As we shift our goals from simply satisfying customers to delivering consistent and amazing holistic customer experiences, we need to reexamine each element of our customer-facing processes. Today, we’re diving deep into customer service.

What do we mean when we talk about customer service?

Buyers of cars, vacuum cleaners, mobile devices, cameras, refrigerators, and thousands of other categories expect the brand sponsors to deliver a service package that enhances product lifecycles and functionality. For example, when we buy Tesla, Dyson, Sub-Zero, Nikon, Microsoft, or Apple products, we invest in much more than their physicality. Indeed, they wouldn’t get far without offering their customers online, call center, or technical support.

Leaders would begin to lose ground in the marketplace if loyalty programs, warranty options, preventive maintenance readiness, and (in the case of electric vehicles) charging stations failed to enter the promotional equation. And that’s only the tip of a gigantic customer service iceberg.

For pure service brands, customer service is the product.

Entities like American Express (credit cards), Wells Fargo (banking), Fannie Mae (mortgages), and State Farm (insurance) selling CXs in a financial services arena are several category examples. Others are healthcare (e.g., Delta and Blue Cross Blue Shield), air travel (e.g., Delta, Jet Blue, Southwest, etc.), hospitality (e.g., Hilton, Wyndham), legal/accounting firms (like Deloitte and Paul Hastings), and realtor firms (Compass and Sotheby’s); the list is extensive.

We pay premiums, fees, and subscriptions to these companies to enrich our lifestyles, protect our assets, secure our families, maintain our well-being, and more. The “more” extends to peace of mind, relaxation, and stress release by accessing customer services. All of it revolves around expert advice, specialized professionalism, and patented or proprietary strategy models.

It may often include wealth backing, ambiance settings, accommodations, digital customer support channels, or brick-and-mortar outlets similar to the product categories described above.

The rise of customer service as an independent industry

Lump it all together and what do you have? NJBIA’s detailed survey shows that entities representing $3.7 trillion in annual services revenue compete for market position across multiple industries in twenty-five countries. So, for businesses in the services arena, after fighting tooth and nail to secure long-term brand loyalists, how easy is it to see them leave the fold? Consider a recent Vonage Global Customer Engagement Report focused on that question. It points out:

• 35% will abandon ship based on suffering one or two undesirable touchpoints in their customer experience (CX).
• The brand loosens its grip on 75% of retained customers when their CX doesn’t go smoothly, even for short durations.

Given the above, anyone can see that probing customers’ minds and emotions when transacting customer services is crucial to propelling CX and generating impressive customer satisfaction scores. How? Developing customer service survey questions that can deliver insights into what lights customers’ fires, retaining their ambassadorship, and growing revenues.

What are customer service surveys?

On the one hand, we design customer service survey questions to probe and identify churn drivers (i.e., dissatisfaction touchpoints) as they emerge, derailing the CX. On the other hand, this survey category investigates the trends, benefits, and meaningful differences consumers highlight as consolidating brand loyalty, boosting service satisfaction, and fostering cultural relationships. The idea is to maintain or maximize touchpoints working in the brand’s favor and erase those obstructing customer journeys to complete satisfaction.

Survey strategies can go in several directions and dimensions, including surveys focused on:

• Continuous monitoring (or learning about customer behavior).
• Specific interactions, events, or defined periods.

For example, we all get those instantaneous email pulse surveys or “stay on the line to give us your feedback” audio requests when a call center agent connection ends. In these cases, the company wants you to rate the conversation on helpfulness and sometimes provide reasons for your sentiments. Other typical survey-centric opportunities arise:

• After a loyalty program promotion to gauge impressions.
• At an onboarding phase closure to get a sense of recruits’ feelings before joining the team as a fully-fledged member.

It’s all in the survey design: 5 crucial considerations

1. Choose the right timing.

   As intimated above, knowing your research objectives is vital to surveying the marketplace and bringing timing into focus. As a rule, you need a response close to the event/happening/interaction you want data on. Why? Wait too long, and respondents will likely forget it.

2. Determine your delivery channel/s.

   Companies like Sogolytics have designed online survey software that can seamlessly deliver customized formats containing customer service survey questions that arrive:

   • On website landing pages.
   • At the end of phone calls.
   • By email.
   • In online and offline publications.
   • Via newsletters or snail mail (olden-day pen and paper style).
   • Channeled through omnichannel devices from mobiles to laptops.

   Stakeholders receive responses off the described platforms as voice messages, phone digit reactions (e.g., Press “one for yes or two for no”), and text simultaneously merging with data analytics tools (also in the Sogolytics resource pool) with the desired insights emerging soon after the customer interaction closes. A central thread that defines all successful surveys includes:

   • Making it a cinch to access.
   • Great follow-up – Demonstration that the surveying company pays heed to customer responses with actions showing they listen well.

3. Decide on anonymity (or not).

   Most surveys uphold complete respondent confidentiality by not requiring personal details to enter the questionnaire. Others may involve rewards or situations where IDs make sense (e.g., customer loyalty program surveys). Stakeholders must decide which way to go, knowing it can make the difference between success and failure. Whatever the decision, personalize the survey delivery as much as possible, but ensure that your choices (“Hello, Sarah! This survey is anonymous.”) don’t confuse participants with mixed signals.

4. Make customer service survey questions short and sweet.

   Customers bounce in the blink of an eye if they’re time-pressured, bored, or don’t understand the questions. So, the most effective probes are one-question formats with yes/no, agree/disagree, or rating responses (e.g., 0 = poor, 10 = excellent) required. However, there’s no harm in adding an open-ended question, aimed at understanding why respondents answered the way they did to the previous question (see more below). Respondents welcome the latitude to express feelings or thoughts on interactions that disappoint or meet expectations. In every instance, apply clearly defined CTAs to encourage customer feedback.

5. Finalize the questions you want to ask.

   This aspect is the most crucial aspect of the design strategy, so we’ve dedicated the next section of this article to this topic. The option range under this design category requires extraordinary expertise, such as the many years of accumulated experience the Sogolytics team can provide.

Customer service survey questions

Every company offering call center agent support for technical issues, returns, accounting, fraud, insurance claims, and more is obsessed with knowing how the interaction went. Why? They know these touchpoints, when they go wrong, are enough to turn customer loyalty off like a light switch. Routing to the wrong agent, getting fobbed off to others in a frustrating “pass the buck” process, agent incompetence, or impatient and rude interactions are pain points companies want to hear about. Here are question examples compartmentalized into five primary categories:

Agent-specific questions:

• The service I received from my agent interaction was exceptional.
  • Please rate it a 10 if you strongly agree (with agreement scaling down to 6) or a zero if you strongly disagree (with disagreement easing to 4). Neutral or Unsure = 5.

• Questions starting with, “From 0 to 5 (where five is very good), how would you rank…” and ending in the following:
  • “the agent’s understanding of my requests?”
  • “the agent’s technical know-how to answer my questions?”
  • “the agent’s empathy and patience when interfacing with my issues?”
  • “the agent’s perseverance in finding a satisfactory solution to my problem?”

• The following options may follow any or all of the above (or the categories below), commonly known as “open-ended questions”:
  • What would you have done differently to improve your experience?
  • Why did you answer the previous question the way you did?
  • We always want a top-rated review. What is the best way to achieve that for the call you just made?

Channel-specific questions:

This goes directly to the omnichannel recommendation above, opening our understanding of communication reach and which connections resonated with your audience:

• Multiple-choice questions:
  • Which customer support channel did you use from the following:
    • Live chat | email | call center | App
    • If “App” please specify which one.
  • What device did you use to contact us:
    • iPad | Mobile phone | Computer | Landline

• Given your combination of device and channel, please rate your experience from 0 to 5 on the following:
  • Ease of connection.
  • Maintenance of the call.
  • Quality of service.
  • Response speed.

• Would you use this combination again? Yes or No.
  • Follow it up with an open-ended question like “Why or why not?”

Standard CX metric questions: CES, CSAT,NPS

CSAT and CES are focused questionnaire types with a distinct questioning style to score satisfaction or how easy/challenging it was for customers to resolve their issues. In both cases, It uses the scale rating of responses demonstrated above. For example, regarding:

Customer Effort Score (CES):

• How easy was it for you to find a solution to your problem today? (Scale: Very Easy = 5 to Very Difficult = 0).
• Followed by an open-ended question like “What could we do to make resolving issues easier for you?” The latter works wonders to provide deeper insights in this survey category.

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT):

• I was delighted with the provided solution to my problem.
  • “Strongly disagree” (0) scaling to “Strongly agree” (5)
• Rate your overall satisfaction with the service team’s response to your issue:
  • “Highly inefficient”(0) scaling to “Highly efficient” (5)
• How likely are you to buy from us again based on your recent interaction with our support team?
  • “Highly unlikely” (0) scaling to “Highly likely” (5)
• A possible open-ended question to all or any of the above:
  • Why did you rate the previous question the way you did?

Net Promoter Score (NPS): 

This is the mother of all simplified CX surveys, offering deep insights when paring the rating with the explanation.

1. “How likely are you to recommend our services to a friend or family member? (scale rated as shown above).
2. What’s the reason for your score?

Conclusion

Sogolytics is at the forefront of designing customer service survey questions and every aspect of smooth-running strategies to develop the insights you need in this crucial consumer marketing arena. We’ve provided a sound overview of the arena so you can use the input as a guide when talking to our team or setting up your next survey independently.

I’ve outlined the question categories in significant detail and the flexibility they naturally provide. Moreover, we offer a broad resource pool ranging from survey software designed around meeting customized demands to data analytics that generate the insights you’re looking for. Contact us today for a no-obligation discussion about your customer service planning from A to Z.

FAQs

Q1: What are the most effective customer service survey questions to ask?

A: Short and to the point, followed by an open-ended one to derive the best insight.

Q2: How are customer service surveys’ most impressive capabilities?

A: Detecting obstructive touchpoints before they create severe brand loyalty damage.

Q3: What is the difference between CSAT, NPS, and CES survey questions?

A: In determining what’s upsetting or engaging customers, not much! However, they come at the subject from different angles – all insightful.

Q4: What’s the best step you can take to ensure your customers answer your questions objectively?

A: Make your surveys anonymous.

Q5: What are the benefits of using open-ended questions in customer service surveys?

A: You obtain significantly deeper insights.