people who trusted a brand by purchasing its products?

The best moments to take truthful and reliable customer satisfaction surveys

Taking a customer satisfaction survey is not a casual activity, but it requires brands to carefully plan when and how to submit surveys to consumers.

In order to receive the most reliable and truthful answers, in terms of feedback, ratings and reviews, it’s essential to identify what the survey wants to inspect. Indeed, there are three main moments for a customer satisfaction survey:

• The best moment occurs right after consumers experience products or services, so a post-purchase survey that provides very interesting opportunity to learn about the first impression that people have with the shopping journey quality;
• Another good moment to check customer satisfaction occurs after a certain period of time has passed from the purchase date, for example, one week or 30 days, providing data and information related specifically to the impact that a product had and measuring consumer engagement;
• In case it’s proven that a consumer bought from the same brand more than once, it’s a great idea to submit a survey to investigate customer satisfaction in the longer term and aim to have them sign up for a loyalty programme including rewards and personalised offers.

Connected products represent a smart way to connect brands and consumers and deliver surveys in the moments that matter most: for example, simply by scanning a digital marker such as a QR code or NFC tag, customers can access premium information, content and experiences, such as activating extended guarantees, or providing information of repair programmes, and these moments are an ideal moment to deliver consumer surveys.

What are the types of customer satisfaction surveys?

Customer satisfaction surveys have always played a big role in the understanding of markets and in the development of new product strategies. But they’re not all the same.

First of all, it’s essential to take note that a survey's reliability and truthfulness are very variable. For what concerns the survey response rate, the number of people who complete a survey compared to the total of people who received that, it’s estimated that the average response rate is around 33%, but it changes depending on the platform used to submit the questionnaire.

• 6% of consumers on average answer email surveys and 8% answer website surveys, which are usually very low engagement;
• 16% of consumers answer in-app surveys, which are usually much more engaging for users.

Let’s now take a look at the different types of customer satisfaction surveys.

Net Promoter Score or NPS

The Net Promoter Score survey is used to ask consumers, on a scale from 0 to 10, how likely they would recommend a brand or a product to other people.

The answers of customers for this survey are usually categorised into three main ranges:

• 0-5 are considered detractors, so unwilling to recommend;
• 6-8 are considered moderately satisfied, but still unwilling to recommend;
• 9-10 are considered promoters, so very satisfied and willing to recommend.

To calculate a brand’s NPS it’s needed to subtract the detractor's percentage from the promoters’ one. This represents the primary data to check how on customer satisfaction levels.

Customer Satisfaction Score or CSAT

The Customer Satisfaction Score survey is used to measure customer experience and the level of satisfaction with a brand and/or a product.

It usually occurs at different touch points, so at different stages of the shopping journey, in order to help companies to map an overall satisfaction rate across all the processes that lead customers up to the purchase.

Customer Effort Score or CES

The Customer Effort Score survey is used to measure the effort users perceived while using a product or interacting with a brand.

This kind of survey is extremely useful to learn if any friction is happening in the shopping journey and identify critical issues and specifically when and where they occur. Thus, including key questions for the customers help brands to contrast negative feedback and design frictionless experiences.

Product-Market Fit or PMF

The Product-Market Fit survey is used to learn feedback, reviews and indications related to a specific brand’s product and if it has gained its full potential in the market.

This kind of survey is very interesting because it collects in-depth perspectives about a product especially from a psychological point of view, for example asking consumers how would they feel if they couldn’t buy and use that product anymore, or even how would they feel about new features or models.

Usually, if a product positively scores 40% or more on surveys means that it achieved product-market fit goals and consumers are somehow engaged with it.

Customer Satisfaction Index or CSI

The Customer Satisfaction Index represents an overall indicator combining scores from different surveys to create a single satisfaction parameter for a company.

This index, if correctly calculated, can provide firms with very useful, relevant and reliable data that help to adjust a brand’s processes across the shopping journey. Also, an important factor to consider about this index is that it’s able to unveil some inaccurate results and learn how to act to improve: for example, customer satisfaction may be based on the quality of a product, but only a few may be satisfied for its price; thus, the index allows to plan actions to set satisfactions levers at the same level considering all the parameters.

In addition, to better calculate and understand this index it’s key to consider also satisfaction about website and/or apps experience concerning both UI and UX, which are indeed relevant factors in the digital era.

The best questions to ask in a customer satisfaction survey

When it comes to customer satisfaction surveys, the key issue surely revolves around the quality of questions to ask consumers, which expect both open and closed answers.

Here are 10 of the best questions to ask in a customer satisfaction journey to collect precious data and information to help brands in growth and improvement:

1. Which words would you use to describe this product?
2. How well does the product meet your needs?
3. What is the most valuable feature of the product and what is it missing?
4. If you could change one feature of the product, what would it be?
5. Do you think that the product’s price matches its features and practical value?
6. Why did you choose to purchase this product rather than a competitor’s?
7. Which features and values did you consider before buying the product?
8. How likely would you recommend the product on a scale from 0 to 10?
9. How likely would you purchase again the product, or other ones from the same brand, on a scale from 0 to 10?
10. Which words would you use to describe your shopping experience?