Top 7 Mistakes to Avoid in Customer Survey Questions

Customers’ opinions can be effectively received with the help of surveys and data collected can be useful for business. But it all begins with the questions and only the right questions can make a survey successful. Both poorly formulated questions and confusing question-wording result not just in respondents’ annoyance, but also in collecting wrong data, which defeats the purpose of the exercise. 

In this article, let’s look at seven types of questions that are best avoided in a customer survey. How can you design questionnaires and surveys that are simple and engaging and produce the information you need?

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 rate our service, from where do you derive your score?

This question is exactly a double-barreled trap that presupposes two answers while the respondent can provide only one. Though a rating scale allows the measurement of how customers feel, the part that contains open-ended questions rarely gets answered. However, what you get when you mix these two can be troubling for the respondents.

Why it’s bad: Sometimes it is vague, and in other cases, it leads to the collection of only partial data.

Better alternative: The survey questions are: 'On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate our service?’ and ‘What made you rate our service that?’

2. Do you like our product?

A common complaint like this helps give very little real feedback that one can act on. They simplify the customer experience by just giving them a yes or no option without considering their difficulties or desires.

Why it’s bad: It was not specific or quantified and consequently, no specific or quantified information is made available.

More suitable alternative: Such questions as “What do you like most about our product?” or “What parts of the product are you bothered with?”

3. On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to refer this site to a colleague owing to your experience?

Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a key KPI is excellent, although adding the request for providing more information to it makes the response slightly more complex. The result is that many customers will leave the “why” part blank, providing you with partial information only.

Why it’s bad: It combines two different questions that lower the response level.

Better alternative: Splits NPS question, “On a scale of zero to 10, how willing would you be to recommend us to a friend or colleague?” + “What was behind that number?”

5. Are you continuously using the product that we provide?

It is rigid and cannot truly capture customers’ behavior as it always presumes a certain level of homogeneity. This is because terms such as ‘always’ may cause respondents to say things that may be incorrect or simply give an ambiguous larger picture of a situation.

Why it’s bad: It is ‘fixed’ and could irritatingly ‘exclude’ the respondent.

Better alternative: Instead of asking “What do you like about it?” you should ask “How do you utilize our product?” and use frequency choices such as Daily, Weekly, or Occasional.

6. How can I help you as my customer today?

The current yes/no question distorts customer support satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is not a yes or no thing; the level of satisfaction varies depending on factors such as the time taken to respond, solve a problem, or even how friendly an employee is.

Why it’s bad: It is simplistic and doesn’t identify narrow concerns.

Better alternative: “On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate your experience with our customer support’ and “What could we do to make the support services even better”.

7. What did you think about it?

It would be better to avoid evergreen questions and this question is one of them and does not leave any format for the respondent to reply to it. This raises the question of how to measure constructs when respondents have an open field in which to answer the questions.

Why it’s bad: Specifically, they highlighted that it is too broad, and results in generating disparate data.

Better alternative: Select “Search engine” ‘, “Social media “, “Word of mouth” or “Other” and explain in the additional text box.

Why Bad Questions Matter:

The way your questions are crafted determines the value of the intelligence you acquire in your surveys. He also highlighted that badly worded questions are worse than being useless as they can create data biases and brand prejudice to affect the outcomes. Here's why bad questions matter:

• Reduce Completion Rates: Both of these lead to inefficient processes, increase question fatigue, and ultimately can create an increase in learners’ cognitive load. Problems with surveys are that respondents can comprehend several segments or spend a certain amount of time on surveys and then abandon them.

• Damage Your Brand Reputation: A bad survey design harms the impression people have of your brand. The customers may regard you as disorganized, unprofessional, and unmotivated to obtain a genuine insight into their feelings.

• Tips for Better Survey Design: Be specific: Do not pose open-ended questions and give context when you make a question.

• Stay neutral: Do not use questions marked by leading or negative interrogatives.

• Segment your survey: It is better to pose different clear and separate questions for quantitative and qualitative data.

• Keep it short: Make your polls shorter to respect the respondent’s time undertaking the poll.

If you can avoid these seven pervasive missteps and replace them with these alternatives, you’ll gather pertinent feedback and retain good customer relations.

Conclusion

Designing proper customer survey questions is a critical task whose goal is to create proper customer surveys that will provide an adequate picture of customers’ experiences and help to enhance those experiences. Be clear and specific when crafting your surveys and always employ action-oriented questions while at it.

In this way, you get proper feedback but at the same time, enhance customer confidence, laying down a good foundation to the customers for their consistent patronage, thus leading to business profitability and customer satisfaction.