Everything You Need to Know About the CSAT Survey

Everyone is talking about the CSAT survey, and with good reason! The Customer Satisfaction Survey provides a lot of insight into customer expectations and experiences, allowing companies to make impactful changes from meaningful data.

Understanding the survey’s necessity is all well and good, but how do you do a CSAT survey?

Don’t stress, we’re here to help. We’ve talked a lot about what CSAT means, how it’s calculated, and when to initiate a CSAT survey. But now we want to help you design a survey experience for your participants that boosts participation and gets you the data you need.

Ready? So are we!

How Many Questions Should You Use?

Technically, you only need one. I know, that seems crazy, but CSAT is a metric used to gain information on customer satisfaction. Simply asking customers to “Please rate your overall satisfaction with/on…” is a CSAT survey.

It’s that simple.

But for deeper understanding on what drives customer response behind the metric, you’re going to want to ask some extra questions.

Think of “drivers” as variables that can impact customer satisfaction positively or negatively. This could be anything from usability to support contact, website, professionalism of staff, and more interactions or experiences that happen along touchpoints of a customer journey. You want to find what drives your customer experience to enact the most changes based on that information.

So while you may only need one question, you should have several more follow-up questions to make the big picture swing into focus—and allow you to parse data for (perhaps surprising) correlations.

Within the Sogo platform, you can spot driver questions easily. The aptly named Key Driver question is combined with the required metric question (in this case the CSAT) to create the Key Driver Analysis Report. The report allows you to instantly identify which areas you should make the most impactful improvement to increase your overall metric score.

But we don’t just stop there! Any weighted rating question can be used as a driver, giving you flexibility to define what areas you want to focus on, and a wide array of options. You’re looking at question types like:

Rating Radio Button
Rating Scale
Rating Dropdown
Symbol Rating
Rating Radio Grid
Rating Scale Grid
Rating Dropdown Grid
Key Driver

There’s plenty of ways to delve deeper into your gathered data and really understand your CSAT score in a way that is also business-success-driven.

Examples of Good CSAT Questions

You’ve done all the work deciding what data you want, what sort of insights would really help your organization, and you are ready to sit down and design your survey. But what sort of questions should be displayed? Which questions will resonate with your customers and get the clearest picture you can?

Types of questions

First, remember the golden rule: less friction for customers equals more responses. Options that give direct answers, like rating questions that involve radial buttons or check boxes, can make the process easy and efficient. Open-ended questions allow for customers to input their own responses for Sentiment Analysis. Think of the types of questions and where they appear on the page to take your customers on a journey from start to finish that doesn’t feel like a hassle to them. We’re going to notate question types within the questions to help you get the idea!

Question 1: How satisfied were you with [product/service]?

Type: (Likert) Rating Scale, CSAT question

This is the easiest CSAT question to ask, and the base for any further exploration. Start there and then drill down into different aspects of the satisfaction for more insights.

Question 2: We’re delighted [sorry] to hear about your experience! Can you tell us more?

Type: Open-ended Text Box

Whether your customer is very satisfied or not with their experience, it’s good to ask them a follow-up questions where they can say in their own words what they’re feeling. Extreme responses like “very satisfied” or “very dissatisfied” signal a customer willing to share their experience, so it’s a good rule of thumb to ask what made, or broke, their interaction with you.

Question 3: Based on your experience, rate us in the following areas: [areas of interest]

Type: Key Driver, Rating Radio Grid

This one gives a lot of information and can be heavier on the screen, so make the most of this format by using a clear scale and a few key potential variables you believe are impactful.

Question 4: How likely are you to recommend our [product/service]?

Type: NPS, Rating Scale

Wait — Net Promoter Score in a CSAT survey? Sure! NPS is a different question from CSAT, but they work well together. A question about whether your customer would recommend your company is a great barometer of customer loyalty and engagement with your organization. Through the rating, you can pinpoint which customers are promoters, neutral, or detractors from your brand and its offerings. It’s a great way to get a snapshot of what you could be doing better, or what you’re already doing great!

CSAT Survey Templates to Get You Started

If you’re not sure where to start, we are here for you. To make it easier for you to get moving, we’ve got a collection of survey templates covering topics like customer experience, employee engagement, diversity and inclusion, and more.

Customer Surveys

Customer Satisfaction Survey

Customer Retention Survey

Net Promoter Score

Employee Experience

Employee Job Satisfaction Survey

Employee Satisfaction with Departments Survey

Employee Engagement Survey

Healthcare

Patient Satisfaction Survey

Internal Satisfaction Survey

Hospital Performance Evaluation Survey

Now is the best time to get feedback from your customers and employees about what matters most to them and use that info to decide which initiatives to start with. Checking the pulse of your employees and customers can lead to deeper knowledge and better relationships. Don’t know where to start? We’re here to support your efforts!