Designing customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys in the right way is crucial to understand and gauge customer experience (CX). If not done correctly, it is worse than not surveying your customers at all. The data you may receive through poorly designed surveys will hamper your research, survey responses, and customer strategy. We’ve outlined ten key steps or principles to design CSAT surveys effectively. We hope these help you get higher responses and better insights.
How to design customer satisfaction surveys effectively?
1. Define your survey purpose
Customer surveys are of many types; you can conduct them to determine customer experience, customer satisfaction, product longevity, etc. This means your questions; their flow will change with the survey purpose. Define your survey purpose and then get to it. This will make your surveys impactful and save you time, improving your survey response rate.
2. Get your score first
We recommend you to get the overall rating right away at the start of your CSAT surveys. This avoids any scenario of bias of influence through suggestive or difficult or nit-picky questions. Putting your overall score towards the end may dilute the importance and internal validity of your rating question.
3. Limit your questionnaire
The longer your CSAT surveys are going to be, the more people will drop out. You do not want to design long surveys; your customers or respondents will drop out of survey fatigue. The idea is to get responses from all or the maximum number of customers, not just those who’ve had the time to answer your survey.
4. Avoid personal questions in your surveys
Including personal questions in your surveys is off-putting and takes the element of being anonymous out of it. No respondent would ever want to reveal personal information, and such questions are embarrassing and offensive. Be empathetic, would you want to answer personal questions in an online survey?
5. Provide direct and straightforward responses
Avoiding complicating your survey respondents by asking them to ‘evaluate,’ ‘estimate,’ or ‘gauge’ their experience, purchase, satisfaction, or decision. Keep it simple for them to select and you to understand and draw conclusions.
6. Capitalize on customer experience
If you survey your customers soon after their experience, you will likely get better responses and responses or comments that are fresh in their minds. This is crucial to bridging any gaps that might exist in ensuring an enriching CX.
7. Avoid jargon
It is safe not to use jargon and be as specific in your surveys for the best possible answers and maximum responses. Many survey administrators use jargon, which confuses respondents, especially if they are internal or industry-specific jargon.
8. Do not send frequent reminders
While not all customers will respond to your surveys, it not right to barrage them with reminders. Reminding them once is fine; however, anything beyond that is unnecessary. Frequent reminders may make them want to unsubscribe from your emails or customer surveys.
9. Stick to online survey design best practices
The effectiveness of a survey depends on how well balanced and structured it is looking at both positive and negative responses. Sticking to the best practices will ensure your survey response and survey completion rates are healthy. Vary your types of questions to avoid survey fatigue and monotony. If you want to create a branded survey, keep in mind these tips to design a survey.
10. Use a suitable online survey platform
Using a suitable online survey platform is crucial to your success. There are many platforms out there, but not all of them offer the same features and may be best suited for your business. QuestionPro CX is the ideal platform for addressing all your CX survey needs. It provides real-time insights that help brands deliver extraordinary customer experiences.
