Understanding Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Surveys: Questions, Definition, Examples, and More

Introduction to Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Customer satisfaction surveys gauge how well businesses meet customer expectations through products, services, and interactions. Properly designed and analyzed, these surveys identify improvement areas, enhancing performance and fostering brand loyalty. This article explores the types of CSAT surveys and best practices to maximize their benefits.

What Are Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Surveys?

A customer satisfaction survey is a research tool used to gauge customers' overall satisfaction with a company's products, services, or brand interactions.

In addition, customer satisfaction surveys measure the company’s performance on attributes that may drive customer satisfaction – this latter information provides the diagnostic value that can allow business to act on customer satisfaction surveys. 

Ideally this feedback mechanism captures customer experiences and identifies improvement opportunities that can enhance customer loyalty and increase profitability.

There are several types of customer satisfaction surveys, each designed to capture different facets of customer sentiment:

1. CSAT Surveys Customer satisfaction surveys aid in understanding customer satisfaction and its components. These can be transactional satisfaction surveys (i.e., when asking specific questions about individual touchpoints, such as recent purchases or interactions with customer support) or they can be relational customer satisfaction surveys (i.e., they focus on the totality of a customer’s relationship with the brand). Typically, respondents rate their overall satisfaction on a 5-, 10- or 11-point scale, providing businesses with a trendable scorecard on overall performance. In addition, respondents rate the brand on each of several (usually 10-20) specific aspects of the transaction or the relationship. These attribute ratings help provide the diagnostic information brands need to improve performance. For instance, a retail store could use CSAT surveys after in-store purchases to measure customers’ overall satisfaction and to assess factors like the checkout process, product availability, and so on. There are many related kinds of surveys, ones that measure customer value, customer loyalty and customer advocacy. Two near-relatives of CSAT are the following.
2. NPS Surveys (Net Promoter Score): NPS surveys, or Net Promoter Score surveys, claim to measure customer loyalty but what they really measure is customer advocacy (by asking how likely customers are to recommend the brand to others). Customers respond to a single primary question: "On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our product/service to a friend or colleague?" Based on their responses, they are categorized as promoters (scores of 9-10), passives (7-8), or detractors (0-6). This simplistic segmentation allows businesses to understand the levels of customer advocacy and by extension may partially measure related concepts like satisfaction and loyalty. A SaaS company, for example, might use NPS surveys post-onboarding to measure (partially) new customer loyalty and (more directly) the potential for referrals.
3. eNPS Surveys (Employee Net Promoter Score): The world of employee satisfaction can use corresponding measures. For example, these internal surveys might seek to gauge employee satisfaction and loyalty. eNPS surveys, or Employee Net Promoter Score surveys, apply the NPS methodology to a company’s employees to measure employee willingness to recommend the company as a workplace (and hopefully, by extension, to measure employee loyalty and satisfaction). Employees answer the question, "On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our company as a place to work?" Their responses may give employers insights into organizational challenges and opportunities to cultivate a more supportive environment.

These survey types can sometimes work in combination to offer a well-rounded understanding of customer sentiment. By tailoring survey questions to specific customer interactions, businesses can gain nuanced insights that directly translate into actionable improvements.

Why Customer Satisfaction Surveys Are Essential

Financial Benefits

Understanding customer satisfaction often yields substantial financial benefits. If the research leads to more satisfied customers, they may be more likely to return and make repeat purchases, leading to higher customer lifetime value. 

Their advocacy can reduce customer acquisition costs through word-of-mouth marketing. According to common wisdom, increasing customer retention by just 5% can boost profits by 25% or more.

Using Surveys as Scorecards

Businesses use customer satisfaction surveys for various reasons. The least useful reason is to create CSAT scores as a simplistic scorecard to reward or punish employees.

Used in this way CSAT measurement can be counter-productive, as employees may game the system to avoid punishments and earn rewards, while doing little to promote customer satisfaction.

When used well, customer sentiment data provides a clear understanding of brand reputation, helping companies align strategies with customer expectations. Tracking satisfaction metrics over time enables organizations to build loyal customer bases and foster strong emotional connections with their brands.

Identifying Negative Themes

Timely satisfaction surveys enable organizations to identify problems early. An early warning system allows businesses to pinpoint issues and respond proactively. If not addressed promptly, these concerns can lead to negative reviews or high churn rates, which could damage a brand's reputation.

Gauging Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty and other near-relatives of satisfaction (like customer value, customer effort and customer advocacy), while often measured as part of CSAT efforts, can also be the subject of dedicated research efforts, topics for another day.

Identifying Trends

Ongoing customer feedback can help identify trends and shifts in customer preferences, revealing emerging opportunities and potential threats. By monitoring these patterns, businesses can calibrate and adapt their products and services, ideally to bolster their competitive position. 

With data-backed insights, customer satisfaction surveys guide businesses in refining products, services, and customer engagement approaches, ensuring they stay relevant and impactful in a constantly evolving market.

Types of Customer Satisfaction Survey Questions (with Examples)

There are better and worse ways to elicit information from respondents. Crafting the right survey questions is important. Here are the primary types of questions used and examples of each:

Product Usage Questions

These questions assess how customers use a product and they can set the stage for questions about the product or service experience.

Product Usage Question Examples

1. "Which feature do you use the most frequently, and why?"
2. "Which feature do you use the least, and why?"
3. "How often do you use our product/service?"
4. "What additional features would you like to see in our product/service?"
5. "How would you compare our product/service with competitors in terms of usability?"
6. "Have you ever stopped using our product/service? If so, why?"
7. "What challenges do you face when using our product/service?"

Psychographic Questions

Psychographic questions dive into customers' attitudes, values, and lifestyle preferences. They reveal deeper motivations that can shape marketing and product development strategies.

Psychographic Question Examples

1. "What are the three most important factors you consider when choosing a brand?"
2. "How would you describe your lifestyle (e.g., adventurous, conservative, health-conscious)?"
3. "What motivates you to try a new product or service?"
4. "Which values are most important to you when making purchasing decisions?"
5. "What social or environmental causes do you support?"
6. "Which hobbies or interests do you actively pursue?"
7. "Do you prefer personalized or standardized products/services?"

Demographic Questions

Demographic questions help segment respondents based on age, location, income, etc. This segmentation is crucial for understanding specific customer needs and personalizing experiences.

Demographic Question Examples

1. "Which age group do you belong to: 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, or 65 and above?"
2. "What is your highest level of education?"
3. "What is your current employment status?"
4. "What is your annual household income?"
5. "In which region or country do you currently reside?"
6. "What is your current occupation?"
7. "Which industry do you work in?"

Pricing and Value Questions

Pricing and value questions assess whether customers perceive products or services as worth their price. This insight aids pricing strategy and product differentiation.

Pricing and Value Question Examples

1. "Do you believe the quality of our product/service justifies its price? Please explain."
2. "On a scale of 1 to 5, how would you rate the value for money of our product/service?"
3. "How does our pricing compare to other similar products/services?"
4. "Have you ever considered switching to a competitor due to pricing?"
5. "Would you be willing to pay a higher price for better quality or features?"
6. "How sensitive are you to price changes when choosing a product/service?"
7. "Does our current pricing align with your expectations?"

Overall Satisfaction Questions

Overall satisfaction scale questions provide a quantitative measure of the overall customer experience, the single most important metric in a CSAT survey.

Satisfaction Scale Question Examples

1. "Using the scale below, how would you rate your overall satisfaction with the product you bought?"
2. "Please use the scale below to indicate how satisfied you are with the service overall."
3. "How would you rate your overall satisfaction with Acme?"

For more advice on the specific overall satisfaction scale to use, please refer to Rating Scales for Use in Driver Analysis (2024) (sawtoothsoftware.com)

Attribute Performance Questions

These allow the research to measure the brand’s performance on the several specific aspects that drive the customer experience. Examples include the following, but the list will be specific to the particular product or service that is the subject of the CSAT survey.

Attribute Question Examples

1.  "On the scale below how satisfied were you with the speed of check-in for your flight?”
2.  "How easy was the company’s website to use on the following scale?"
3.  "Using the scale below, how friendly was the customer service staff?"

For more advice on the specific scale to use, please refer to Rating Scales for Use in Driver Analysis (2024) (sawtoothsoftware.com)

Best Practices for Creating Effective Surveys

Creating a customer satisfaction survey that yields high response rates and valuable insights requires following a set of proven best practices:

Ask for an Overall Company Rating First

Asking the overall question first, before the attribute ratings, keeps it from being affected by the attribute ratings. Certainly this makes the overall measure more trendable, which is one of its primary functions. Other researchers worry that the overall rating may create a halo effect that pollutes the subsequent attribute ratings, and they prefer to ask it after the detailed attribute ratings. In reality the halo effect affects both the overall and the attribute ratings and research has not consistently shown that asking the overall rating after the ratings is a superior approach. The importance of the trendability of the overall satisfaction measure probably trumps the halo effect and the overall measure should probably be asked first.

Ask for Detailed Attribute Ratings

These provide diagnostic value as described below when they populate a driver analysis. Alternatively, consider not inferring that the attributes emerging from a driver analysis are the ones most important to improve and use a performance improvement experiment instead, as described in this article we published in Quirks: Performance improvement experiments for CX research | Articles (quirks.com)

Allow for Open-Text Feedback

Incorporating open-text feedback allows respondents to elaborate on their experiences. While structured questions provide quantitative data, open-text responses often reveal hidden issues or unanticipated opportunities. Questions like "What improvements would you like to see in our product/service?" can offer deeper insights.

Choose the Right Survey Tool

Select a survey tool that aligns with your business needs, providing features like skip logic, advanced data analysis, and mobile-friendly designs. The right tool will streamline the survey process and help collect data efficiently.

Ask Short and Relevant Questions

Lengthy surveys can lead to survey fatigue and high abandonment rates. Keep questions concise, relevant, and easy to understand. Remove questions that don't directly contribute to actionable insights or business goals.

Send Surveys at the Right Time

Time your survey carefully to obtain accurate customer feedback. For post-purchase surveys, send them soon after the transaction while the experience is still fresh. For relational satisfaction surveys, consider sending them after significant customer interactions or on an appropriate schedule, such as quarterly or annually.

Thank Customers for Their Feedback

Always express gratitude to customers for taking the time to provide feedback. A simple "thank you" message at the end of the survey or via a follow-up email can leave a positive impression and encourage continued engagement.

Following these best practices ensures your customer satisfaction survey is optimized for valuable insights, high response rates, and strong customer relationships.

Utilizing Customer Feedback for Improvement

Collecting customer feedback is just the first step in the process; effectively utilizing the data can lead to meaningful improvements in business strategies and customer satisfaction.

Analyzing Survey Data

In addition to tracking overall satisfaction and looking for trends and deviations from trend, identify and track the drivers of customer satisfaction. For much more on driver analysis, see our webinar on the right and wrong ways to do it here: Driver Analysis: How to Do It Badly … and Well (sawtoothsoftware.com)

Leveraging Results for Customer Segmentation

Survey data can reveal distinct customer segments based on needs, preferences, and behaviors. Use this information to tailor marketing campaigns and personalize products or services to meet the unique needs of each segment. For instance, if a group values eco-friendly packaging, consider offering green alternatives.

Tracking Satisfaction Over Time

Monitoring satisfaction scores over time provides insights into how well your business adapts to customer expectations. By regularly conducting surveys and tracking metrics like NPS and CSAT, businesses can assess whether their changes positively impact customer satisfaction.

Benchmarking Against Competitors

Benchmarking survey data against industry standards and competitors can reveal where your business stands in the market. Understanding areas where competitors excel or underperform can help shape strategies that close gaps and seize opportunities.

Implementing Changes Based on Feedback

Translate feedback into tangible actions. If customers consistently report problems with customer service response times, implement training or adjust staff levels. When positive trends emerge, enhance those strengths by refining your value proposition or expanding related features.

Closing the Loop with Customers

Responding to customer feedback promptly and transparently shows customers that their voices matter. Let them know how their input will influence future improvements, strengthening trust and fostering loyalty. For example, follow up with detractors after negative feedback to address concerns and offer resolutions.

Real-World Example

A prominent example of using customer feedback to drive improvement comes from Spotify. The music streaming giant relies on user feedback to tailor its recommendations and playlists. They found that users wanted more control over their listening experience, so they introduced personalized playlists like "Discover Weekly" and "Release Radar," which now form a core part of their value proposition.

By leveraging customer feedback effectively, businesses can enhance their products and services to better align with customer needs, ultimately improving loyalty and profitability.