Learn six steps to design, distribute, analyze, and implement customer service surveys to measure and enhance your customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention.

Your survey goals could be: - Identify areas for Improvement analyzing survey responses to pinpoint areas where your business is falling short in customer satisfaction. - Measure overall satisfaction levels to understand how well your business is meeting customer expectations. - Use open-ended questions to gather detailed feedback on specific aspects of your business as product quality, service efficiency, and staff friendliness. - Monitor survey responses over time to track improvements or declines in customer satisfaction. - Use survey feedback to recognize and reward employees who consistently deliver excellent customer service. - Increase customer loyalty.

How can you use customer service surveys to improve your business?

Customer service surveys are a valuable tool for measuring and improving your customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention. They can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, understand your customers' needs and expectations, and create action plans to enhance your service quality and performance. In this article, we will show you how you can use customer service surveys to improve your business in six steps.

1 Choose your survey goals and metrics

Prior to designing your survey, you should consider what you want to achieve and how you will measure it. What are the most important aspects of your customer service that you want to evaluate? How do you plan on comparing your performance with that of your competitors or industry standards? What are the indicators of customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention that matter to you? Common customer service metrics include Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), and Customer Effort Score (CES). NPS measures how likely customers are to recommend your business on a scale of 0 to 10. CSAT measures how satisfied customers are with your service on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 7. Lastly, CES measures how easy or difficult it was for customers to get their issues resolved on a scale of 1 to 7.

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Eva Fernandez

International Specialists and Senior Officer | Administration | Finance | Customer Service | Technical English and Spanish | Equality and Diversity | X11 Linkedin Top Voice 2024
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Your survey goals could be: - Identify areas for Improvement analyzing survey responses to pinpoint areas where your business is falling short in customer satisfaction. - Measure overall satisfaction levels to understand how well your business is meeting customer expectations. - Use open-ended questions to gather detailed feedback on specific aspects of your business as product quality, service efficiency, and staff friendliness. - Monitor survey responses over time to track improvements or declines in customer satisfaction. - Use survey feedback to recognize and reward employees who consistently deliver excellent customer service. - Increase customer loyalty.

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2 Select your survey type and method

Depending on your goals and metrics, you can choose from different types of customer service surveys for assessing the quality and efficiency of your service delivery, overall perception of customers, satisfaction and loyalty, and the impact and outcomes of your service on customers' behavior and decisions. Post-service surveys are sent immediately after a customer interacts with your service, periodic surveys are sent at regular intervals, and event-based surveys are sent after a specific event. The methods of delivering these surveys include email, SMS, web, and phone. Email is convenient and cost-effective but may have low response rates; SMS is fast and direct but may have limited space; web is flexible and interactive but may require technical integration; and phone is personal and engaging but may be intrusive and expensive.

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Jodi Obenstine, CETL

Technology Leader | Customer/Client Experience | Processes and Procedures | Project Management | System Integration
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I use customer satisfaction surveys at the end of technical ticket resolution. We had a lot of anecdotal feedback that the help desk was not helpful and that technicians were not providing high quality service and answers to customer questions. By implementing a simple survey requesting satisfaction with the encounter and whether or not the issue was resolved, I was able to demonstrate we had a loud minority and that our customer satisfaction rating stays steady at 4.6/5. We could then focus on the loud minority to find out why they felt service was not meeting their expectations. This was a huge morale booster for my team.

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3 Design your survey questions and answers

Once you have chosen your survey type and method, it's time to craft your survey questions and answers. When doing so, keep in mind to make it short and simple with no more than 10 questions. Additionally, use a mix of closed and open-ended questions. Closed-ended questions are easier to answer and analyze but open-ended questions provide more expressive and insightful feedback. Make sure that each question serves a specific purpose and aligns with your survey objectives and metrics. Finally, before you launch your survey, test it with a small group of customers or colleagues to check for any errors or ambiguities in your questions and answers. Solicit feedback to refine your survey design and delivery.

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Claudio Varga, CPXP

Teaching Healthcare Leaders How to Be Bold on LinkedIn | Speaker. Author. Ghostwriter | Expert in Urgent Care Operations | Certified Patient Experience Expert | Past President California Urgent Care Association
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I have used many different types of surveys in my career but generally I find that a mix of closed and open-ended questions provide the best and most useful data. I have also found it helpful to list the order of the survey questions in the order that the customer might experience the business. For example, beginning with the reception area, then any encounters with staff leading up to the main service or purpose of the visit, followed by any interactions at the conclusion of the visit. Having the survey mimic the customer's path through your business can help identify bottlenecks or areas of friction. I also always make sure to include some space for the customer to add their own free-form text comments.

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4 Distribute your survey and collect responses

Once you have designed your survey, it's important to distribute it to your target customers and collect their responses. To maximize response rates and minimize survey fatigue, you should segment and personalize your survey based on customer characteristics, preferences, or behavior. Additionally, you should time and frequency your survey according to the type and method. For example, post-service surveys should be sent within 24 hours of the service interaction. Moreover, you need to monitor and follow up your survey to ensure that you reach your desired sample size and response rate. For example, track how many customers open or click your email or web surveys or how many customers answer or hang up your phone surveys. Finally, consider sending reminders or thank-you messages to customers who have not responded or have responded to your survey.

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5 Analyze your survey results and insights

After you have collected your survey responses, it is important to analyze them to extract meaningful and actionable insights. To do this, consider using quantitative and qualitative methods, such as numerical or statistical techniques to measure and compare customer service metrics or textual or thematic techniques to interpret customer feedback. Additionally, use visual and interactive tools like charts, graphs, or dashboards to display and summarize customer service metrics and feedback. You can also use benchmarks and trends to evaluate and improve customer service performance, which can involve comparing your metrics and feedback with competitors or industry standards or tracking your metrics and feedback over time or across different segments.

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Claudio Varga, CPXP

Teaching Healthcare Leaders How to Be Bold on LinkedIn | Speaker. Author. Ghostwriter | Expert in Urgent Care Operations | Certified Patient Experience Expert | Past President California Urgent Care Association
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In addition to reviewing quantitative and qualitative data it's important to review and analyze free-form comments that may have been submitted by your customers. In my experience, I have found that it is difficult to capture the personal and emotional response from a customer in a survey multiple choice option. Whenever possible, I will include the option for the customer to write free-form comments in the survey. There is no substitute for hearing a customer's feedback in their own words. And frequently, I have posted these comments unedited for everyone in the organization to read for themselves. Reading raw unedited comments from customers can take a little getting used to, but I believe the learning curve is well worth it.

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6 Implement your survey actions and improvements

After analyzing your survey results and insights, you need to implement them to improve your customer service quality and performance. It's important to prioritize and plan your actions based on the urgency and impact of your customer service issues and opportunities. You should communicate and collaborate with internal and external stakeholders, such as sharing survey results or assigning roles. Additionally, you need to monitor and measure your actions to assess their effectiveness and efficiency. This could include tracking progress, evaluating the impact of your actions, or measuring customer satisfaction.

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7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Johnathan D. Francis

Identity Nabigator | Founder at SHIOCK | Author |
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Customer surveys are tricky. If people are sufficiently satisfied, they'd give high scores and if unhappy they'd be taking to social media to voice their frustrations. It is best to dedicate time to scour socials for any comments that were made about the company and react accordingly. This is not to say that surveys are pointless, it's just that it never gives the full picture.

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How can you use customer service surveys to improve your business?

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1 Choose your survey goals and metrics

2 Select your survey type and method

3 Design your survey questions and answers

4 Distribute your survey and collect responses

5 Analyze your survey results and insights

6 Implement your survey actions and improvements

7 Here’s what else to consider

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