What are best practices for customer satisfaction surveys?
Keep surveys concise, use consistent rating scales, include open-ended questions and act on feedback transparently.
To get meaningful results from customer satisfaction surveys, follow these best practices:
Keep it short and focused. Attention spans are limited. Ask only the most important questions—ideally five to ten. Too many questions lead to incomplete responses.
Use consistent scales. If you use rating scales, stick with a single format (e.g. 1–5 or 0–10). Consistency makes data easier to analyse and prevents confusion.
Include an open‑ended question. Give customers space to share comments in their own words. Qualitative feedback often reveals issues that ratings miss.
Be transparent about how you’ll use the data. Let respondents know that their feedback will inform improvements, and follow up by sharing what you learned.
Avoid leading questions. Don’t push respondents toward positive answers. For example, instead of “How much do you love our new feature?” ask “How satisfied are you with our new feature?” Neutral wording yields more honest feedback.
Close the loop. Analyse responses promptly and take action. If customers complain about shipping times, work with logistics to improve. Communicate changes back to customers. A feedback loop builds trust—see What is a feedback loop in surveys? for more on this concept. For example questions to include, read What are good customer satisfaction survey questions?.
If you are tracking participation, use the Response Rate Calculator to benchmark performance.