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Back to blog How well do you understand your prospects and customers? Do you know who they are, what keeps them awake at night, and what brought them to your business in search of a solution?
Understanding customers is the key to improving and growing your business—but you won’t be able to understand your customers unless you learn more about them. One way to do this is by asking the right survey questions at the right point in their journey. This piece will give you a thorough overview of different types of survey questions you can use, how to word them for maximum effect, when and why to use them, and includes over 70 examples of effective survey questions for ecommerce, Software/Software as a Service (SaaS), or publishing companies. Plus, you'll get access to our pre-built survey templates. We cover:
Before diving into a list of questions (though you can skip right to it if you prefer), let’s cover a few survey question basics: What is a good survey question?A good survey question is one that helps you get clear insights and business-critical information about your customers, including:
With this information, you can tailor your website, products, landing pages, and/or messaging to improve the user experience and (ultimately) maximize conversions. An example of survey question that, if asked on a website page, will give actionable advice and help you improve it Why is it important to ask good survey questions?A good survey question is asked in a precise way at the right stage in the buyer’s journey to give you solid data about your customers’ needs and drives. The format you choose for your survey—in-person, email, on-page, etc.—is important, but if the questions themselves are poorly worded you could waste hours trying to fix minimal problems while ignoring major ones a different question could have uncovered. We'll explore the dos and don'ts of good question writing towards the end of this article. How to run your surveysThe format you pick for your survey depends on what you want to achieve, and also on how much budget/resources you have. You can:
A website survey built with Hotjar and placed on Colgate's ecom website
A survey built with Hotjar, about Hotjar, that we recently sent out to our website visitors
To run both on-site surveys (that appear on a website page) and online surveys (that exist on a separate URL), you will need dedicated survey-building software like Hotjar. Here is what the dashboard looks like: after choosing the type of survey to run, you will be able to build and include as many questions as you want in the exact order you need them. Hotjar's survey dashboard 6 main types of survey questionsBefore we dive into our list of 70+ question examples, here is a quick overview of the six different survey question types they belong to, with a few examples for each:
1. Open-ended survey questionsOpen-ended questions give your respondents the freedom to answer in their own words, instead of limiting their response to a set of pre-selected choices (such as multiple-choice answers, yes/no answers, 0-10 ratings, etc.). Examples of open-ended questions:
When to use open-ended questions in a surveyThe majority of example questions included in this post are open-ended, and there are some good reasons for that:
There are, however, a few downsides to open-ended questions:
2. Closed-ended survey questionsClosed-end questions limit a user’s response options to a set of pre-selected choices. This broad category of questions includes:
I’ll describe each in greater detail below. When to use closed-ended questionsClosed-ended questions work very well in two scenarios:
An example of combining closed-ended and open-ended questions on a website page
A visualization of survey results inside the Hotjar dashboard 3. Nominal questionsA nominal question is a type of survey question that presents people with multiple answer choices; the answers are non-numerical in nature and don't overlap (unless you include an ‘all of the above’ option). Example of nominal question:
When to use nominal questionsNominal questions work well when there is a limited number of categories for a given question (see the example above). They’re easy for people to answer and for you to create graphs and trends from, but the downside is that you may not be offering enough categories for people to reply. For example, if you are asking people what type of browser they are using and only give them 3 options to choose from, you may have effectively alienated everybody who uses a fourth type and cannot tell you about it. 🔥 Pro tip: you can add an open-ended component to a nominal question with an expandable ’other’ category, where respondents can add in an answer that isn’t on the list. When you do that, you’re essentially asking an open-ended question, because you aren’t limiting them to the options you’ve picked. Which browser are you using?
4. Likert scale questionsThe Likert scale is typically a 5- or 7- point scale that evaluates a respondent’s level of agreement with a statement or the intensity of their reaction towards something. The scale develops symmetrically: the median number (e.g., a ‘3’ on a 5-point scale) indicates a point of neutrality, the lowest number (always a ‘1’) indicates an extreme view, and the highest number (e.g., a ’5’ on a 5-point scale) indicates the opposite extreme view. Examples of Likert-type questions:
An example of agreement scale from Google When to use Likert scale questionsLikert-type questions are also known as ordinal questions because the answers are presented in a specific order. Like other multiple-choice questions, Likert scale questions come in handy when you already have some sense of what your customers are thinking. For example, if your open-ended questions uncover a complaint about a recent change to your ordering process, you could use a Likert scale question to determine how the average user felt about the change. 5. Rating scale questionsRating scale questions are questions where the answers map onto a numeric scale (such as rating customer support on a scale of 1-5, or likelihood to recommend a product from 0 to 10). Examples of rating questions:
When to use rating questionsWhenever you want to assign a numerical value to your survey and/or visualize and compare trends, a rating question is the way to go. A typical rating question is used to determine Net Promoter Score® (NPS): the question asks customers to rate their likelihood of recommending products or services to their friends or colleagues, and allows you to look at the results historically and see if you're improving or getting worse. Rating questions are also used for customer satisfaction surveys and product reviews (such as Amazon’s five-star product ratings). An example of net promoter score being tracked over time within Hotjar's dashboard Tip: when you use a rating question in a survey, be sure to explain what the scale means (e.g., ‘1’ for ‘Poor’, 5 for ‘Amazing’). 6. ‘Yes’ or ‘no’ questionsThese questions are super-straightforward: they require a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ reply. Examples of Yes/No questions:
When to use ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions
70+ survey question examplesBelow we collected a list of good survey questions that you can ask, and categorized them across e-commerce, software/Software as a Service (SaaS), and publishing. You don't have to use them word-for-word, but hopefully seeing this list will spark some extra good ideas for the surveys you're going to run right after reading this piece 😉 9 basic demographic survey questionsYou ask these questions when you want to get some context about your respondents (and also so you can segment them later). A tip from us: don't ask these questions for the sake of it—if you're not going to use some of the data points (e.g. if gender is irrelevant to the result of your survey), move on to the ones that are really useful for you, business-wise.
Gather more info about your users with our Product-Market Fit survey template. An example of basic demographic question 20+ effective customer questionsParticularly recommended for ecommerce companies: Before purchase
After purchase
Editor's tip: check out our quick guide about setting up an e-commerce post-purchase survey in 7 steps. Other useful customer questions
Learn how satisfied customers are with this expert-built Customer Satisfaction / NPS survey template. 30+ product survey questionsParticularly recommended for SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) companies: Questions for new or trial users
Questions for paying customers
Are you making the most of your pricing plan? Find out what buyers think with this Pricing Plan Feedback survey template. Questions for former/churned customers
Find out why customers churn with this free-to-use Churn Analysis survey template. Other useful product questions
Gather feedback on your product with our free-to-use survey templates. 20 effective questions for publishers and bloggersQuestions to help improve content
Does your copy and messaging resonate? Find ways to improve your website content with this survey template. New subscriptions
Cancellations
Other useful content-related questions
🔥 Pro tip: whichever questions you use, the qualitative data you get from a survey will supplement the insight you can capture through other traditional analytics tools (think Google Analytics) and behavior analytics tools (think heatmaps and session recordings, which visualize user behavior on specific pages or across an entire website). While analytics tools will tell you what is happening on a page or website, replies to your survey questions will usually help you understand why it's happening. Combining the two gives you both the context you need to solve a problem or capitalize on an opportunity and plenty of inspiration about how to do it. How to write good (and effective) survey questions: the DOs and DON’TsTo help you understand the basics and avoid some rookie mistakes, we asked a few experts to give us their thoughts on what makes a good and effective survey question. Survey question DOsDO focus your questions on the customerIt may be tempting to focus on your company or products, but it is usually more effective to put the focus back on the customer. Get to know their needs, drives, pain points, and barriers to purchase by asking about their experience. That’s what you’re after: you want to know what it’s like inside their heads and how they feel when they use your website and products. DO be polite and concise (without skimping on micro-copy)Put time into your micro-copy—those tiny bits of written content that go into surveys. Explain why you’re asking the questions, and when people reach the end of the survey, remember to thank them for their time. After all, they’re giving you free labor! DO consider the foot-in-the-door principleOne way to increase your response rate is to ask an easy question upfront, such as a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question, because once people commit to taking a survey, they’re more likely to finish it. DO consider asking your questions from the first-person perspectiveOkay, so we don’t do this here at Hotjar. You’ll notice all our sample questions are listed in second-person (i.e., ‘you’ format), but it’s worth testing to determine which approach gives you better answers. Some experts prefer the first-person approach (i.e., ‘I’ format) because they believe it encourages users to talk about themselves—but only you can decide which approach works best for your business. DO alternate your questions oftenShake up the questions you ask on a regular basis. Asking a wide variety of questions will help you and your team get a complete view of what your customers are thinking. DO test your surveys before sending them outHotjar recently created a survey that we sent to 2,000 CX professionals via email. Before officially sending it out, we wanted to make sure the questions really worked. We decided to test them out on internal staff and external people by sending out three rounds of test surveys to 100 respondents each time. Their feedback helped us perfect the questions and clear up any confusing language. Survey question DON’TsDON’T ask closed-ended questions if you’ve never done research beforeIf you’ve just begun asking questions, make them open-ended questions since you have no idea what your customers think about you at this stage. When you limit their answers, you just reinforce your own assumptions. There are two exceptions to this rule: 1) using a closed-ended question to get your foot in the door at the beginning of a survey, and 2) using rating scale questions to gather customer sentiment (like an NPS survey). DON’T ask a lot of questions if you’re just getting startedHaving to answer too many questions can overwhelm your users. You really have to make peace with the fact you can’t ask as many questions as you’d like, so stick with the most important things and discard the rest. Try starting off with a single question to see how your audience responds, then move on to two questions once you feel like you know what you’re doing. How many questions should you ask? There’s really no perfect answer, but we recommend asking as few as you need to ask in order to get the information you want. In the beginning, focus on the big things:
DON’T just ask a question when you can combine it with other toolsDon’t just use surveys to answer questions that other tools (such as analytics) can also help you answer. If you want to learn about whether people find a new website feature helpful, you can also observe how they’re using it through analytics, session recordings, and other user testing tools for a more complete picture. DON’T ask leading questionsA leading question is one that prompts a specific answer, and you want to avoid those because they’ll give you bad data. For example, asking ‘What makes our product better than our competitors’ products?’ might boost your self-esteem, but it won’t get you good information because you’re planting the idea that your own product is the best on the market. DON’T ask loaded questionsA loaded question is similar to a leading question, but it does more than just push a bias—it phrases the question such that it’s impossible to answer without confirming an underlying assumption. A common (and subtle) form of loaded survey question would be, ‘What do you find useful about this article?’ If we haven’t first asked you whether you found the article useful at all, then we’re asking a loaded question. 10 survey use cases: what you can do with good survey questionsEffective survey questions can help improve your business in many different ways. We’ve written in detail about most of these ideas in other blog posts, and I’ve included links for each of them below. Use case #1: to create user personasA user persona is a semi-fictional character based on the people who currently use your website or product. A persona combines psychographics and demographics and reflects who they are, what they need, and what may stop them from getting it. Examples of questions to ask:
📚 Read more → our post about creating simple and effective user personas in 4 steps highlights some good survey questions to ask when creating a user persona. Use case #2: to understand why your product is not sellingFew things are more frightening than stagnant sales. When the pressure is mounting, you’ve got to get to the bottom of it, and good survey questions can help you do just that. Examples of questions to ask:
📚 Read more → here’s a detailed piece about the best survey questions to ask your customers when your product isn’t selling, and why they work so well. Use case #3: to understand why people leave your websiteIf you want to figure out why people are leaving your website, you’ll have to ask questions. A good format for that is an exit-intent pop-up survey, which appears when a user clicks to leave the page. Another way is to focus on the people who did convert, but just barely—something Hotjar CEO David Darmanin considers essential for taking conversions to the next level. By focusing on customers who bought your product (but almost didn’t), you can learn how to win over another set of users who are similar to them: those who almost bought your products, but backed out in the end. Example of questions to ask:
📚 Read more → HubSpot Academy increased its conversion rate by adding an exit-intent survey that asked one simple question when users left their website: “Not for you? Tell us why.” Use case #4: to understand your customers’ fears and concernsBuying a new product can be scary: nobody wants to make a bad purchase. Your job is to address your prospective customers’ concerns, counter their objections, and calm their fears, which should lead to more conversions. Examples of questions to ask:
📚 Read more → take a look at our no-nonsense guide to increasing conversions for a comprehensive write-up about you can discover the drivers, barriers, and hooks that lead people to converting on your website. Use case #5: to drive your pricing strategyAre your products overpriced and scaring away potential buyers? Are you underpricing and leaving money on the table? Asking the right questions will help you come up with a pricing structure that maximizes profit, but you have to be delicate about how you ask the questions. Don’t ask directly about price; otherwise, you’ll seem like you’re unsure of the value you offer. Instead, ask questions that uncover how your products serve your customers and what would inspire them to buy more. Examples of questions to ask:
📚 Read more → we wrote a series of blog posts about managing the early stage of a SaaS startup, which included a post about developing the right pricing strategy—something businesses in all sectors could benefit from. Use case #6: to measure and understand product/market fitProduct/market fit is about understanding demand and creating a product that your customers want, need, and will actually pay money for. A combination of online survey questions and one-on-one interviews can help you figure this out. Examples of questions to ask:
📚 Read more → in our series of blog posts about managing the early stage of a SaaS startup, we covered a section on product/market fit, which has relevant information for all industries. Use case #7: to choose effective testimonialsHuman beings are social creatures. We’re influenced by people who are similar to us, and testimonials that explain how your product solved a problem are the ultimate form of social proof. The following survey questions can help you get some great testimonials. Examples of questions to ask:
📚 Read more → in our post about positioning and branding your products, we cover the type of questions that help you get effective testimonials. Use case #8: to measure customer satisfactionIt’s important to continually track your overall customer satisfaction so you can address any issues before they start to impact your brand’s reputation. You can do this with rating scale questions. For example, at Hotjar, we ask for feedback after each customer support interaction (which is one important measure of customer satisfaction). As you can see from the screenshot below, we begin with a simple, foot-in-the-door question to encourage a response. We use the information to improve our customer support, which is strongly tied to overall customer satisfaction. Examples of questions to ask:
📚 Read more → our beginner’s guide to website feedback goes into great detail about how to measure customer service, NPS, and other important success metrics. Use case #9: to measure word-of-mouth recommendationsThe Net Promoter System (NPS) is a measure of how likely your customers are to recommend your products or services to their friends or colleagues. NPS is a higher bar than customer satisfaction because customers have to be really impressed with your product to recommend you. Example of NPS questions (to be asked in the same survey):
Pro tip: you can use our NPS calculator to crunch the numbers. 📚 Read more → we created an NPS guide specifically for e-commerce companies, but it has plenty of information that will help companies in other industries as well. Use case #10: to redefine your messagingHow effective is your messaging? Does it speak to your clients' needs, drives, and fears? Does it speak to your strongest selling points? Asking the right survey questions can help you figure out what marketing messages work best, so you can double down on them. Questions to ask:
📚 Read more → we talk about positioning and branding your products in a post that’s part of a series written for SaaS startups, but even if you’re not in SaaS (or you’re not a startup), you’ll still find it helpful. Frequently Asked QuestionsOur survey templates should give you a solid starting point on your journey toward really understanding your users. Once you get some initial feedback, you can craft questions that dive deeper into their heads to uncover their most fundamental drives. Do you have some favorite survey questions of your own? Share them in the comments, and let us know what they taught you about your users. Net Promoter, Net Promoter System, Net Promoter Score, NPS and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld and Satmetrix Systems, Inc. What are the three types of survey questions?Here are the types of survey questions you should be using to get more survey responses: Open-ended questions. Closed-ended questions. Rating questions.
What type of survey question is multiple choice?Multiple choice questions are the most popular survey question type. They allow your respondents to select one or more options from a list of answers that you define. They're intuitive, easy to use in different ways, help produce easy-to-analyze data, and provide mutually exclusive choices.
What are the 4 types of survey questions?4 Classes of Survey Questions. Open-Ended. If you could individually interview each survey respondent, you'd probably ask a lot of open-ended questions. ... . Closed-Ended (Static) ... . Closed-Ended (Dynamic) ... . Task/Activity Based.. What are the 5 types of survey questions?Guide to the Five Types of Survey Questions. Open-Ended Questions.. Multiple Choice Questions.. Ordinal Scale Questions.. Interval Scale Questions.. Ratio Scale Questions.. |
