September 12, 2019

23 Effective Survey Questions to Ask Your Customers

Today we’re diving into one of the most under-utilized methods of growing an ecommerce business. Are you ready for it?

Talking to your customers.

Surprisingly, many ecommerce companies rarely gather consistent legitimate feedback from their customers. We’re not talking about gathering social proof (which hopefully you are doing as well). We’re talking about raw, honest feedback in order to learn and improve what you’re doing. We totally understand the challenge and fear, and we’re not suggesting this feedback be gathered in public view with all the world watching. But if you want to sell more products to more people, what better way to do that then find out what they really want directly from those people? Brilliant, I know.

It might feel challenging because of barriers with technology or concerns about customer privacy. Additionally, we live in a digital world where a conversation with someone on the other side of the screen is not always top of mind. Many companies are also scared of feedback because they are uncertain how to handle negative responses.

If you’ve had these thoughts before, you’re not alone. However, it is time to overcome these challenges because of the opportunity that lives on the other side. Today we’re going to look at one of the easiest ways to start a conversation – using a simple survey. We’ve found it’s one of the most effective ways to quickly learn, adjust, and grow into a successful company using customer feedback.

What types of questions should you ask?

When you’re building a customer survey, you’ll want to keep a few key things in mind:

Keep your questions humble and honest, putting the customer first.
This will help communicate that you’re truly here to serve the customer. Offering a discount or other incentive as a thank you for their feedback will go a long way as well.
Gather data about their demographic and interests that you can actually use.
This type of data will allow you to create better audience segments so you can better communicate with groups of customers based on their interests.
Ask for feedback to improve your product or customer support.
Yes, you should expect negative answers to come your way. Have a game plan for how to respond to them, but also realize that providing this outlet will help avoid that feedback coming through public channels.
Take the opportunity to uncover any problem areas you weren’t aware of.
Are there areas of your site that are confusing? Is something in your checkout broken? These are things that would be great to know!

What should you avoid in a survey?

Thinly veiled sales attempts
Or, just any attempt to make a sale. That’s not what the survey is for!
Speaking outside your brand voice.
Make sure your survey questions sound like you. If you have an adventurous or playful brand, your customers won’t respond well to a very formal survey. If your brand is more professional, you’ll want the survey to reflect that.
Close-ended questions
A common mistake is using “yes” or “no” questions. While this may speed up the customer’s survey experience, it doesn’t provide you with valuable information.
Complex questions
You’ll also want to keep your questions straightforward. If you’re using multiple choice, we don’t recommend offering more than 3 or 4 options.
Poor placement
Do not put your survey in critical points of the shopping experience, such as the checkout page. This is a sure way to kill conversions.

Ready to jump into some of our top survey questions?

23 Starter Survey Questions to Ask Your Customers

Every business is different, but the hardest part about implementing a survey program can be knowing what to ask, so the following questions are meant to provide you with a starting point that you can build on.

Pre-Purchase Survey Questions

The goals of a pre-purchase survey generally involve identifying areas of friction, low converting steps in your purchase funnel, uncovering any site issues, or simply gathering data from potential customers in order to provide better products.

Did something go wrong on our site?
What’s stopping you from purchasing today?
Who are you shopping for?
-Myself
-Spouse or family member
-Friend or colleague
-Someone else: _______
When it comes to our brand, what products or categories are you most interested in?
__________
__________
__________
__________
What would cause you to choose another brand for this type of product?
-Quality
-Appearance
-Price
-Other: ______
What’s most important to you when shopping for products like ours?
When you’re learning about a brand for the first time or considering a purchase, what’s most important to you?
-Locally owned, made, or sourced
-Lifetime warranty offer/guarantee
-Transparency and/or brutal honesty
-Sentimental or relatable company story
What burning questions do you have about our products or company?
What other products would you like to see in our online store?
What’s a product or tool you wish someone would create?
What is one problem we could help you solve, either with our products or products we might create?

Post-Purchase Survey Questions

If you’re surveying a customer post-purchase, you’ll want to ask about their experience, gather information about their demographic and interests, how they’re using your product, and get feedback on what else they would love to see for product development.

Who are you shopping for?
-Myself
-Spouse or family member
-Friend or colleague
-Someone else: _______
What do you love about your purchase?
What is one thing we can improve about our website experience?
What is one thing we could improve about our products?
Tell us about your customer service experience.
Do you anticipate purchasing from us again in the future?
If not, is there anything keeping you from purchasing again?
If yes, what other products would you consider buying from us?
What other products would you be excited to see in our online store in the future?
Select any of the following that describes you:
-Depending on your brand or products, you might ask about their profession, marital status, whether they are a parent, etc.
When is your birthday?
What do you love to do?
-Provide a list of hobbies, activities, interests, travel spots, etc. as it relates to your brand or your research needs.

Tools To Help You Collect Customer Survey Data

A few of our favorite tools to help facilitate surveying include:

Looking for better ways to build a relationship with your customers at scale and grow your business?

Get in touch with us