Do you want to gather feedback from users, customers, visitors, or anyone else interacting with your content? Smart choice! Businesses that leverage consumer insights, outperform their competition with 85%, according to Microsoft. A popular way to start collecting feedback is by creating a survey. But which questions should you use? And how, exactly, do you write good survey questions? Keep reading to find out!
In this article, we’ll teach you all you need to know (and a good bit more, because we are generous like that) about survey questions. We will even throw in an abundance of examples.
Here is an overview on what you can learn in this blog:
- How do you write good survey questions?
- How many questions should a survey have?
- 5 main types of survey questions
- Quantify your findings with survey metrics
- 80 survey question examples
Let’s start at the top, shall we?
How do you write good survey questions?
The key to writing good survey questions is to create a solid base. Start with mapping out why you are creating this survey. What is your goal, what do you want to find out and how are you going to measure it?
Examples of common survey goals are:
- Measuring the customer satisfaction (CSAT)
- Identifying improvement points for a website, app, product or service
- Mapping out the customer journey
- Identifying unique selling points and weaknesses
Once you have identified your goal(s), you can start writing your actual questions. Keep in mind that good survey questions should be short, to the point and clear. Make sure that you:
- Ask one question at a time
- Avoid writing biased or leading questions
- Are careful with sensitive questions – put them in the right context to make the customer, user or visitor feel more comfortable
How many questions should a survey have?
If you found our article by googling this question (hi, welcome!) you have probably already noticed that there isn’t one good answer to this. It depends on who you are sending your survey to and what your goals are.
Generally speaking, the shorter your survey is, the more likely it is to be filled in. Research has also shown that data quality declines on surveys that are longer than 20 minutes. That being said, some goals require you to include a good amount of questions to get accurate insights.
Our recommendation, however, is to keep the number of questions below 30 and the completion time under 10 minutes if possible. But again; the shorter, the better.
5 main types of survey questions
There is an abundance of survey questions out there and choosing which ones to use can be quite overwhelming. To give you an indication of where to start, we have listed the five most popular, and most useful, ones below.
- Open-ended questions
- Multiple choice questions
- Drop-down questions
- Rating scale questions
- Thumbs questions
Let’s dive into what each of these types looks like and when they are useful.
Open-ended questions
Open-ended questions allow your customers, users or visitors to share their own thoughts and feelings about a certain subject with you. This is great for detecting needs and improvement points that you might not have been aware of otherwise.
The downside is, however, that people are less likely to answer open-ended questions. Simply because it takes more time than checking a few boxes.
When should you use open-ended questions?
Use open-ended questions when you want to deep dive into a topic. Or when you are just starting to collect data. The answers can give you an indication of what you need to develop and what to ask in future surveys.
Additionally, open-ended questions are great follow-up questions! You can start by asking something simple, like:
- Did you find everything you were looking for?
If the answer is no, include an open-ended question asking for more information. For example:
- We’re sorry to hear that! What were you trying to find?
Multiple choice questions
Let us ask you something: Have you ever heard of a multiple choice question?
a) Yes, many, many times.
b) No, never heard of it. Please explain further!
We’re betting that you chose option a. And if not, congratulations! You have just seen your first multiple choice question.
As you probably know, this type of querie asks the survey participant to choose between a pre-determined number of choices.
Multiple choice questions are popular as they are quick and simple to answer, making it more likely that your target audience will fill in your survey. Additionally, they are also easy to analyse once the survey is complete.
When should you use multiple choice questions?
They are great when you have a limited number of possible answers. Or when you have a specific, categorial question.
Example:
Which device are you using to view our website?
- Desktop
- Mobile
- Tablet
Drop-down questions
Drop-down questions and multiple choice questions essentially work the same way. They are both used when you want specific, categorical answers. However, with a drop-down question, the options appear in a hidden list that can be viewed by clicking a button.
When should drop-down questions be used?
Typically, when you have a multiple choice question with more than seven options. It makes your survey look neater and prevents the participant from having to scroll unnecessarily.
A good example of when drop-down questions are used, is when asking for age group or place of residence.
Rating scale questions
These questions provide answers on a numeric scale. They are typically, but not exclusively, used in Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys, which is a way to measure customer satisfaction.
A typical rating scale (and NPS) question is:
- How likely are you to recommend our product?
The survey participant can then choose a number between 0-10, with 0 being very unlikely and 10 very likely.
When should rating scale questions be used?
If you need to assign a numeric value to your question, then a rating scale is your best friend! It is also perfect for measuring your customer satisfaction. There are a few different metrics you can use to measure this, which we get into a little bit further down in the article.
An additional tip is to follow up a rating scale question (like the above) with an open-ended question to see exactly what your customers/users/visitors think about your brand, product or service.
Thumbs questions
A thumbs question only has two possible answers: a thumbs up or a thumbs down. The benefit of this type of question is that they make it extremely easy for your customers/visitors/users to answer, which has a positive impact on your survey’s response rate.
Common examples of thumbs questions are:
- How was your overall experience with [brand]?
- Did this answer all of your questions?
When should you use thumbs questions?
If you need a general indication on a service or product, then thumbs questions are a great option. Especially if you work in a fast-paced business, like retail, where your target demographic might not have time to complete a long survey.
Place a question like this at the end of an email. For example, after a delivery or a purchase.
Quantify your findings with survey metrics
You might have a specific thesis you want to test with your survey. Or perhaps you are gathering general insights to find customer pain points. However, it’s not uncommon to conduct a survey to learn about your customers’, users’ or visitors’ overall satisfaction with your brand or a certain product/feature.
There are a few handy ways you can measure this. The most common are:
NPS surveys (Net Promoter Score)
NPS surveys measure loyalty and are therefore only effective when sent to long-term customers or users. With this metric, you can see how likely someone is to recommend your product/service to friends, family and colleagues.
An NPS survey is conducted by asking your customers to rate you, your service or your product on a scale from 0-10.
Examples of NPS survey questions are:
- On a scale from 0-10, how likely are you to recommend [business/product/service] to a friend or colleague?
- On a scale from 0-10, how likely are you to recommend us to your friends and family based on your most recent interaction?
- Now that you have received/used [product], how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?
CES surveys (Customer Effort Score)
CES surveys zoom in on one specific service, product or interaction. If you are looking to improve a specific funnel, then this is the metric for you.
The CES score is also measured with the help of numbers, but you can play a bit with the visual aspect of it. Use smiley faces, thumbs or any other aid to make it more playful and appealing.
What kind of questions you should ask, of course, depends on what service, product or interaction you want to focus on. Below you can find some common CES survey question examples:
- How easy was it to solve your problem?
- How easy was it to find the information you wanted on our website?
- How easy was it to interact with our team?
- How easy was it to follow our onboarding process?
CSAT surveys (Customer Satisfaction Score)
CSAT surveys measure a short-term customer experience. It’s a good metric to use when you want to get an overall feel of your customer satisfaction. CSAT is measured by asking your customers to rate you from 1-10. Based on the answers, you get a percentage which is your CSAT score.
These are some common CSAT survey questions:
- What is your overall impression of our website?
- How do you like our service?
- How would you rate our product?
Check out our blog on everything you need to know about customer satisfaction surveys.
80 survey question examples
Ready to get into the nitty-gritty? Below you can find 78 powerful survey questions, divided by categories. There are of course thousands of questions you could ask, so make sure to choose wisely.
17 UX (user experience) survey questions
A UX survey helps you gather insights about your users’ interactions and thoughts about your app, website or software.
Question examples:
- How useful is our product/feature/app/software to you?
- Tell us about your experience using [product/feature/app/software].
- How would you rate the user-friendliness of our [product/feature/app/software]?
- How easy is it to navigate our app/website?
- What kind of impact does this feature have on your business?
- Why did you choose us over our competitors?
- What do you like the most about [product/feature/app/software]?
- What do you like the least about [product/feature/app/software]?
- What is the most difficult part of using [product/feature/app/software]?
- What is your favourite part of [product/feature/app/software]?
- How likely are you to recommend this [product/feature/app/software] to friends or colleagues?
- Is there anything you would like us to remove from the design of [product/feature/app/software]?
- How would you rate the overall look and feel of our [product/feature/app/software]?
- Does our [product/feature/app/software] meet all your requirements?
- Which of our competitors did you consider before choosing us?
- What is the most important feature you think we should add?
- How did you find our [product/feature/app/software]?
20 Customer satisfaction survey questions
As the name suggests, customer satisfaction surveys help you gauge the satisfaction of your customers. No surprise there! Find out what your customers think about your product/service and your brand, as well as what you can do to improve the customer experience.
Question examples:
- How likely are you to recommend our product/service to friends and colleagues?
- Describe how you feel about [product/service].
- How can we improve your experience with the website?
- How satisfied are you with your experience in our store today?
- Did you feel like you got an answer to your question quickly enough?
- Do you agree that your issue was resolved?
- How likely are you to purchase from us again?
- How long have you been using our product?
- Are you satisfied with the payment options that we have?
- Are you satisfied with the delivery options that we have?
- Is there something that you are missing with our service?
- How was your delivery experience?
- Are you happy with your new products?
- How long have you been using our product/service?
- How can we improve your overall experience with us?
- Do you have any additional comments or feedback for us?
- Is it okay if we contact you to follow up on your responses?
- Can we connect you with a customer manager?
- Which of the following words would you use to describe our product/service?
- How easy is it to navigate our website? (CES question)
23 website survey questions
Conducting a survey, specifically on your website, can help you gain insight into your website’s user experience. Is your information easy to understand? Does the look of your website resonate with your target audience? These are questions that can only be answered with visitor feedback.
Question examples:
- Why are you visiting our website?
- What was your first impression of our website?
- Did you find the information that you were looking for on this page?
- How easy was it to complete your purchase?
- Why are you leaving the website?
- Are you having trouble finding what you are looking for?
- How easy is it to understand the information on our website?
- Do you find our website visually appealing?
- How easy is it to navigate our website?
- How did you find our website?
- If you could change anything about your checkout experience, what would it be?
- How easy is it to understand what [company name] does from our homepage?
- Which words would you use to describe our website?
- How can we improve our pricing page?
- Why are you cancelling your subscription?
- How often do you visit our website?
- How was your experience with our mobile website?
- Did our website render well in your browser?
- Which browser are you using?
- How would you describe the payment process?
- Did our website take long to load?
- What could we have done better? (in case of cancellation or churn)
- Did you find the images on the website useful?
8 email survey questions
Email surveys are great if you want quick, general feedback. Include a question at the end of your newsletter or after a notice of delivery, for example.
Question examples:
- How would you rate the product you recently bought?
- Did the product fulfil the reason for the purchase?
- How satisfied were you with your experience purchasing from us?
- How would you rate [product/software/service] on a scale from 1-10?
- Were you satisfied with our customer service?
- Did you find this newsletter helpful?
- Did our team help you find what you were looking for?
- How was your recent experience in our store?
12 mobile app survey questions
Have you just launched a new app? Congrats! Or do you want to gauge what your users think about your app? Both these scenarios are great examples for conducting a mobile app survey.
Question examples:
- How did you first hear about our app?
- How is the navigation of our mobile app?
- How do you feel about the app design?
- [Certain feature] was made easier with the app. (With the choice of ‘True’ or ‘False’)
- Which are your favourite features of the app?
- Have you run into any problems while using the app?
- How easy would you say that it is to use our app?
- Is there something you prefer doing on our app rather than on our website?
- Why did you download our app?
- Are there any features you are missing?
- Describe a situation when the app has been useful to you.
- How often do you use this feature?
Phew! That was a long list of questions to get through. Hopefully, it is enough to get you started on your survey journey. Don’t forget to keep your form as short as possible. In other words, really take the time to choose questions that will serve your goal and make sure that they are worded in the best way possible: Short, to the point and clear!
Start creating surveys with Mopinion
Ready to get surveying? We thought so! If you are looking for a powerful software that can help you create the perfect form, you’ve come to the right place.
Mopinion is the number one feedback software that specialises in gathering insights from website, mobile and email. The choice is yours. Create your surveys with our easy drag-and-drop function. Once the data is collected, we gather and visualise the data for you in an easy-to-read dashboard. This creates instant, actionable insights for your company. Try it and see for yourself with our free 14-day trial period!
Ready to see Mopinion in action?
Want to learn more about Mopinion’s all-in-1 user feedback platform? Don’t be shy and take our software for a spin! Do you prefer it a bit more personal? Just book a demo. One of our feedback pro’s will guide you through the software and answer any questions you may have.
