What’s the purpose of a client or customer satisfaction survey? For that matter, what is a satisfaction survey?

According to the SafetyCulture website, a satisfaction survey offers a useful tool to measure engagement with product or service offerings. Hotel, retail, restaurant and other business sectors commonly use surveys to gauge customer experiences, identify areas of improvement and prevent customer attrition.

There are numerous templates you can use as a starting point to create a survey tailored to your needs. Here are a few sites to check out to get started:

SafetyCulture: https://safetyculture.com/checklists/customer-satisfaction-surveys.

Question Pro: https://www.questionpro.com/survey-templates/customer-satisfaction-surveys.

Zoho Survey: https://www.zoho.com/survey.

Survey Monkey: https://www.surveymonkey.com.

It’s important to set goals for your surveys. Without written goals or objectives, it’s difficult to formulate questions that will get you useful results. If you want measurable responses, ask questions that require relevant responses. Questions  that elicit yes or no answers might not work.

Creating surveys is fairly simple, but make sure to ask the right questions. If you ask too many questions, customers won’t fill out the whole survey or might not respond at all. Ask the wrong questions, and the answers won’t provide a clear picture of what your clients or customers think about your business.

What kinds of questions should you ask? Here are some ideas:

Questions should be relevant to your business. If your business involves customers ordering from your website, you might ask: “On a scale of 1 (difficult) to 5 (simple), how user-friendly do you find our order process?” Then offer a space for comments and suggestions for improvement.

Questions should be clear and concise and surveys quick and easy to complete. People are averse to long questions, which can be easily misunderstood. Consider a simple question such as: “How would you rate the customer service you received on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best?” Then ask: “What are your suggestions to improve the customer experience going forward?”

Questions should be specific. Don’t ask: “What did you think of our service (or product)?” Instead ask: “Which of the following best describes your experience with our service (or product)?” Always include an option for customers to provide their own answers.

As you formulate your survey, consider gathering a small focus group of your top clients or customers to assist with the development and actually take the survey. This approach allows you to create a baseline and determine if you’re asking the right questions.

Once you’ve compiled and analyzed the responses, send a short summary with a sincere thank you to those who responded — and just the summary to those who didn’t respond. In both cases, offer customers or clients an opportunity to provide additional feedback or suggestions.