Customer surveys pay off and help secure your company's success. They may not be a cure-all, but few other tools identify your customers' needs as effectively, quickly, sustainably and cost-efficiently. Used thoughtfully, our online survey tool helps you strengthen or improve your company's position in the market. Do you want to delight both existing and new customers over the long term? Then an online customer survey is the right tool.
Objectives of customer surveys
By the way: The LamaPoll survey tool has been tested both in the back end and front end by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), the Alliance for Cyber Security, the Penetration Testing Centre and IS Audit (IS Web Check).
Table of Contents
Customer surveys: definition & use cases
Customer surveys are a strategically important tool for gathering feedback from existing customers and prospective customers. They are used for a variety of purposes, such as measuring customer satisfaction, obtaining feedback on products and services, assessing willingness to recommend a company, or identifying wishes and expectations. Different types of customer survey are used depending on the objective. They may be run as an ongoing survey project, repeated at regular intervals, or conducted once in response to a particular event.
The content of a customer survey can also vary considerably depending on its objective. A survey primarily intended to measure customer satisfaction will use different question types from one designed to assess willingness to recommend or gather feedback for quality assurance. Ideally, the length of the questionnaire should also reflect the specific occasion or subject being investigated. Customer surveys may address different audiences too: as well as existing customers, they can specifically target new customers, former customers, prospective customers or other interested consumers.
Customer surveys are generally conducted proactively online. Customers are made aware of them at selected touchpoints, such as during an interaction on a website, or through one or more channels including newsletters and social media. Although a direct invitation is the most common approach, it is not essential for obtaining customer feedback. Even an online form provided on a company's own website is ultimately a passive form of customer survey. Depending on its design, it can collect feedback on products, services or particular service areas such as customer support. In a broader sense, a prize competition may also include an adapted, often highly condensed form of customer survey. Conversely, prize competitions are often included as an incentive in conventional customer surveys. The boundaries between specific forms of customer survey can therefore be fluid, and different survey types can be combined.
One principle applies equally to every type of customer survey: only questions that are relevant to customers will capture their interest and increase the response rate. Successful customer surveys are attractively designed, engagingly worded and appropriately concise. They should not place excessive demands on participants' time or concentration, as this can lead to high abandonment rates. The following sections provide further tips for creating and conducting customer surveys, along with different survey methods and suitable questionnaire templates.
Tips for successful customer surveys: consumers now encounter a great many surveys that are often irrelevant to them. Set your company apart by running customer surveys that also offer genuine value to respondents. Ideally, explain the survey's objective in the invitation and tell customers how they may benefit from taking part.
The umbrella term "customer survey" covers a wide range of survey formats that differ in both content and form. Depending on the occasion and objective, these may include satisfaction surveys, NPS or CES surveys, or surveys conducted as part of churn management. Customer surveys do not necessarily have to address existing customers alone: respondents may also be former customers or consumers who do not yet have any relationship with the company.
Customer survey examples & templates
The objectives of a customer survey may sound different — customer retention, increased sales or quality assurance — but ultimately they all serve the same purpose: delighting customers.
How can you delight your customers? LamaPoll's online survey tool provides the essential information from your customer survey. What do your customers expect? What do existing customers value about your company, what do they criticise, and what could you improve based on their feedback? Find out by trying our survey tool.
More free templates and sample questionnaires for customer surveys can be found here: customer survey questionnaires. You can copy the templates to your own LamaPoll account and adapt them to your company’s particular context as needed.
Illustrative use cases and practical project guides for customer surveys can be found in our Helpdesk. We have also created a white paper on customer surveys, which you can download free of charge: Customer Survey White Paper
Six effective customer survey methods
Choosing the right customer survey method lays the foundation for every subsequent step, from planning and conducting the survey to analysing the results. Every customer survey is different, and so is the most suitable method. There is no single approach that you should use every time. The best data collection method depends on the objective and purpose of your survey and on the resources available to you. The following sections outline the methods commonly used for customer surveys.
1. Face-to-face customer interviews
When you survey customers in person through a direct, verbal interview, you receive immediate and, ideally, highly detailed feedback. Because this is a conversation, you can ask follow-up questions or clarify anything that is unclear, giving you a well-rounded picture of customer satisfaction. However, this qualitative survey method also has disadvantages. It is expensive and time-consuming, and respondents may feel inhibited and answer less honestly than they would in a written survey.
2. Customer surveys by telephone
A telephone interview is another form of personal survey in which a customer is contacted directly by phone. This can be carried out, for example, as a CATI survey. It offers the same advantage of being able to engage directly with respondents and ask follow-up questions. The main drawback may be the difficulty of reaching your target group. Relative to the time and cost involved, the response rate may be too low.
3. Customer surveys using online questionnaires
A highly efficient, cost-effective and versatile method is to use a survey tool such as LamaPoll for your customer survey. You can approach your target group on a website, by email or flyer, or through social media, and make the online survey easily accessible via a link or QR code. Another advantage is that survey tools make subsequent analysis much easier while conserving resources. As with a traditional written survey, questions in an online survey must be clear and easy to understand. Only then will the answers genuinely help you address your research question.
Our tip: include open questions and free-text fields in online customer surveys. This allows customers to explain in their own words what they like or dislike and why. As the survey creator, you can understand the reasons behind poor ratings and derive suitable improvements where necessary.
4. Written customer surveys
A traditional written customer survey is conducted on paper by post. Customers receive a prepared questionnaire, complete it and return it. This time-consuming and expensive method is now outdated and is worthwhile only when you specifically need to reach target groups that cannot be contacted in any other way. Otherwise, an online survey is generally the better option.
5. Other ways to conduct online customer surveys
Digital technology now gives you countless ways to approach your target group. Be creative and look beyond your website and social media. You could use in-app surveys, newsletters or a feedback terminal. A feedback terminal is the digital equivalent of the suggestion boxes still found in retail and service settings.
6. Panel surveys
If you want to conduct a long-term customer survey or reach a highly specific target group, a panel survey may be worthwhile. A customer panel enables you to identify trends and observe gradual changes among your customers. Panel surveys can provide valuable insights in product development and support your decision-making.
Besides deciding on the data collection method before your customer survey begins, you should also consider several other questions. The most important is whether you, your team or your company have the capacity to plan, conduct and analyse a customer survey from start to finish. Helpful tools such as LamaPoll can make the work easier, but you still need time to approach the survey properly and then turn the findings into follow-up action. The effort is well worthwhile for your company's success. If you lack the resources to implement the project, you can outsource the entire customer survey to LamaPoll. Find out more about our services.
If you decide not to outsource your survey and instead create it yourself, conducting a pre-test is strongly recommended. A pre-test involves running the customer survey with a control group, such as a small number of colleagues. Their feedback can reveal logic errors, problems or other issues before the general launch, allowing you to make the necessary adjustments. Find out more about pre-testing customer surveys.
Where possible, make sure that both your approach and your data collection method can be sustained over time. Customer surveys are particularly effective when conducted regularly. Only then can you observe trends and receive direct, long-term feedback on whether and how business decisions affect your customers. The appropriate frequency depends on the type of customer survey, your resources and your budget. As a general rule, it is advisable to schedule regular intervals, whether monthly, several times a year or annually.
Making the right decisions
So, you want to increase your sales and are considering discounts and advertising campaigns, or perhaps you have a creative, large-scale PR campaign in mind?
Customer surveys help you identify the right course of action. For example, a sample survey may reveal that your customers pay less attention to prices or advertising and are actually looking for an engaging shopping experience. They may be sitting on the sofa browsing on their phone, but they want it to feel like a stroll along the Champs-Élysées. What does that mean for you? Forget discount campaigns and adverts. Put your trust in a graphic designer or usability expert and create an unforgettable user experience. Make shopping engaging and your customers will be sure to return.
Avoiding the wrong measures
A customer survey can strengthen and protect customer relationships, because every marketing measure taken without an understanding of your customers is a shot in the dark. Do not be swayed by the *mind-blowing, breathtaking, viral, super-powerful and exciting ideas* proposed by large marketing agencies. A customer survey should come first on your agenda — your customers will thank you.
Customer surveys protect your business, so don't end up like the emperor in his new clothes.
Measuring customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction = customer expectations + meeting customer needs
Customer satisfaction determines a company’s success or failure. Knowing your customers should therefore always be a top priority.
A customer survey helps you identify customer needs, uncover their wishes and evaluate how well those needs are being met. Based on your survey results, you can make specific decisions and derive measures — such as optimising products, customer interactions or customer service — that can further improve customer satisfaction.
There are various methods for measuring customer satisfaction. The most common include customer satisfaction surveys and measuring the Net Promoter Score, Customer Satisfaction Score and Customer Effort Score. Social media monitoring and the Things Gone Wrong method can also be used. Detailed information on established customer survey methods and the advantages and disadvantages of each measurement method can be found here: methods for measuring customer satisfaction
The five most important tips for your customer survey
1. Define your target group early
Decide at an early stage who you want to survey — not all customers are the same. Should prospective customers be included, or even customers who have not engaged with your company for a long time?
You should approach different customer groups depending on your business objective, target group and ability to reach them. Choose the right customer satisfaction survey, with help from our support team if you wish.
A customer survey about a product is addressed directly to the consumer. A survey about price, on the other hand, should target the person who makes purchasing decisions in the household. LamaPoll lets you invite completely different customer groups to the same survey in different ways and guide them along individual response paths.
Find out more about approaching and recruiting participants for customer surveys »
2. Choose suitable questions for your objective
Every objective needs suitable questions.
When creating a survey, a distinction is made between general and specific questions:
General questions may concern satisfaction with products or the company's services. A frequent objective of customer surveys is to calculate the likelihood that customers will recommend your services or buy your product again.
Specific questions may concern customer service — including expertise, friendliness and areas for improvement — satisfaction with a product, such as its quality, design or development, delivery times, costs and packaging, or another area requiring improvement. Your aim is to offer customers the best possible experience.
Find out more about customer survey objectives »
3. One survey — one method
Different survey methods are not necessarily comparable.
Consider the advantages and disadvantages of telephone, face-to-face, written and, above all, online surveys. Different methods can be combined, but online surveys generally remain the best option. The way a survey is conducted affects customers' willingness to respond and your ability to reach them, and therefore ultimately influences the results. The participation setting also differs. Surveys conducted using different methods are therefore not always compatible or directly comparable.
Find out more about the advantages of online customer surveys »
4. Consider analysis during the planning stage
Your choice of questions influences the analysis.
Customer surveys use a range of questions, including open and closed questions and ranking questions. Open questions allow customers to describe their expectations and needs in detail, but take longer to analyse. Closed questions are much easier to analyse. They generally use scales, for example from 1 = "very satisfied" to 5 = "very dissatisfied", or from 1 = "very poor" to 10 = "very good".
An important component of customer satisfaction analysis is the NPS (Net Promoter Score). The NPS uses a scale from 0 to 10 to assess how likely a customer is to recommend a company. A score of 10 means "extremely likely", while 0 means "extremely unlikely". Respondents who answer 9 or 10 are classed as promoters. Those who answer below 7 are detractors. "Passives", who answer 7 or 8, are not included in the calculation. The score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters: NPS = % promoters − % detractors. Find out more about analysis.
5. Communication is essential
Without communication, you risk poor results and even customer dissatisfaction.
Communicate the survey's objectives in advance to engage customers. At the beginning of the customer survey, explain the most important parameters, such as anonymity and the survey period, to increase participation rates. After the survey, share the results to ensure transparency. Most importantly, communicate the resulting measures, regardless of whether they have already been implemented or are planned for the longer term. This shows customers that their views are taken seriously and can make a difference.
A survey can provide a snapshot of customer satisfaction at a particular point in time. However, it is important to measure customer satisfaction continuously so that you can, for example, review the effectiveness of measures such as advertising or PR. Find out more about providing feedback to participants »
Simply running a survey can increase satisfaction and strengthen customer loyalty. Your customers see that you value their opinions and are open to change.
Why are customer surveys important?
You need to know your customers in order to address their wishes and expectations effectively. Customer surveys provide the necessary foundation by showing you how satisfied customers are and what feedback they have in general. However, the purpose of customer surveys is not simply to collect opinions and learn how customers perceive your company and its offerings. What matters most is what you do with the data and information that you ideally collect on a regular basis.
The better you know and understand your target group's wishes, expectations and problems, the more consistently you can derive appropriate action from that knowledge. This enables you to align important business or product development decisions precisely with your customers' needs. The key reasons for conducting regular customer surveys are summarised below.
Customer surveys are important for companies because they help them to:
- generate regular customer feedback
- measure and analyse customer satisfaction
- derive specific measures for product or business development
- engage in dialogue with customers
- strengthen customer loyalty
- identify customer needs and wishes
- recognise trends and tendencies
- analyse price elasticity
- assess brand image
- increase brand awareness
Customer surveys created with survey tools such as LamaPoll can also be integrated easily at many touchpoints along the customer journey. Depending on your objective, the options include:
- CSAT surveys: measure satisfaction with customer support, a product or a service
- NPS surveys: assess customers' willingness to recommend your company
- CES surveys: measure the Customer Effort Score
- Churn management: prevent customer attrition
These types of customer survey do more than provide valuable insights: they also give you an opportunity to engage with your customers. At its best, feedback is not a one-way street. Let customers know that their feedback is valued and does not disappear into a void. This sends a clear message to existing customers and shows new customers that your company is genuinely interested in customer opinions and criticism — and acts on them.
This can also prevent customer surveys from being perceived merely as intrusive advertising or a waste of time. It is also a good opportunity to draw attention to data protection in customer surveys. When customers feel safe, heard and understood, your survey is more likely to achieve a high response rate and strengthen customer loyalty as a result.
Facts and figures
According to Statista, one in five online shops uses customer surveys to identify potential improvements. Almost half of respondents (47%) plan to use questionnaires. No other measure aimed at increasing sales is pursued more frequently or regarded as more important. This demonstrates how important customer interaction and feedback are — and will continue to be. No one knows customers' wishes better than customers themselves, and no one is better placed to identify the factors that determine customer satisfaction.
Remember: customer satisfaction = customer loyalty » repeat purchases » recommendations » higher sales.
Online customer satisfaction surveys can also involve certain risks and methodological limitations:
a) Representativeness. This is a frequently cited "disadvantage": that the internet reaches only particular groups, that women participate more often than men, or that older customers do not have internet access. Some of these concerns are less relevant today than they once were, but they may still matter depending on the target group. Scientific statistics and our experience show that target groups can now be reached online. If you nevertheless see a risk, control questions, quotas and individual paths in our survey tool make it easy to filter for the required sample.
b) Response rates. These are supposedly very poor, at only 5 to 15%. Based on our experience with thousands of commercial surveys, we can assure you that this is not the case. This claim is mainly promoted by providers of traditional survey methods or of methods that are scientifically disputed, such as the conventional Net Promoter Score.
Response rates depend on factors including the target group, how participants are approached, the topic and the length of the survey.
We successfully use LamaPoll for our customer and employee surveys. Ease of use, helpful personal support and the high level of data protection offered by LamaPoll are particularly important to us.
We have already been able to run several internal and external customer surveys. It was important to us to have an easy-to-learn, uncluttered tool that provides common question types and still produces attractive surveys on all devices. Data security naturally also plays a major role. LamaPoll offers all of this. 5 stars!
What is LamaPoll?
LamaPoll is an online survey tool for creating customer surveys. It makes it easy to create, conduct and analyse any type of customer survey questionnaire online.
Create the questionnaire for your first customer survey in just a few steps, adapt it to your company's corporate design, invite customers conveniently by email and gather insights to improve customer satisfaction.
Register free of charge here and try our online survey tool to run an online survey with up to 50 participants immediately and without obligation. You can also use our free templates and examples for customer survey questionnaires.
