What should you consider before creating the questionnaire?
Before creating a questionnaire for a customer survey, you should first complete several preparatory stages. As a rule, you begin by planning the survey, which includes defining its objectives and selecting the right survey tool. Creating the questionnaire itself comes at the end of this process. An online questionnaire always differs from a paper questionnaire, even if both pursue the same objectives. The same applies if you choose to conduct your customer survey by telephone or in person: the questionnaire must always suit the situation. This also applies to the layout. A telephone survey generally involves working through a simple list, whereas customers expect an appealing design online.
Before creating the questionnaire, you should therefore first decide:
- where to conduct the customer survey (at the point of sale, during a support interaction, when handing over goods, at touchpoints on the website, etc.)
- how you want and, above all, are able to reach your customers (online, by telephone or by post)
- how many customers you want to reach with your questionnaire (you can only address thousands of customers online; above a certain number of customers, personal interviews become unaffordable)
Special considerations for online survey questionnaires
If you have chosen to conduct an online customer survey, special rules apply to the questionnaire. First, pay attention to its design. As your customers will see the questionnaire, it should reflect your corporate design and look appealing. You should also make use of the logic and conditions available online, which allow you to give each customer an individual survey experience. Follow-up questions can be shown, skipped or hidden as appropriate, depending, for example, on answers already given. This enables you to present each customer with a questionnaire tailored to them and can have a positive effect on your response rate.
The customer survey questionnaire
The customer survey questionnaire is the link between you and your customers. It is what your customers see and contains the questions you want them to answer. You are in control. Adapt the questionnaire to your corporate design, use familiar images and create an interesting, welcoming atmosphere. The questionnaire allows you to present your organisation as you wish. The very fact that you provide a customer survey questionnaire can increase customer satisfaction because it demonstrates that you value your customers’ opinions.
You can find examples of ready-made online questionnaires on customer satisfaction and product reviews here: Sample customer survey questionnaires
