What is a feedback survey and how to use it to improve your business?

A feedback survey measures customers’ satisfaction with your products and services.

Also known as a customer satisfaction survey, they are usually conducted after a distinct service has been released, an event has occurred, or are focused on a specific product. Since feedback is crucial for improving any type of business, such surveys provide valuable information about needed improvements in a particular service or product.

The experience of customers with a brand is what makes or breaks a company. To better understand your customers and their needs and desires properly, you must create a detailed and well-planned customer experience survey.

In this article, we will cover customer surveys, how to write them well, in which fields they can be used, and how you can improve your business with the data you gather.

What is a feedback survey?

The name alone says it all; a feedback survey is used to gather feedback from customers. That is why they are also often called customer satisfaction surveys. Unlike customer loyalty surveys, which measure how likely customers are to choose you over competitors, a customer feedback survey provides insights about their experience with a particular product or service.

When conducting feedback surveys, ask questions about numerous topics, both broad and specific. For example, you can assess overall customer experience or satisfaction with a product. However, you can also conduct them after an event, product purchase, or a call with customer support in order to gain insights regarding that particular part of a customer’s journey.

When gathering this kind of survey feedback, you must ask relevant questions about customer service or a particular product. The questions will depend on the topic you want information about. Before diving into all the areas where you can use a feedback questionnaire, we will first go through the important steps of crafting questions about customer satisfaction.

Which feedback questions can you include in your satisfaction survey?

There are a lot of question types to choose from when doing this sort of survey. Feedback survey questions range from closed-ended questions, which offer the respondents a pre-made set of answers to choose from, to open-ended ones in which participants are presented with a box where they can answer the question in their own words.

The most common feedback form questions are yes or no, multiple choice, rating scale, Likert scale, and open-ended.

The NPS or Net Promoter Score survey is the most common example of a Likert scale. It measures both customer satisfaction with your products and services as well as their loyalty to your brand.

However, whether the topic of a customer survey is a particular product, event, or customer service, each question type has its strengths. That is why it is usually advised to combine all of them. Only then will you make a truly useful survey template.

How to write good feedback questions?

When you have chosen which question types you will be using, it’s time to actually make them. If you want to create a good survey question and gather valuable survey feedback, there are a few rules to follow.

The most important thing is to keep them short and unambiguous. You have to choose words carefully and phrase survey questions so that it is clear to respondents just what they need to answer. Don’t use misleading words; you want their answers to be true to their opinions and not misguided.

Use open-ended questions, but don’t overdo them. The best practice is to mainly stick to closed-ended questions, with only a few open-ended ones. Use these where they are most suitable; for example, when asking for additional or more in-depth feedback.

It is also important to avoid biased questions and common survey errors like sampling errors, yea-saying, extreme responding, or order effect bias.

Lastly, just as it is essential that questions not be too long, the whole survey shouldn’t be long either. Use our question branching feature to skip questions that are irrelevant to a particular respondent. This way you can increase your survey’s response rate, which will give you more accurate and valuable data.

Satisfaction surveys in market research: Information about your customers’ experiences

Whether you are just starting your business or have been in the market for quite some time, sending out a customer feedback survey is an important part of market research.

Businesses that are just starting can significantly benefit from a market research feedback survey. By asking the right questions about your area of interest, you can understand your target audience better and learn what sells and what doesn’t. This will help you improve your business and better prepare before launching.

If you are already in business, you too can benefit from surveying your customers. For example, suppose you are unsure whether to continue a service or product. A good feedback questionnaire will provide necessary insights and help you better understand how to provide customer satisfaction.

In our survey templates and examples library, you will find complete feedback form examples for market research, such as Net Promoter Score surveys, as well as individual customer feedback questions. Sign up today, and create incredible user feedback surveys with ease.

Product research: Prepare a new product launch with a well-written satisfaction survey

If you’re thinking of launching a new product but aren’t sure how your customers will welcome it, the best thing to do is to send out a survey on this topic beforehand.

A new product survey is a type of customer feedback survey asking potential customers questions about various features of your future product to garner their opinions.

With this type of satisfaction survey, you collect data about customer satisfaction with current products, customer experiences with the whole market, and thoughts on your new idea. All such data will benefit the further development of your business idea.

You can ask about anything, from package design to actual product features. By analyzing survey feedback, you collect and then implement changes based on it, increasing the odds that your new product launch will be successful.

Improve your event planning with feedback surveys

Event planning is another important field benefiting from feedback surveys. If you want to grow an event planning business and keep clients happy, check up on them regularly after every event you manage so that you can learn your strong and weak spots. You can send out short event feedback or guest satisfaction surveys to all attendees.

To measure the event’s success properly, you must ask relevant post-event questions with your event feedback form. Our survey software offers many event feedback examples, though you can certainly create your own. Start by asking demographic questions, since they help you get to know your participants better.

Next, focus on each aspect of the event by composing a couple of questions about each. These include the date and time of the event, location, venue, catering, guest speakers, equipment, etc. Finally, if you’ve organized a conference or other type of meeting, make sure to include some of our meeting feedback survey questions in your next satisfaction survey.

At the end, leave room for a couple of open-ended questions where respondents can share their thoughts and communicate about how they think the event could be improved in the future.

Satisfaction surveys in educational research

Customers are not the only ones you can get feedback from. Many feedback surveys are conducted in the education field.

An educational feedback survey can provide feedback from students, parents, and teachers. Such information will help you improve your curriculum, teaching style, extracurricular activities, campus safety, and much more.

Depending on the subject they need to explore, there are different student surveys, including course and teacher evaluation surveys, as well as student-teacher relationship surveys.

If you are unsure which questions will bring you the most accurate data, sign up for a free SurveyPlanet account and choose from our library’s feedback survey templates.

Employee satisfaction surveys: Your most valuable asset for creating a productive workspace

Getting feedback from employees can be key to creating a positive company culture. That is why it is important to regularly send out HR surveys to all of your employees.

With the help of employee surveys, you can learn a lot about employees’ satisfaction with their work-life balance or the employee benefits your company provides. When it’s time to part ways with an employee, you can ask them to fill out an exit survey that can provide important data on your employees’ work experience.

All the survey feedback you gather from such questionnaires will help you create a better work atmosphere, resulting in happier and more productive employees.

If you want to create incredible surveys that deliver truthful data, SurveyPlanet is the best survey software. Create a free account and explore our numerous survey templates today.

Along with an extensive template library, we offer many other features that make the whole process easier. Pick the survey template of your choice and start creating surveys that will improve your business!

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