How to Conduct a Great Customer Support Survey

Happy and satisfied customers are the driving force of any business. Experts often say happy customers are a brand’s biggest advocate and can become their most successful sales team.

Research shows that quality customer service is directly proportional to the company’s sales and profit. More than 70 percent of Americans are likely to spend an average of 13 percent more with companies that deliver exceptional customer support. Similarly, about 25 percent of customers will abandon companies after a single bad experience.

Nowadays customers look at “buying” as an experience more than a simple action of acquisition. That is why a brand’s products and services must revolve around creating the perfect journey for its customers, extending it even after the purchase has been completed, during the post-sales period.

But how can a brand understand what its customers are thinking? How can you make sure that your customers are appreciating the experience you are offering them? Getting to know your customers’ opinions and feelings toward your brand is crucial to be successful in customer service. A great tool that can help you in gaining a better understanding of your customers is the customer support survey.

What is a customer support survey?

Customer service is the new marketing. A customer service survey is a marketing tool used by brands to understand their customers, ask them for feedback, and determine whether they are satisfied.

A customer support survey is more than just a questionnaire, and it helps brands identify dissatisfied customers and understand their needs to optimize their procedures and improve customer service. Thanks to customer support survey results, brands can use the consumer data to drive better business decisions and positively impact the customer experience.

The best way to conduct a customer support survey is to prepare a selection of open-ended questions and implement them as an online survey to collect responses from a vast network of customers.

5 reasons why you should use a customer support survey

Since retaining existing customers is more effective than acquiring new ones, customer service surveys are necessary to make sure that the existing customers are satisfied with your offering.

Here are 5 reasons why you should use customer support surveys:

1. To differentiate your brand from competitors.

When customers have to decide among different brands that are offering the same product, they are likely to choose the one that offers better customer service. Customer service is the most critical deciding and differentiating factor that helps your brand advance in this competitive market. Customer surveys help you to improve your customer service and make it a differentiating element of your brand when compared to others.

2. To shape your brand image.

When you ask customers for their opinion, they feel valued and heard. Your customers’ perceptions of your brand help shape the brand image and influence customers to think positively about your brand. This creates a strong relationship between your company and the customer and humanizes the brand.

3. To earn customer loyalty.

In the United States, businesses can lose up to more than 45 percent of their value if their customers are unhappy with their service. Making sure that your customers are satisfied with the experience you provide them is an important step to gain their trust and loyalty.

In nowadays’ competitive market, customers have no dearth of choices, and your loss can easily become someone else’s profit. If you want to retain your customers, understand what they expect from you with the help of customer support surveys and implement the changes your consumers have mostly sought.

4. To improve and optimize your processes.

Hearing directly from your customers about how they feel about your products is a goldmine. Your customers will effectively point out touchpoints where your brand is doing well, identify areas that need improvement, and provide valuable information on the overall experience. The data generated from these customer support surveys is valuable information that can help your brand learn, improve, and grow.

5. To make the customer service experience personal.

Unhappy customers are dissatisfied for a reason, and they should be contacted to understand their negative user experience. Several business and marketing strategies can convert an unsatisfied customer into a satisfied one.

Deploying customer service surveys convey that you care about your customers and makes the process personal. Measuring customer satisfaction should not be a fleeting trend or an option but a daily habit.

Questions to include in customer support surveys

Depending on what you aim to measure, there are different types of questions that can be important to include in customer support surveys.

Remember that to collect relevant and valuable customer feedback you need to ask them the right questions. More than the customer’s responsibility to provide constructive criticism, it is the brand’s responsibility to ask thought-provoking questions.

If you are wondering which customer support survey questions to include in your questionnaire, here you can find a comprehensive guide.

Agent-Specific Questions

End-users often directly interact with certain employees throughout their customer journey, and these interactions can go either way for the customer, positively or negatively.

Customer support surveys aim to recognize whether the employees are meeting the customer service standards and representing the brand in a proper way. Customers’ feedback on their satisfaction with the customer service agents can help you monitor performance, train employees, or reward quality service.

Examples:

- Based on your recent interaction with our customer service employee, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you?

- How familiar or unfamiliar would you say our customer service agent was?

- Would you say our customer service agent was considerate or inconsiderate?

- Did you feel our agent had the ability to resolve your problem?

- On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate our service team agent’s communication?

Product Usage Questions

To assess customer needs and provide adequate solutions, you need to gather data about your range of products and services. How satisfied or dissatisfied your customers are with your products tells you where to improve. This data can be successfully used for improving your offering in order to increase customer retention rate and reduce churn rate.

Examples:

- How long have you been using the particular product/service?

- How often do you use the product/service?

- Did you consider any other alternatives before purchasing the product?

- What would you improve about the product if you could?

- On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend this product to your friend?

Channel-Specific Survey Questions

Customer channels refer to the means through which your customers reach out to your customer service. These can include an online chatbot, call center agent, self-service sources, in-store agents, etc.

To understand which customer channels are the preferred ones, it is essential to ask channel-specific survey questions. Based on this, channels that turn out to be poorly rated by customers can be either improved or abandoned.

Examples:

- Was this your first interaction with the company through [name of the specific channel]?

- How likely are you to use the specific channel again?

- What other channels did you consider before?

- Was the channel effective in answering your query?

- In your opinion, how could we improve the channel?

Demographic-Related Questions

Demographic information about the customers is relevant to the sales and marketing team because they allow them to segment the target audience. When customers are grouped based on specific key characterizations, it becomes easy to visualize the target audience and pursue leads with high conversion rates.

Brands must ensure that they follow an inclusive and unbiased approach when asking these questions. Since these questions are personal, it is suggested not to make any questions mandatory so the customer can opt out when necessary.

Examples:

- How old are you?

- Where are you located?

- What gender do you identify as?

- What is your level of education?

- Which industry do you work in?

Customer Satisfaction Survey Questions (CSAT)

CSAT surveys attempt to gauge the customer’s satisfaction with the brand’s products or services and overall experience. These questions are designed to provide insight into the customer’s needs and meet customer expectations.

Examples:

- Overall, how satisfied are you with our brand?

- How often do you use our products and services?

- If you could, what would you improve about our products and services?

- Did the product/service help you achieve your goal?

- Based on your recent purchase, how would you rate the experience?

A valuable tip for administering customer support surveys is to include different question formats. Each format serves a unique purpose. For instance, multiple-choice questions make it easier for customers to devote their time. Likewise, binary scale questions allow customers to choose from two or more available options.

Lastly, at the end of the customer support survey, remember to thank your customers for their time.

Different ways to conduct customer support surveys

Choosing the right survey methodology is crucial when creating customer support surveys. Customer support surveys are classified into two groups: questionnaires and interviews.

Questionnaires usually represent the most practical and efficient way of administering customer support surveys. Compared to traditional long-form interviews, questionnaires are cost and time effective and can be dispensed to a broader audience.

Here are some of the different ways in which you can conduct customer support surveys:

Website Questionnaire

Pros

Website questionnaires allow you to target an audience as large as you like.

It is the fastest and most efficient way to collect feedback from the website crowd.

Cons

It may be difficult to ask open-ended questions.

Depending on the length of the questionnaire, you could exhaust your customer’s patience, making them dissatisfied.

Mobile App Questionnaire

Pros

It is ideal for companies that have a mobile app.

Customers can be approached on the go and asked highly relevant questions.

Cons

There is the threat of being discarded quickly, usually if there are too many questions.

In some cases, these may come off as being obtrusive.

Telephone questionnaires

Although not as common as they once used to be, telephone questionnaires are still highly relevant. Some customers prefer to be reached out to directly and personally, instead of digitally.

Pros

The response rates are usually high if the customer is speaking to a human agent instead of an automated call.

The respondents feel more comfortable opening up and talking about their experiences in detail.

Cons

It can appear obtrusive if the calls are initiated too frequently or at the wrong time.

They are more expensive and time-consuming compared to a digital survey.

Email questionnaires

Pros

Specific segments or demographics of the target audience can be aimed at through the email list. It is the fastest and most effective way for deploying targeted customer satisfaction surveys.

Cons

Poorly written email subject lines can lead to low response rates. These questionnaires can be discarded as spam.

Conclusion

Remember that the average attention span of a human is only 8 seconds. Research shows that when it comes to surveys, the shorter, the better. The goal is to collect pertinent questions, which can be achieved in only a few questions.

When seeking inspiration for customer support surveys, it is best to look at real brands that are lauded for their exceptional customer service. For instance, Apple has consistently achieved the highest sales per square foot compared to any other US retailer. This has been possible mainly due to its persistent focus on the store experience.

Although Apple has a massive online presence, they spend more than $1 billion every year on its retail stores. Additionally, Apple regularly collects customer feedback through NPS surveys to understand customer expectations and improve its store experience.

How layerise can help you

If you are looking for tools to optimize your customer service processes, consider Layerise. Brands that use Layerise have an average customer conversion rate of 34 percent.

With Layerise, businesses can achieve exceptional customer service. Its features include collecting first-party customer registrations, using self-service tools, personal SMS marketing to customers, conversational support, and so on. If you want an in-depth view of your customers and their satisfaction, Layerise is a game-changer!

Learn more about Layerise, book a demo now!