Surveys are an excellent way to gain meaningful insights from your customers. Learn about three types of survey questions to include on your website!
Asking your customers for their opinions and responses can be a powerful way to improve your business. Surveys are used for marketing research, net promoter scores (NPS), and much more.
It’s important to use the appropriate types of survey questions. Otherwise, you might not get the answers you need for your company.
There are plenty of options, from open-ended questions to multiple-choice. Learning about each question-and-answer format and its advantages can help you decide which is best for your specific needs.
In this post, we'll discuss three types of survey questions you can use on your website to gather data from customers. We'll explain the benefits of using them and provide examples for each. Let's jump in!
The importance of using the right types of survey questions
Online surveys can help businesses collect information from their customers about their experiences and opinions. You can write surveys to gain valuable reactions to your products and services.
Plus, survey data can improve customer satisfaction and retention:
What's more, you can also use customer surveys to learn more about your competitors. With this information, you can stay ahead of the curve when offering new products and services.
However, it's important to ask the right types of questions when creating your surveys. Using the wrong can influence how much feedback you receive.
Common survey question types include multiple answer questions, close ended questions, rating scale questions, and single answer questions. The best questions to use will depend on your goals for the survey.
For example, you'll want to think about the information you're looking to collect. Then you can decide which types of survey questions will be most efficient for your users.
When it comes to customer surveys, it's important to think about the information you're hoping to gain from your customers. You'll want to consider the type of data you need and how to gather it. Then you can use customer surveys as powerful tools for improving your business and increasing customer satisfaction.
3 types of survey questions to ask your customers
We've just covered why it’s important to be strategic about the types of survey questions you use. Now, let’s take a look at some of your options. Below are three types of survey questions to ask customers!
1. Open-ended questions
Open-ended survey questions let people provide feedback in their own words, rather than answering using a fixed set of response options. They ask for specific input instead of simple yes/no or graded answers.
Using open-ended questions can uncover insights and opinions that might be hard to capture with other types of survey questions:
This feature makes them especially useful for gaining a deeper understanding of customers' needs and preferences. Also, open-ended surveys can create collaboration between businesses and their customers. They can also encourage active participation from people who respond.
One disadvantage is that open-ended survey questions can be time consuming for customers to answer. It can also be challenging to analyze a large amount of data from these questions. You'll need to read each answer instead of collecting numerical information.
2. Multiple-choice questions
Multiple-choice survey questions are closed-ended. They provide respondents with a fixed set of answers to choose from:
Multiple-choice options are often used in demographic survey questions. These types of survey questions can be helpful for quickly gathering data. Plus, they can be faster and easier for customers to answer than open-ended questions. Also, because all respondents answer the question in the same way, your analysis is simpler.
However, this format removes the opportunity to provide personalized feedback. Customers won't be able to share their detailed thoughts. So, you might like to use multiple-choice and open-ended questions together. This will maximize the information and data you collect.
3. Interval or ratio questions
Interval and ratio survey questions give customers a fixed set of answers to choose from. They are like multiple-choice questions. However, their purpose is to order or quantify the relationship between responses.
For example, a rating scale is popular for these survey questions. Another option is Likert scale questions:
Likert and rating scale questions are often used to get a net promoter score (NPS). NPS surveys are used to find out how satisfied a customer is with a product or service. Respondents will simply click on the bubble or star that matches their response.
Interval and ratio questions let you quickly collect data for analysis and comparisons. They're also quick and convenient for respondents to answer. Plus, you can use these questions for post-purchase and customer satisfaction surveys.
Conclusion
When creating customer surveys, it’s important to ask questions that let you gain as much insight as possible. However, it’s also vital to consider the format and length of your survey. Complex surveys will get fewer responses and may skew your data.
Using the right types of survey questions can influence the customer experience and the quality of information you receive.
As we discussed in this post, there are three types of survey questions to consider using:
- Open-ended questions that give respondents room to provide thoughtful answers
- Multiple-choice questions, which can be quick and convenient
- Interval and ratio questions that you can use to gather and analyze data on a scale
Designing your survey doesn't have to be time consuming.
Formidable Forms offers many pre-built survey templates for WordPress so you can put together surveys quickly and easily. Check out more of our plugin's features today.
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