examples of customer research

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A complete guide to customer research — with templates

What makes your product great? What problems does it solve? People will look to you — the product manager — as the expert on these questions. But you know that the answers are not based solely on your own opinions and experience. The most important input often comes from somewhere else: customers.

Understanding customers is integral to developing a lovable product . As a product manager, you will want to explore everything from your users' demographics to their inner motivations and struggles. This process of sussing out their needs and challenges is called customer research.

Conducting customer research is complex and dynamic work, where your curiosity is a tremendous asset. To plan, gather, and analyze feedback, product managers use a wide variety of methods — qualitative, quantitative, and a mix of both. You can take a highly sophisticated approach to this, but many times effective customer research entails talking to customers and using simple tools or templates to analyze their feedback.

In this guide, you will learn the fundamentals of conducting primary research so you can better understand the folks you are trying to help. You can try seven customer research templates to help you experiment with different methods and save time in the research process.

Engage a community and analyze feedback in Aha! Ideas. Start a free trial .

With Aha! Ideas , you can host live empathy sessions with your customers to learn more about their need and preferences.

Why should you do customer research?

Customer research is an essential component of product strategy — alongside competitor analysis , market research, and overall business needs. The insights you glean from meeting and surveying customers help to shape your strategic initiatives , ensuring that your team is poised to deliver what people really want from your product.

A key reason to perform customer research is to gain new perspectives on your product. Your customers may tell you things you never realized — hidden problems, unique ways of completing tasks, and even alternate use cases. What you believe matters most about your product may not even be on your customers' radar.

Let's say your product has a reporting feature with low usage . Your team decides to give the reporting interface a major upgrade. You spend the time and resources to build these updates — only to scratch your head when there is no uptick in usage. What went wrong?

If you breezed past talking to your customers, it is possible that the interface was not the factor keeping them from engaging. Maybe they prefer to use a separate reporting tool — in which case, an integration capability would have been a much more valuable feature to build.

Customer research helps you avoid spending time solving proble ms that do not exist — and highlights the ones that are real and deserving of your attention. This way, you know where to focus your efforts for the best chance of making your customers happy and meeting business goals.

How much customer feedback is the right amount?

The short answer? It depends. Your specific goals, the scope of your research, and the stage of your product's development all play a role. Here are some things to keep in mind when determining the right amount of customer feedback to collect:

Understand your goals Are you looking to validate a new product idea or improve an existing product? Do you need to better understand customer pain points or gather usability insights? These answers will shape your product development goals and dictate the depth and breadth of feedback required.

Define your sample size Consider the size of your target audience and customer base. In some cases, a smaller sample size can provide valuable insights, especially if you are conducting in-depth qualitative research . For quantitative research, a larger sample size might be necessary to ensure statistical relevancy.

Ensure diversity of perspective Aim for variety in your feedback pool. Different demographic groups, usage patterns, and customer segments can provide a more comprehensive understanding of customer needs and preferences.

Include a mix of feedback channels Analyzing feedback from different channels can provide unique perspectives and insights. Experiment with a variety of feedback methods and channels — such as releasing surveys, conducting interviews , and reviewing your social media and customer support interactions.

Consider resource constraints Think about the time, budget, and staff you have available for collecting and analyzing feedback. Balance the scope of your research with what you can realistically manage.

Remember, customer feedback is often collected in iterations. Start with a small group of users for early insights, then expand your feedback pool as you make improvements. Each iteration helps you refine your product and strategy.

And while quantity matters, the quality of feedback is crucial. Sometimes a few detailed, insightful responses can be more valuable than a large number of superficial ones.

Primary vs. secondary customer research

Product managers will use both primary and secondary customer research to gather information. Briefly, the difference is:

Primary customer research refers to gathering your own data and feedback firsthand via interviews, focus groups, surveys, and other methods.

Secondary customer research refers to findings gleaned from external sources like analyst reports and third-party surveys.

Both types can be valuable, but when it comes to your goals as a product manager, primary research is superior. While secondary research will help you understand demographics and broader trends, primary research allows you to drill down into the details of your specific product and target audience.

Your customers' own experiences are invaluable and one of the surest signals to creating a lovable product. For this guide, we will focus on the fundamentals of conducting primary research.

How do product managers gather customer feedback?

How do product managers come up with new ideas for a product?

How to conduct customer research

On a basic level, customer research entails reaching out to current or potential customers and gathering feedback from them via direct conversations or more indirect methods (like online surveys). Advanced tools such as product analytics and idea management software can certainly augment your approach — but are not necessary to get started.

Follow these steps to conduct your own primary customer research:

1. Define your objective Outline your research goals and determine what it is you really want to learn. For example, your objective could be to learn broadly about your customers' business goals or gain a deeper understanding of their experience with a specific feature set.

2. Decide which customers to contact Your objectives will help you decide who to speak with — especially if your product caters to a diverse group of customers. Think about current and potential customers and form a list of people to reach out to.

3. Prepare If you are leading an interview or focus group, meet with your product teammates to prepare your questions. Keep in mind you may need to coordinate with other team members who want to sit in on discussions. If you are conducting a survey, build it — then decide how and when to distribute it.

4. Start your research Conduct your interviews or hit "send" on your survey When talking directly with customers, remember to listen more than you speak. Ask meaningful follow-up questions to encourage deeper thinking and discussion.

5. Analyze, summarize, and share your findings Look for trends in the feedback you received. What did customers agree on? What were the most popular ideas or recurring pain points? Find common threads and share the findings with your team. Together, you can discuss and prioritize the customer ideas that support your overall goals — and promote those ideas to your product roadmap .

6. Repeat Customer research is an ongoing part of product management. You will need to collect feedback from many customers to make informed product decisions. And with every new product launch or major release, you may need to start fresh with a new objective and customer set.

Because it is ongoing, it helps to keep all of your customer research organized. You want to be clear on how your findings will inform the features you develop. For example, the Research tab in Aha! helps you collect whiteboards, interview notes, and ideas right on feature cards.

Editor's note: Although the video below still shows core functionality within Aha! software, some of the interface might be out of date. View our knowledge base for the most updated insights into Aha! software.

Related: 35+ customer questions for product innovation

Get started with customer research templates

Customer research templates offer a simple way to start discovering who your audience really is and what matters to them. Using templates helps you add much-needed structure to your customer research process. Below, you will find an assortment of templates to try — from planning to interviews, surveys, and summarizing your findings.

Aha! software customer interview template

Customer research planning template, customer interview notes template.

Customer survey template

Customer feedback poll template

Customer focus group discussion template, customer research presentation template.

This customer interview template is a great one to start with. It is a guided template with helpful prompts and instructions in each section. This makes it simple to plan your conversations with customers so you can get the most out of each interview. It is available in Aha! software — which gives you a central place to document and organize your findings.

Start using this template now

This planning template helps you define your objectives, identify which customers to talk to, and prepare for your research session. It includes sections for customer profiles (personas, segments, and companies) to add context to your research group.

An interview template will keep your notes organized during conversations with customers. It will also help you guide the flow of the interview and note any takeaways or action items to proceed with after the session ends. Feel free to customize the discussion questions to match your objective.

Customer research survey template

Customer surveys allow you to gather insights from more people in less time — with the added benefit of built-in reporting via online survey tools. This template will help you learn how to design an effective customer research survey and plan the demographic, use case, and customer satisfaction questions that you want to ask. It includes a blend of question types for both fixed and open-ended responses.

Polls offer a simple way to incorporate a quantitative component into your qualitative research. For example, you can quickly gauge the group's opinion on an idea by inserting a poll in an online focus group or empathy session . This template will help you jot down ideas for future polls.

Similar to the customer interview template, this focus group template will help you structure your session. It emphasizes a well-planned agenda over note-taking — encouraging you to be present in the discussion when you are facilitating a focus group. You can always record the focus group session to revisit later and take detailed notes.

After you have conducted your research, showcase your findings. Sharing results with your team makes customer research even more impactful — customer opinions matter at every level of the business and every stage of the product development process . This template will help you convey your top takeaways in a presentation.

Customer research has long been a core tenet of product management — and will continue to be. Templates like these will help you streamline your research process so you can focus on interacting with your audience and distilling insights from what they share.

When you are ready for a more comprehensive solution beyond simple templates, give idea management software like Aha! Ideas a try. With Aha! Ideas, you can crowdsource feedback via ideas portals, engage your community with empathy sessions, and analyze trends at the individual, organization, and segment levels. This helps you prioritize customer feedback with ease and promote the ideas that support your business goals directly to your product roadmap. (Note that you can use Aha! Ideas as a standalone tool, but many of its features are also available on Aha! Roadmaps . This makes it a great choice for teams seeking an all-encompassing product development solution.)

Discover exactly what your customers want. Start a free Aha! Ideas trial today.

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Customer Research 101: A Complete Guide! (Importance & Types)

Know your customers or perish – over 90% of startups fail due to a lack of market need. Ouch! But fear not, customer research is here to save the day. By truly understanding your target audience, you can create products and messaging that resonate.

In this ultimate guide, we’ll explore the what, why, and how of effective customer research. You’ll learn both quantitative and qualitative methods to uncover real insights from potential and current customers. With the right research game plan, you can identify customer pain points, behaviors, and needs to drive innovation and loyalty.

We’ll cover essential techniques like surveys, interviews, focus groups, and user testing. Whether you’re an enterprise or a scrappy startup, you’ll find proven ways to maximize research on any budget. Ready to get inside the minds and hearts of customers? Let’s dive into the importance of research for business success! This comprehensive guide will equip you with the tools to avoid failure and align your offerings with what buyers want.

What is Customer Research?

Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at your favorite companies? The reality is, they spend a lot of time trying to get inside their customers’ heads. Conducting customer research is like doing a deep dive into what real people really want.

Businesses use research tools like surveys, interviews and focus groups to literally ask customers questions.

• “What matters most to you?”
• “Which parts of our product could use improvement?” and
• “What do you hope to see in the future?”

Market research helps too – keeping an ear to the ground on changes happening outside helps adjust to new customer needs. Testing things out with a small group of people before huge launches also saves companies from potential embarrassment!

All this valuable input guides important choices about everything from how things are designed to how customers learn about brands. It’s basically like a customer think-tank to solve problems and fuel innovation.

At the end of the day, customer research is about genuinely understanding perspectives from the user side. It’s how businesses stay in sync with real human desires and build genuine connections worth sticking around for. So speak up – your honest feedback is what keeps brands on their toes!

Now that we’ve covered what customer research entails, the next section will explore why it is so critically important for businesses to conduct thorough customer research on a regular basis.

Why is Customer Research Important?

To truly succeed in business, you need to understand the perspectives and priorities of your customers. Regular customer research provides invaluable insights that can guide strategic decision making. By learning directly from the people you serve, you gain a deeper understanding of their true needs and priorities. Here are 5 key reasons why actively researching customers is so critical:

1. Product Development

Customer feedback is a treasure trove of information that can drive product development . By actively seeking out customer opinions, you can pinpoint the exact features, functionalities, or improvements they desire. This is a more targeted approach than simply guessing what customers might want. Such a strategy can lead to products and services that not only satisfy existing customer needs but also attract new customers. It lowers the risk of product failure and increases the likelihood of customer loyalty and repeat purchases.

2. Identify Market Trends

Market trends can shape the success or failure of a business. Through customer research, you can spot emerging patterns in consumer behavior, preferences, and decision-making processes. This can include shifts in preferences for digital shopping, desire for sustainable products, or emerging technologies. Being able to identify these trends before they become mainstream gives you a competitive edge. You can swiftly adapt your offerings to meet changing demands, thus staying relevant in the market.

Read More:  Market Research 101: How To Conduct Research Like A Pro!

3. Pricing Strategy

Pricing is more than just a cost-recovery mechanism; it’s a powerful tool for communicating a product’s value. Customer research can reveal how much customers are willing to pay for your product and the factors influencing their perception of its value. With this information, you can develop a pricing strategy that maximizes profit while ensuring your product or service still appears attractive to customers. This can involve techniques like value-based pricing, psychological pricing, or price skimming, depending on your findings.

4. Effective Marketing

Understanding your customers’ preferences, habits, and motivations allows you to create more effective marketing campaigns. Knowing which channels your customers prefer (e.g., email, social media, print, etc.) helps you reach them more efficiently. Additionally, knowing their motivations and pain points allows you to craft messages that resonate more deeply with them. This increases the chances of converting prospects into customers and improves the return on investment (ROI) of your marketing efforts.

5. Customer Retention

Acquiring new customers is often more costly than retaining existing ones. Therefore, understanding what keeps customers loyal to your brand is crucial. Regular customer research can uncover the key drivers of satisfaction and loyalty, as well as reasons for customer churn. This can include factors like product quality, customer service, pricing, or brand reputation. By addressing any issues and continually meeting customers’ needs , you can increase customer lifetime value (CLV), which in turn boosts profitability. Regular research keeps you in touch with customer sentiment and helps you maintain strong, lasting relationships with your customers.

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By gaining real customer perspectives, businesses can make more informed decisions to better serve their audiences now and into the future.

Understanding the importance of customer research is key, and there are various methods used to collect important customer data. In the next section, we will explore the different types of customer research that can be conducted.

Types of Customer Research

Customer research is a cornerstone of successful business strategy. It empowers organizations to gain insights into their target audience, understand their needs, preferences, and behaviors, and make informed decisions to improve products, services, and overall customer satisfaction. Four primary types of customer research play pivotal roles in this process: qualitative, quantitative, primary, and secondary research. In this section, we will delve into these four types of customer research, shedding light on their significance and how they can be effectively applied.

1. Qualitative Research

Qualitative research involves gathering non-numerical data and insights. This method includes techniques such as focus groups, in-depth interviews, and ethnographic research. Qualitative research is ideal for uncovering underlying motivations, emotions, and opinions of customers. It provides rich, descriptive information that helps businesses understand the “why” behind customer actions and preferences, allowing for more targeted decision-making.

2. Quantitative Research

Quantitative research, in contrast to qualitative research, focuses on numerical data and statistical analysis. Surveys, questionnaires, and experiments are common quantitative research tools. This approach is essential for collecting data on customer behaviors, preferences, and trends at scale. It provides quantifiable metrics and enables businesses to make data-driven decisions, such as product feature prioritization and pricing strategies.

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3. Primary Research

Primary research involves collecting firsthand data specifically for a company’s unique needs. This can be achieved through surveys, interviews, observations, or experiments conducted directly by the business. Primary research is highly tailored and provides up-to-date, relevant information tailored to a company’s specific goals and objectives. It is particularly useful when seeking insights into niche markets or when addressing specific business challenges.

4. Secondary Research

Secondary research involves gathering and analyzing existing data and information from external sources such as industry reports, academic studies, and market research published by others. This cost-effective approach helps companies stay informed about industry trends, competitor strategies, and customer demographics without conducting new research from scratch. Secondary research is valuable for benchmarking, trend analysis, and validating primary research findings.

By employing various types of customer research, including qualitative, quantitative, primary, and secondary research, companies can gain a comprehensive understanding of their customers, markets, and competitors. Armed with these insights, businesses can fine-tune their strategies, create more customer-centric products and services, and ultimately thrive in today’s dynamic and competitive business landscape.

Now that we’ve explored the different types of customer research, the next section will cover effective ways to actually conduct this research.

Effective Ways To Conduct Customer Research

Conducting effective customer research is crucial for businesses looking to understand their target audience, improve their products or services, and ultimately, boost their bottom line. By gaining insights into customer preferences, pain points, and behavior, companies can make informed decisions that drive growth and customer satisfaction. In this section, we will explore 7 effective ways to conduct customer research.

1. Surveys and Questionnaires

Surveys and questionnaires are versatile tools for gathering valuable customer insights. They allow you to collect structured data on a wide range of topics, from product satisfaction to demographic information. Ensure that your surveys are concise, well-designed, and easy to complete to maximize response rates. Online survey platforms like SurveyMonkey and Google Forms make it simple to create and distribute surveys to your target audience.

2. Customer Interviews

One-on-one interviews provide an in-depth understanding of your customers’ thoughts and feelings. Conduct both structured and unstructured interviews to dig deeper into specific issues or to uncover unexpected insights. Make sure to create an open and non-judgmental environment where customers feel comfortable sharing their opinions. These interviews can be conducted in person, over the phone, or via video conferencing.

3. Social Media Monitoring

Social media platforms are treasure troves of customer feedback and sentiment. Use social media listening tools to track mentions, comments, and reviews related to your brand or industry. Analyzing this data can reveal emerging trends, customer concerns, and opportunities for engagement. Engage with your audience on social media to build rapport and gain more insights organically.

4. Customer Analytics

Leverage web analytics tools like Google Analytics or customer relationship management (CRM) systems to track user behavior on your website or within your product. Analyze metrics such as click-through rates, bounce rates, and conversion rates to identify pain points and areas for improvement. By understanding how customers interact with your online presence, you can optimize their experience and increase conversion rates.

5. Online Forums and Communities

Online forums and communities dedicated to your industry or niche can provide a wealth of information. Participate in these communities or simply observe discussions to identify common challenges, desires, and preferences among your target audience. Platforms like Reddit, Quora, and specialized industry forums are excellent places to start.

6. Competitor Analysis

Analyzing your competitors can offer valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences. Study their customer reviews, social media engagement, and market positioning to identify gaps in the market or areas where you can differentiate your offering. Understanding why customers choose your competitors over you can help you refine your strategy.

7. A/B Testing

A/B testing involves comparing two or more variations of a webpage, email, or advertisement to determine which one performs better with your target audience. By systematically testing different elements like headlines, images, or call-to-action buttons, you can make data-driven improvements to optimize customer engagement and conversion rates.

By using surveys, interviews, social media monitoring, analytics, online communities, competitor analysis, and A/B testing, you can gain a 360-degree view of your customers’ preferences and behaviors. This knowledge will enable you to make informed decisions, enhance your products or services, and ultimately, build stronger, lasting customer relationships. Remember that customer research is an ongoing process; regularly revisit these methods to stay attuned to evolving customer needs and market dynamics.

And there you have it – the complete lowdown on customer research! We covered what it is, why bothering to listen to your patrons is pivotal, different ways to gather intel, and tips for doing it well.

While digging deep into customer minds may sound tedious, we hope this guide showed how fascinating and fruitful the process can be. Staying curious about your crew keeps your finger on the pulse of what truly fuels their passions.

So don’t be afraid to spy on them in action, quiz big crowds, chat one-on-one, or analyze clues hidden in the numbers. Customers have a story to share if you make the effort to understand their perspective.

Turning feedback into slick new perks or smoother experiences will wow existing fans and catch the eyes of potential newbies. With an open ear, you can design offerings that resonate authentically instead of going rogue on assumptions alone.

Research may require dedication, but the rewards of truly knowing your people makes it a total blast. Now get out there and start some conversational focus circles, surveys, observations – whatever fire sparks your customer curiosity! The more you explore what makes them tick, the more success you’ll attract.

Further Reads:

What is Customer Delight? Learn More!

Customer Touch Points & How To Identify Them? (Examples & Tips)

AIDA Model: How To Connect & Engage With Your Customers?

Customer Journey Map: Definition, Importance, and Process!

User Persona: What is it & How to Create it?

What is Diversity & Inclusion in The Workplace? (Definition & Benefits)

Social Media Skills: A Quick Guide To Improve Them! (Types & Examples)

Related posts

Customer needs: most common types you should know about, customer success software & tools: choose the best one for you, retention marketing: benefits,channels & strategies, customer touch points & how to identify them (examples & tips), customer service policy: what is it & how to create it (free template included), customer feedback questions to improve your business.

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Customer Research Methods: Key Strategies for Market Insights in 2024

• Customer surveys : Survey tools such as Survicate are essential for conducting quantitative and qualitative research across various customer touchpoints and improving digital CX
• Diverse research methods : Employ a mix of customer research methods like different types of surveys , interviews, focus groups, observational studies, and usability testing to gain comprehensive insights into customer behavior and product interaction.
• Importance of continuous feedback : Establishing feedback loop mechanisms is crucial for ongoing improvement, ensuring that products and services evolve in response to customer needs .
• Data analysis : Systematic data collection followed by thorough analysis using appropriate customer research tools is key to identifying trends and making informed decisions. ‍
• Actionable feedback : Prioritize and strategize based on research findings to create actionable insights that drive measurable improvements in customer experience management and business processes.

Cutting through the chatter to hear your customers' true opinions is no small feat.

Tailored for business owners and marketers, this article zeroes in on how to conduct customer research . We'll highlight the strategies that directly connect you to your audience's preferences and pain points. By tapping into these insights, you'll be equipped to make informed, impactful business decisions.

Dive in to transform customer feedback into a clear direction for your brand's growth and success.

What is customer research?

Customer research is an essential practice focused on collecting data about your customers to understand their characteristics, needs, and behaviors.

Why is customer research important?

• Informed Decision-Making: You gain actionable insights into customer preferences and satisfaction, empowering you to make data-driven decisions.
• Enhanced Customer Experience: Understanding what your customers value guides your efforts to improve their experiences with your product or service.
• Strategic Focus: Tailoring your business strategy becomes more focused as you identify key demographics and market segments.
• Product Development: Product features and improvements align better with customer expectations when informed by customer research.
• Competitive Edge: Detailed knowledge about your customers can give you a competitive advantage by identifying opportunities and gaps in the market.

Customer research vs. market research

Customer research and market research serve distinct purposes in understanding buyers and the competitive environment.

Customer research dives deep into your existing or potential customers' behaviors, needs, and preferences . It aims to create a detailed understanding of the customer journey , from awareness to purchase and is often qualitative in nature.

On the other hand, market research takes a broader approach, examining the market as a whole, including industry trends, competitor analysis, and market share.

While customer research is about the 'who' and 'why' behind purchasing decisions, conducting market research addresses the 'what' and 'how' of market conditions and opportunities.

Both types of research are crucial for informed decision-making but focus on different aspects of the business landscape. Customer research is about improving the customer experience and tailoring products or services to consumer needs. Market research is about understanding the market landscape to strategize and position offerings effectively.

Primary research vs. secondary research

In customer research, understanding the distinction between primary research and secondary research is crucial for choosing the right approach to obtain your insights.

Primary research

Primary research involves collecting data firsthand for your specific research goal. This data is original and gathered through methods directly controlled by you. Examples include:

• Surveys and questionnaires : Deploying custom surveys to collect customer feedback on a new product or service.
• Interviews : Conducting one-on-one dialogues to dive deep into customer opinions and experiences.
• Focus groups : Facilitated group discussions to obtain a range of perspectives on a particular topic.

Secondary research

Secondary research methods rely on data previously collected by others. It's an evaluation of existing information that may include:

• Industry Reports : Analyzing market research findings related to your sector.
• Academic Journals : Reviewing studies and papers for trends and outcomes that align with your interests.
• Market Analysis : Assessing competitor data and market summaries to inform your strategies.

Types of customer data

Before diving into specific categories, understand that customer data is essential to personalize your marketing strategies and enhance customer experiences. This data comes in two core types: qualitative and quantitative.

Qualitative data

Qualitative research gathers non-numeric information that captures your customers' opinions, motivations, and attitudes. This data often comes from:

• Interviews , direct conversations that provide in-depth insights.
• Open-ended survey responses allow customers to express their thoughts in their own words.

Quantitative data

Quantitative research collects numerical data and can be measured and analyzed statistically. Key sources include:

• Transaction records : Sales data showing purchasing patterns.
• Website analytics : Metrics like page views and click-through rates representing user behavior.

Best customer research methods

When conducting customer research, you need to select the right methodology to gain valuable insights. Various research methods cater to different needs, from understanding user behavior to gauging customer satisfaction.

Customer surveys and questionnaires

Deploy online surveys and questionnaires to quickly gather quantitative and qualitative data from a large audience. For example, a survey tool such as Survicate offers a variety of different distribution channels:

• surveys embedded in emails
• website pop-up surveys
• mobile app surveys
• link surveys
• in-product surveys

Surveys are a cost-effective way to gather market research insights from the entire customer digital journey . If you use them as a part of a feedback loop, they can help you improve the CX considerably.

widely via email, websites, or social media platforms. Ensure your questions are direct and easy to understand to maximize response rates.

Conduct interviews to collect in-depth qualitative data. One-on-one interviews allow for a deep dive into customer opinions, beliefs, and experiences. Record these sessions, if possible, to ensure that none of the details are lost.

Focus groups

Utilize focus groups to explore customer attitudes and behaviors in a group setting. This method sparks conversation and can uncover insights that might not surface in one-on-one interactions. Be wary of group dynamics such as conformity, which can influence individual responses.

Observational studies

Observational studies involve watching how users interact with your product in their natural environment. This method provides unfiltered, real-world user behavior that can be invaluable in understanding how your product is used.

Usability testing

Usability testing is imperative for evaluating the functionality and design of your product. Recruit participants to complete specific tasks while observers note where they encounter issues or experience confusion.

Field trials

Conduct field trials by providing users a prototype or beta version of your product for a certain period. This hands-on approach yields feedback on your product's performance in real-life scenarios.

Review mining

Lastly, review mining involves analyzing customer feedback found in online reviews and forums. This passive method is particularly useful for identifying common pain points and areas for improvement without the need for direct interaction.

Types of customer research

Customer research encompasses various methodologies aimed at understanding your market and clientele. Tailoring these approaches helps you stay informed and make data-driven decisions.

Competitive research

You analyze your competitors to benchmark your products, services, and customer satisfaction levels against them. This helps in identifying industry standards and areas for improvement.

Customer journey mapping

Journey mapping involves charting the steps your customers take, from discovering your brand to making a purchase and beyond. It's a strategic approach to understanding customer interactions with your brand.

Buyer persona research

You create detailed profiles of your typical customers based on demographic and psychographic data. These personas help in crafting targeted marketing strategies.

Customer experience research

You assess customers' overall experience with your brand, from the usability of your website to customer service interactions, to optimize every touchpoint.

Customer segmentation research

Market segmentation divides your customer base into distinct groups based on common characteristics to provide more personalized products and services.

Customer needs research

You investigate your customers' underlying needs and desires to develop products that solve specific problems or enhance their lives.

Customer satisfaction research

You measure how your products and services meet, exceed, or fall short of customer expectations, often using surveys, feedback forms, and follow-up interviews.

Pricing research

You evaluate customers' responses to pricing changes and their perception of your product's value to establish an optimal pricing strategy.

Brand perception research

You gauge how customers perceive your brand to ensure your messaging aligns with their beliefs and your company values.

Designing a research plan

Precision and structure are pivotal for gathering actionable insights in constructing a customer research plan. These steps will guide you through creating an effective framework for your research efforts.

Set objectives

Identify what you want to achieve with your research. For instance, you may aim to understand customer satisfaction , identify buying patterns, or test product concepts. These objectives should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) to ensure clarity and focus.

Identify target audience

Determine who your customers are by segmenting the market. To accurately represent your overall market, include demographics, psychographics, and behaviors in your segmentation. Knowing your audience can tailor your research to yield more relevant data.

Recruit participants

Once you know who to target, select participants who best represent your customer base. Employ strategies such as customer databases, social media outreach, or third-party panels to gather a varied group that reflects your target audience's diversity.

Choose appropriate methods

Your objectives will dictate the methods you choose. Qualitative approaches like interviews afford depth, while quantitative methods like surveys provide breadth. Select the right blend of methods to gain a multidimensional view of customer sentiments.

Sampling techniques

Employ sampling techniques to generalize your findings. Random sampling ensures everyone has an equal chance of selection, while stratified sampling involves dividing your audience into subgroups and sampling from these categories to ensure all segments are represented.

Build a continuous process with feedback loops

Establish ongoing mechanisms to capture customer feedback regularly. This could involve periodic surveys or real-time feedback systems. Make sure you continuously iterate your product or service based on this input, creating a virtuous cycle of improvement.

Data collection and analysis

Effective customer research hinges on the systematic collection and meticulous analysis of data to decipher patterns, understand behaviors, and make informed decisions.

Gather data systematically and analyze it to uncover patterns and trends. Use analytical tools that can handle your data type and amount. Look for relationships between variables and compare these findings against your goals.

Quantitative data analysis

You'll handle numerical data that can be measured and compared in a straightforward manner. Quantitative analysis often employs statistical tools to interpret data sets and deduce meaningful insights. Common techniques include:

• Descriptive Statistics: Summarize your data through means, medians, and modes.
• Inferential Statistics: Make predictions and infer trends from your sample data.
• Regression Analysis: Determine the relationship between variables.

Qualitative data assessment

With qualitative data, your focus is on interpretative analysis of non-numerical information, such as customer interviews or open-ended survey responses. Key approaches involve:

• Thematic Analysis: Identify patterns or themes within qualitative data.
• Content Analysis: Categorize text to understand the frequency and relationships of words or concepts.
• Narrative Analysis: Explore the structure and content of stories to gain insights into customer perspectives.

Mixing methods

Combining quantitative and qualitative analysis can provide a holistic view of your customer research. Employ a 'mixed methods' strategy to:

• Validate findings across different data types.
• Gain a richer, more nuanced understanding of research questions.
• Balance the depth of qualitative assessment with the generalizability of quantitative analysis.

Interpreting and reporting results

Turn your data into action by using insights to inform business decisions. Whether it is refining product features or adjusting marketing strategies, use the research to create value for your customers and your business.

Drawing conclusions

When you are ready to draw conclusions from your customer research, begin by assessing the data's significance. Look for patterns and trends in the feedback and quantifiable data. Tabulate your findings when possible, as this makes comparisons clearer:

• Quantitative Data : Calculate averages, frequencies, and percentages. A table showing the response distribution for each question can clarify these statistics.
• Qualitative Data : Group feedback into themes. For instance, list common descriptors used by customers when discussing a product feature.

Conclusions should directly relate to the research objectives you set before the study.

Creating actionable insights

After drawing conclusions, it's crucial to translate them into actionable insights:

• Prioritize : Determine which findings substantially impact your objectives or pose the biggest challenge to your CX.
• Strategize : For each priority area, brainstorm potential strategies. This may involve a simple list or a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) for complex decisions.

Always ensure that your insights are actionable; they should inform decisions and lead to measurable improvement in consumer experience or business processes. Communicate these insights with clear, straightforward language to the relevant stakeholders in your organization.

Emerging trends in customer research

Conduct market research with ai.

Customer research is adapting to leverage cutting-edge technologies. You'll notice a significant shift towards harnessing data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to derive deeper insights into customer behavior.

You can leverage Survciate AI-powered features as well. Try the AI survey creator that will design your customer or market research survey in under a minute after you describe your needs and objectives.

After you collect feedback, you can use the AI Topics feature to speed up getting qualitative insights. It will automatically categorize and summarize answers to your open-ended questions. Worth trying, isn't it?

Social listening

Social listening tools are another trend on the rise. They enable you to monitor your brand's social media presence and gather direct feedback from conversations about your products or services. Mobile ethnography also offers a way to observe customer interactions in a natural setting, providing contextually rich data.

Predicting customer behavior

Lastly, as the emphasis on personalization grows, predictive analytics are being adopted to tailor customer experiences. These techniques analyze past behavior to anticipate future needs, enhancing your ability to meet customer expectations preemptively.

Remember, these methods involve collecting various forms of customer data, so being vigilant about privacy and ethical data use is crucial. Follow regulations and best practices to ethically manage the information you gather.

Survicate for your market and customer research

As we've explored, the key to thriving in the current market is to truly understand your customers. The challenge, however, lies in efficiently gathering and interpreting their feedback to inform your business strategies.

With its user-friendly interface, Survicate allows you to create targeted surveys, collect real-time feedback, and analyze the data with ease, ensuring that every customer voice is heard and accounted for.

Survicate's suite of features simplifies the process of connecting with customers and extracting the insights you need to make data-driven decisions. Whether it's through NPS , customer satisfaction surveys, or user experience research, Survicate provides the clarity and direction required to adapt and excel in a fast-paced market.

For those ready to elevate their customer research, consider giving Survicate a try. Start your journey to clearer insights today with a free 10-day trial of the Business Plan , and experience the full potential of focused customer feedback. Take the step today, and transform the way you connect with your audience.

We’re also there

How the experts get results: 8 examples of consumer research

What are the goals of consumer research, 8 consumer research examples (and how to get better insights from your research), what are the benefits of conducting consumer research, best practices for seamless consumer research, conduct better consumer research with the right tools.

Ever look at a brilliant move from a brand and think: how did they nail that so seemingly effortlessly?

The answer often involved customer research.

At its core, consumer research is the gathering and analysis of information about target markets, consumers, and potential customers. It’s not just about numbers and graphs—though they have their place—it’s about understanding people. And with understanding people, you’ll get to understand what tactics and campaigns will win for your brand.

Your research can shape products, influence marketing strategies, and even drive innovation. Whether it’s understanding how customers feel, what they think, or how they behave, consumer research offers a blueprint for brands to build deeper, more meaningful connections with their audience.

There are countless tools at your disposal to crush your customer research. From the ever-popular to the more niche, here are some of the key research methods brand like yours use:

• Online surveys : Tap into real-time feedback and broad audiences with just a few clicks.
• Phone surveys : Engage in deeper, personal conversations and get nuanced insights.
• Focus groups : Dive into group dynamics and gain qualitative insights from lively discussions.
• Field observations : Observe consumers in their natural habitat to glean non-verbal cues and real-world behaviors.
• In-depth interviews : Get detailed, in-depth feedback on specific topics.
• Product testing : Put your product in the hands of consumers and see it through their eyes.

Consumer research is used by businesses to understand their audience more deeply, and to adapt their strategies accordingly—minimizing risks and maximizing revenue. It provides valuable data and insights that influence decisions at every level—from product development to marketing strategies. By digging into the why and how of consumer behavior, brands can make informed choices that truly resonate with their audience, without having to fear they’ll completely miss the mark.

When diving into consumer research, a brand might have several goals in mind, such as:

• Uncovering consumer needs : What are the unsaid (and said!) desires or pain points of your audience?
• Predicting market trends : Where is the market headed? What are significant patterns?
• Enhancing product development : How can your product evolve to serve your customers better?
• Crafting effective marketing campaigns : What messages will truly resonate with your target audience?
• Understanding purchase decisions : Why do consumers choose one brand over another? When and why do people buy?
• Measuring brand perception : How do consumers view your brand compared to competitors?
• Identifying growth opportunities : Are there untapped markets or segments to explore?

1. Bloom & Wild learned from their target market how to make Valentine’s Day fresh again

Bloom & Wild , a direct-to-door flower company from London, wanted to shake things up—but not without doing their due diligence with market research first. They were over the red roses game on Valentine’s Day and wanted to see if their customers were too. Let’s just say, things got bloomin’ interesting.

Key takeaways:

• Challenge assumptions : Just because it’s tradition doesn’t mean it’s right. Bloom & Wild suspected red roses were kinda old news for V-Day. Attest showed a lot of folks felt the same.
• Dig for the real story : Thanks to Attest, they found out 79% of people prefer thoughtful gifts over the same-old. And red roses? 58% found them too cliche.
• Make waves with your data : Strong data makes strong campaigns. Bloom & Wild said goodbye to red roses and launched the “No Red Roses” campaign. A bold move that gave them loads of press.
• The results? Mega blooms : No red roses, no problem. Valentine’s Day sales quadrupled and press coverage went up by 51%.
• Feedback = fab conversations : It wasn’t just about sales and press. Their social channels lit up with folks sharing heartwarming love stories. When you listen to your customers and take risks, people notice (and love it).

What’s the best consumer research software

Picking the right consumer insights software for your needs is super important – here’s our list of the top providers so you can see what each has to offer…

2. Little Moons tapped into their true target customers thanks to customer research data

Little Moons , those yummy Japanese mochi ice cream bites, went big on TikTok. But they didn’t just want to be a 15-second sensation; they wanted to scoop up the long game. Let’s unpack how they didn’t just melt away after the TikTok frenzy, thanks to the coolest customer research.

• Find out who your customer is : If you think TikTok, you think teens. Customer research surprised them: it’s the 30+ audience that found out they were the ones buying their treats.
• Widen the stage : Just being a TikTok sensation isn’t the endgame. Little Moons wanted EVERYONE to know their name. So, they aimed for big newspaper names—think Telegraph, Express, Sun—to make their mochis more mainstream.
• Customers build brands : It’s not just brand managers and marketers. Working with consumer research insights meant their brand awareness shot up.

3. Penfold combined conducting customer research with brand tracking — a smart move

Penfold , the fresh face in digital pensions, saw huge growth in a short time. But growth can be a double-edged sword. With all these new customers, they wondered: “Who are we really connecting with?” They didn’t have any past metrics to compare to, and customer research with brand tracking seemed the way to go. They just needed a tool that was both budget-friendly and user-friendly.

• The growth conundrum : Penfold’s growth was impressive, tripling pension transfers in just a year. But they were navigating without a map, lacking historical brand metrics. Good news: even when that’s lacking, you can still dig into customer research.
• Tracking over time : Brand tracking and market research with Attest delivered some clear messages. Engaging the younger crowd in pensions? Easier said than done. But after a year of tracking and customer research, Penfold is better equipped. They now tailor their messaging to resonate more effectively with their audience.
• Customers and competition : Using Attest, Penfold can keep tabs on their competitors, not just their customers. They can gauge who’s getting attention and strategize on distinguishing their brand, to turn the attention back to themselves.

4. psLondon redefined university marketing through Gen Z insights

psLondon, a seasoned creative and brand consultancy, faced a challenge. Many universities seemed to echo similar messages. And they didn’t resonate. They needed fresh insights, especially from the Gen Z perspective, to help each university carve its distinct identity . Their customer research with Attest helped them formulate stellar campaigns.

• Ask consumers about core values : psLondon sought to understand the unique values students associated with their universities. Their research led to distinct insights, like a university standing out for its emphasis on “freedom”, which then translated to a compelling tagline: “the freedom to achieve”.
• Replicating success : The value-based rebranding approach was not a one-off success. Post its initial triumph, psLondon applied the strategy to four more UK universities, and kept that ball rolling.
• Using customer research beyond aesthetics : This method is not just about a fresh coat of paint. It’s about understanding and communicating intrinsic values that resonate deeply with students. Their approach to customer research has not only made them sought-after in university marketing, but has also led them to share their insights at conferences and in white papers.

5. Evive Nutrition’s used customer insights to guide them on their American journey

Evive Nutrition, after having garnered immense success in Canada with its innovative frozen smoothie cubes, took a bold leap into the US market last year . Consumer research played a key role in this expansion journey.

• Value of subscriptions : Evive’s unique business model hinges on their subscription-based approach. While they boast a strong presence in physical stores, their customer research revealed the growing trend and value of direct-to-door deliveries, especially amidst the modern consumer’s quest for convenience.
• Adapting to America : The significance of customer research can’t be overstated, especially when venturing into unfamiliar territory. Through Attest, Evive was able to gather crucial insights into American consumer preferences, from preferred flavours to feedback on their communication strategies.
• Tailored messaging for the US : Armed with these insights, Evive meticulously tailored its content strategy for the American audience and US consumer trends for 2023 . This went beyond mere promotional materials and trickled down to their website, content creation, and even product packaging.

6. Organic Valley’s used customer insights to create breakfast bites nobody can resist

Organic Valley knows a thing or two about great breakfast snacks, but working together with their target audience really elevated their game . Their approach underscores the importance of customer insights not just in product development but even in nuanced elements like naming.

• Fueling innovation with feedback : They didn’t just aim to create a new product; they wanted one that was both innovative and well-received. By leveraging consumer research insights via Attest, Organic Valley could accelerate the innovation process, optimize messaging, and refine product iterations.
• The name game : It became evident that while flavor was crucial, naming played an equally vital role in the consumers’ perception. A flavor’s name could conjure memories, emotions, and expectations, and Organic Valley was keen on ensuring that these names reflected the product accurately and appetizingly.
• Efficiency and cost-savings : One of the standout benefits of this early-stage consumer feedback was the significant cost savings for Organic Valley. Prompt learnings through Attest saved the brand between 10 to 20 times the potential costs they might have incurred from late-stage adjustments or missteps.

7. GoCardless tapped into customer research to make payments painless

Ever faced a hiccup at the online checkout? GoCardless sure noticed. Intent on understanding the very essence of these hiccups, they delved into their customers’ payment woes to make their sales and marketing efforts truly resonate.

• Zooming in on payment pain points : Online checkouts can be tricky. Sometimes, they’re even downright frustrating. GoCardless wasn’t content to just acknowledge that—they wanted to know the ins and outs. Their goal was to tailor their offerings in a way that directly addressed these prevalent payment challenges and expressed their brand’s value proposition.
• Research-backed solutions : No longer does GoCardless roll out a solution based on mere assumptions. Each of their product launches now stands on a solid foundation of customer research, ensuring it’s not just another feature but a real answer to a genuine customer need.
• A value proposition that sticks : By tapping into direct consumer insights, GoCardless sharpened their value proposition, making it more compelling.

8. DRY Soda Co. harnessed consumer research to drive an impressive 170% revenue surge

DRY Soda Co. didn’t let themselves be stopped by restrictions people faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. With their traditional launch methods now inaccessible, they harnessed the power of consumer research through Attest and saw big wins .

• The challenge of conventional approaches : With COVID-19 throwing a wrench in the works, DRY’s initial “try and buy” strategy of in-store and bar demos for their DRY Botanical Bitters & Soda was halted.
• Pivoting to alternative consumer research methods : Rather than giving in to the setback, DRY channeled their energy into gathering customer research insights. Small focus groups set the initial tone, and these findings were then magnified using Attest.
• Tailored design from direct insights : Consumer feedback obtained through Attest played a pivotal role in product branding. The design effectively embodied the sophistication of a zero-proof cocktail. Furthermore, the emphasis on the “zero-sugar” element, a prime attraction for many consumers, stemmed directly from these insights.

Always doing the same in a market where things change rapidly is a recipe for disaster. Consumers drive trends and changes in every industry, and brands should be following them—it’ll rarely work the other way around.

So, gaining insights from consumer research is crucial for brands aiming to understand, adapt, and evolve. Depending on the specific goals and questions a brand has, they may opt for quantitative or qualitative customer research methods, each with its own unique advantages.

The importance of quantitative research

Definition : Quantitative research involves collecting numerical data to understand patterns, frequencies, and trends. Quantitative consumer research often employs structured surveys to gather data from a larger sample size for primary research, but secondary sources can be used too.

• Broad insights : Provides a wider view of consumer behaviors and opinions.
• Statistical significance : Offers data that can be statistically analyzed for more reliable conclusions.
• Clear trends : Easily identify dominant patterns in consumer behaviors or preferences.
• Speed and efficiency : Online tools and platforms can quickly reach a large number of respondents.

The importance of qualitative research

Definition : Qualitative market research delves deep into consumer behaviors, emotions and reasons behind certain choices. Qualitative consumer research often involves primary research methods like focus groups or video interviews to gain more detailed insights.

• In-depth understanding : Offers deeper insights into the “why” behind consumer decisions.
• Flexibility : Allows for adaptive questioning based on responses.
• Rich data : Gathers detailed anecdotes, stories, and reasons that can provide context.
• Uncovering nuances : Captures the subtleties in consumer emotions and preferences.

By understanding the strengths of both quantitative and qualitative customer research, brands can select the right approach for their specific needs, ensuring they obtain insights that are both broad in scope and deep in understanding.

Consumer research can be a game-changer for brands, but to truly harness its power, it’s crucial to approach it with the right strategies. Here are some expert-recommended best practices to ensure you get the most out of your research efforts:

Use consumer research tools to conduct customer research

Conducting market research at scale and with depth is best done using consumer research tools . They can significantly streamline the process and provide more accurate results. These tools offer a structured way to gather, analyze, and interpret data, making the entire process more efficient and effective.

Prioritize clear objectives

Before you conduct market research of any type, it’s essential to define clear objectives. What are you trying to achieve with this research? Whether it’s understanding consumer preferences, identifying market gaps, or measuring brand perception, having a clear goal ensures your efforts are directed effectively.

Be open to unexpected insights

While it’s essential to have clear objectives, it’s equally important to be open to unexpected insights. Sometimes, the most valuable information comes from unplanned findings. By being receptive to these, you can uncover new opportunities or areas of improvement.

Ensure diversity in your sample

It’s crucial to ensure that your sample represents a diverse set of consumers. This helps in capturing a wider range of perspectives, leading to richer insights. Make sure that your participants vary in age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and other demographic factors relevant to your study. The right consumer insights software helps you diversify your samples, but makes sure to check.

Validate and re-test

Once you’ve gathered your initial insights, it’s always a good practice to validate them with your entire consumer insight team . This could mean conducting a follow-up study, re-testing your hypotheses, or analyzing the data through another lens, making sure all teams are aligned. This ensures that the insights are robust and not just a one-off anomaly.

If you’re looking to conduct customer research and really want to dig deep—and not just scratch the surface of customer satisfaction numbers or basic personas—try Attest.

Our research platform help you get a deeper understanding of what moves your target consumers, leaving you with all the data you need to inform your strategies. You’ll get a dedicated research expert to support you along the way, and it’s an easy start from our templates .

Ready to get to know your customers?

Consumer research is the process of gathering, analyzing and interpreting information about a company’s target audience. This research helps brands understand consumer needs, preferences, behaviors, and motivations, allowing them to make informed decisions about product development, marketing strategies, and other business areas.

It’s always customer research ‘o clock somewhere. Consumer research should be conducted at various stages of a product or service lifecycle. This includes before a product launch (to understand market needs), post-launch (to gather feedback and refine), and periodically thereafter (to stay updated with changing consumer behaviors). It’s also crucial during brand repositioning, entering new markets, or when addressing specific challenges in the market.

It does depend on your specific goals and the tools you will use, but there is a general framework that you can draw inspiration from. Different consumer insight companies will follow slightly different processes, but the best consumer research process involves a series of structured steps: 1. Defining clear research objectives. 2. Selecting the appropriate research method (quantitative, qualitative, or a mix). 3. Designing the research tool (e.g., survey or focus group). 4. Collecting data from a representative sample (both qualitative data and quantitative data) 5. Analyzing and interpreting the data. 6. Presenting the findings in a comprehensible manner to stakeholders.

The specific questions in consumer research will vary based on objectives. However, some common questions include: – What factors influence your purchase decision? – How satisfied are you with our product? – What improvements would you like to see? – How does our brand compare to competitors? It’s essential to ask open-ended questions to capture comprehensive insights and ensure questions are unbiased to get genuine response

Consumer research provides brands with insights into their target audience’s needs, behaviors, and preferences, which is the guiding light for any successful brand. It enables them to create products and services that resonate with their audience, craft effective marketing strategies, identify market opportunities, and address challenges proactively.

Elliot Barnard

Customer Research Lead 

Elliot joined Attest in 2019 and has dedicated his career to working with brands carrying out market research. At Attest Elliot takes a leading role in the Customer Research Team, to support customers as they uncover insights and new areas for growth.

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Customer Research: Types, Examples & Best Practices

• What Consumer Research is
• Importance of Consumer Research
• Benefits of Conducting Consumer Research
• Types of Consumer Research
• Tips for Conducting Consumer Research

Big businesses spend a lot of time and money on consumer research. You can, too, but as a small business owner, it can be hard to know where to start. Some research firms run gigantic surveys with tens of thousands of participants, but that’s astronomically expensive and not realistic for an entrepreneur just starting out. What’s more, some of the terms used in this field can be confusing and complex. But, as Marcus says, “If you don’t know your numbers, you don’t know your business.” In this article, we’ll help you understand how to conduct consumer research, why it’s important, and give you examples of how it’s done. This will help your company market itself better, become more profitable, and build customer loyalty.

Here’s What Consumer Research Really Means

At its core, Consumer Research means finding out what your customers want and need from your company and its products. It’s also finding out what they believe, and it looks at how they act when they’re purchasing. The end goal is to take this information, look at all of the other data gathered, and then use it to tweak your business to better fit your clients’ needs. Marcus’s saying “People. Process. Product” is exemplified here. Listening to customers and building a process around that information will lead to a better product.

Here’s Why Consumer Research Is Important

Who doesn’t appreciate it when their opinions are valued? Your customers express their values, attitudes, and enthusiasm through their pocketbooks. From a management perspective, acting on customer research information will help find oversights and missteps, leading to customer retention. This is why Marcus stresses that the first step to success for entrepreneurs like you is to know your numbers.

In a big business, even a tiny improvement in sales or marketing can have a considerable impact. That’s why most corporations pay a lot of attention to their consumer research data. For example, Verizon became the first wireless company to let their customers keep their phone numbers after switching carriers in 2003. (Richtel, 2003). Initially, the company opposed that move, citing that it would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. They came to this decision after listening to customer complaints, and they gained $3.8 billion in revenue that year. (Verizon, 2004). As Marcus says, “You don’t have to be a genius to run a successful small business, but you better be smart enough to be willing to learn.”

Here’s How Consumer Research Can Help Your Business

It puts you in tune with your customers.

Consumer research does many things. It can make your advertisements more engaging. It can help you find new customers you may have overlooked. It can even hint toward industry trends before they’re widely known. But the most important thing it does is help you connect with your customers. Customers, for the most part, tell you what they want . All you have to do is ask the right questions.

It helps develop new products and services.

Marcus says, “If you don’t evolve, you will die.” New products and services require innovation, and consumer research data fuels innovation. In 2008, The LEGO Group, maker of children’s toys LEGO, found that only 10% of their user base was female. The company decided to remedy that situation and sent researchers out to do a four-year study of what girls wanted out of their toys. In 2012, LEGO Friends hit the shelves, and the company has grown 15% annually since its launch. (Lafrance, May 25).

It helps fine-tune your existing products and services.

Your customers can tell you where they would like to see improvements. Sometimes, though, consumers don’t know what they want. That’s why breakthrough innovations and product maintenance are different animals. Cell phone users didn’t ask Apple for the iPhone. The average customer likely didn’t know iPhone technology was possible, but Steve Jobs knew it would revolutionize the industry. Apple does listen to its customers regarding app updates, requests for higher-resolution cameras, and other features. Using the right information at the correct times can lead to product innovations and improvements.

The Different Kinds of Consumer Research

Primary Consumer Research

When you or someone from your company interacts directly with your customers, asking them questions or having them fill out a survey, that’s primary consumer research.

You can hire a firm to do primary research for you so long as it only targets your customers.

• Primary consumer research is a simple method to gain data. It can be less expensive than other options because you don’t have to hire an outside company to help. You attain focused, specific details about your company and its offerings, but it offers little information about industry trends.
• Online forms, mailers, phone surveys, and focus groups are all examples of primary consumer research.

Secondary Consumer Research

• Hiring an outside company to compile and consolidate customer data information for you is called secondary consumer research.

It’s cost-effective because you don’t have to conduct any research yourself. It tends to focus less on your specific customers than industry and market trends on the whole. You can compare your company to others, which will give you a better idea of where you are excelling and where you need help.

• Secondary consumer research measures customer attitudes and preferences better than primary research partly because it pulls from a larger group of participants. It’s not as good at focusing on your specific products because it tends to ask general questions that result in general ideas about your industry.

Because most outside research companies use data gathered nationwide, it presents a better picture of how your company will fare across the country instead of just in your town or city.

• Examples of secondary consumer research companies include Nielsen, IQVIA, Kantar, Gartner, IPSOS, and Dynata. Some of the specific data these companies compile includes purchasing trends, demographics, and market confidence.

Qualitative Consumer Research

• The part of the word qualitative you should focus on is qual, as in quality. It focuses on how people feel about your products, and it asks them to focus on their quality.

It can also focus on how they perceive the quality of your customer service. Or the quality of your products’ perception. Qualitative consumer research is used in combination with primary or secondary research, and it delivers a specific kind of information.

• Qualitative consumer research is how you get information that relates to your brand. It uses words such as like, enjoys, love, prefer, dislike, and better. Asking a customer why they prefer product A compared to product B is an example. It’s not about how many people like it; it’s about how your customers feel.
• Qualitative consumer research is useful for areas that don’t lend themselves to more rigorous research methods. This is particularly useful for sensitive questions that people may not want to answer because it doesn’t put people into a yes-or-no situation.

It asks them to explain their answers. Questions like, “What is it you enjoy about product X,” and “What inspired you to purchase service Y?” are examples of qualitative consumer research.

Quantitative Consumer Research

• The other way you can perform your primary or secondary research is with quantitative consumer research. Focus on the quant portion of the word quantitative, like quantity. This form of research is all about the numbers. It can provide you with statistics based on shopping habits by gender, the exact amount of time e-retail shoppers spend on your website, or how many people are familiar with your store.
• Quantitative consumer research is useful for business owners who need mathematical answers to specific questions.

If your customers are overwhelmingly male, you can find out the exact percentage of male shoppers. However, you won’t be able to tell why you have so many male customers through quantitative research. You would need qualitative research to answer that.

• Examples of quantitative consumer research methods include surveys and questionnaires, and polls.

3 Consumer Research Tips For Entrepreneurs

Add surveys to your website, review cards to your check-out lines, and send e-mail questionnaires.

You can gauge satisfaction and see demographic splits just by asking your customers to tell you about themselves. You may have to incentivize customers to participate, but think of the value you gain by having usable data. Be sure to ask a mix of quantitative and qualitative questions to get the best responses.

Look for information in unusual places.

Websites like Quora, Twitter, and Reddit have users asking questions. By combing over questions on those sites, you can harvest important information. Plus, everything is indexed and organized for you. If you run a bicycle shop, there are countless threads, groups, and subreddits dedicated to bicycle enthusiasts. Those users are potential customers, and their inspirations, questions, and suggestions are valuable. As a bonus, this form of research only requires your time.

Be sure to make a plan.

Gathering a ton of information is only helpful if you know what you’re looking for.

Before hiring a consultant or launching your own customer research scheme, ask yourself the following questions.

• What are you hoping to accomplish through this research?
• Who are you targeting?
• Will you be able to measure growth if the data you collect leads you to make changes?
• How is the information you collect going to lead you?
• Are you willing to change your products if necessary?

The Right Questions For The Right Customers At The Right Time

Market research is just as crucial for small businesses as huge corporations. You never know when a slight increase in your customer base or launching a new product will boost your company into the stratosphere. Through consumer research, you’ll have a better idea of where to start those processes. If you give enough thought to asking the right questions, then you’ll get the answers you’re looking for. As Marcus says, “At the end of the day, the numbers don’t lie.” Gather the right data, and your business will be all the better for it.

• Is it time for your business to conduct consumer research?
• Which consumer research type best fits your business?

Doheny, Julia. (n.d.). Using Market Research For Product Development. https://www.b2binternational.com/publications/product-development-research/#_ftn1

Lafrance, Adrienne. (2016, May 25). How to Play Like a Girl. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/05/legos/484115/

Richtel, Matt. (2003, Jun. 25). TECHNOLOGY; In a Reversal, Verizon Backs Rule to Keep Cell Numbers. https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/25/business/technology-in-a-reversal-verizon-backs-rule-to-keep-cell-numbers.html

Verizon Communications. (2004). Verizon Communications 2004 Annual Report. https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReportArchive/v/NYSE_VZ_2004.pdf

Featured Content

• What is customer research?

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Designing products that both delight customers and solve their problems is essential in a competitive landscape!

But how do you identify what your customers want and need, let alone who your customers really are?

Customer research enables you to learn more about your customers, understand their motivations, and get to grips with their behavior on a deeper level. You can use all this knowledge to create truly user-centric products.

Customer research is how you understand your customers—their needs, pain points, and demographics.

It also allows you to dive into key aspects of customers’ motivations and behaviors. It’s about learning how customers act and what will encourage them to take certain actions.

This is important when developing products. Deeply understanding your customers helps you deliver products that are easy to use, satisfying, and better at solving problems.

You’ll keep designing products that fall short if you don’t know your customers well and can’t see things from their point of view.

• What’s the difference between customer research, market research, and user research

You may have heard the terms customer research, market research, and user research. They might sound similar and have some related functions, but they are distinct types of research.

Market research is generally conducted in the early stages of product creation. Its role is to generate an understanding of the whole market, including what people need and want from products. This type of research typically identifies market readiness, size, competition, and demographics.

While market research is broad, customer research is more specific. It’s a process by which data and information collected during market research are analyzed, grouped, and evaluated. You can think of it as an extension of market research, though some organizations may perform these functions simultaneously.

The focus of user research is generally on understanding what is and isn’t working with current products and where helpful innovation can occur.

• Types of customer research

Primary and secondary research are some of the main types of customer research.

Quantitative and qualitative data are two types of data.

It’s helpful to know the difference between these groups to ensure you collect the right data and information for your project.

Primary vs. secondary research

Primary research is data collected directly by the organization from customers. It is obtained through research methods like surveys, focus groups, or analytics.

The advantage of primary research is having the power to obtain the data that’s most relevant for you. Knowing exactly what data has been collected and how to collate that information into meaningful insights is also more simple.

Secondary research is data collected by external sources, such as research groups, governments, and other companies. You can use it to discover more about customers.

Using data collected by other sources gives you less control, but it can save you money.

Ideally, a combination of both primary and secondary research will help you build a true picture of who your customers are.

Qualitative vs. quantitative data

You also need to understand which type of data will be most helpful for the relevant project.

Qualitative data is obtained directly from users, usually through methods such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, usability testing, and field studies.

This type of data can help designers understand why users do things and gain insights into how to solve their issues.

Quantitative data consists of numeral value measurements gained indirectly from users.

This type of data usually involves measurements like how much, how many, and how many times. Surveys, metrics, and user tests are some of the methods through which it can be collated.

• The best customer research methods

The best customer research method will be the one that’s most relevant and useful for your project. So, what works for one product may not be the best match for another. 

Before deciding on a customer research method, asking the following questions can be helpful:

What do we most need to know about our customers?

What do we not know about our customers?

Are we satisfied that our product has a market?

Do we truly understand our competitors?

Do we deeply understand our target market?

Is our product solving a real-world issue for people? Do we have data to back that up?

Is this product the best possible solution for our customers?

These questions can act as a starting point to discover knowledge gaps. They can also help your team choose the research methods that can plug any of these holes.

Customer surveys

Surveys involve asking customers a series of targeted questions. They’re a popular research method because they can be conducted in several ways, such as with an online questionnaire, phone call, or email.

Surveys can help organizations quickly discover large amounts of useful information. They are also relatively inexpensive, as many free templates are available online.

Keep in mind that a survey is only as good as its questions. Ensure that you’re asking questions that will help you discover the most relevant and helpful data about your customers.

Surveys that follow best practices include the following:

Open-ended questions to get the most information from customers

Consistent ranking scales to avoid ambiguity

Questions that are relevant to the team’s end goal

A short series of questions to avoid overwhelming participants

Customer interviews

Interviewing customers is one of the most straightforward and helpful ways to discover their views, wants, and needs.

Customer interviews include a team member or neutral party having a discussion with a customer. They offer the chance to discover new insights that might not otherwise have been uncovered.

This technique won’t enable you to gather quantitative data, but you will gain new insights into how your customers think and perceive products.

Here are some best practices to follow when conducting customer interviews:

Clarify answers. If there’s any ambiguity in what a customer said, make sure you follow up with further questions to aid true understanding.

Challenge your assumptions. Don’t bring any assumptions to the table. Instead, ask customers how they really think and feel. Having a neutral moderator can help remove any bias the team may bring.

Keep things open. Asking open-ended questions and offering a safe space to share answers are essential steps. Doing so will help you gain real thoughts, not hear what participants think they should say.

The benefit of real data should never be overlooked when it comes to customers. People might say they act in certain ways, but their behavior can show otherwise.

Analytics (in a product dashboard or other data collection method, for example) will reveal a great deal of information about customer behavior. It can help streamline your business, remove areas of friction, and improve the overall customer experience .

Metrics like heat maps, time spent, click tracking, and number of sessions can help you build a picture of your customer’s behavior.

Are customers failing to complete their payment information? Are people landing on your page and immediately clicking away? Is a particular aspect of your experience retaining your customers’ attention? These are just a few useful questions you can ask as you go through your analytics.

Focus groups

Focus groups are a well-known and popular research method. They help teams discover a large amount of information in a short time period.

In a focus group, a small number of people—usually eight or fewer—gather together to discuss products, pain points, preferences, and how they might engage with products.

Focus groups are run by a moderator or a person from the organization who can act neutrally. The moderator will set out a series of questions or topics for the group to discuss.

The benefits of focus groups include the following:

Gaining insights into how users perceive your product

Spontaneous responses you may not have discovered otherwise

Information about key problems and pain points

An understanding of what your users want from a solution

However, focus groups also present some challenges. Louder voices in a group may sway others to agree with the consensus rather than share their real opinions. To combat this, offer all members of the group a safe space to share their thoughts. Encourage varying responses.

Competitor analysis

Competitor analysis helps you dive into what the market is currently offering. It shows what competitors are doing well and what could be done better. This helps you create new products that solve your customers’ problems more effectively.

The following are best practices for conducting competitor analysis

Be clear on who your competitors are

Identify your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses

Clarify who holds the largest market share and why

Analyze online presence, reviews, and product information

Speak to competitors’ customers

Competitor analysis isn’t just about discovering information about your competitors; another goal is to turn information into action. You’ll ideally want to improve on what a competitor currently offers and provide a product that’s more satisfying for customers.

• How to conduct customer research

The following key steps will enable you to conduct useful customer research.

Set clear objectives

There’s a broad range of data and information that can be collected with customer research. However, not all of it will be relevant to your specific project. 

That’s why setting clear objectives from the outset is critical. All methods and data should lead back to these objectives.

Use multiple methods

One research method is unlikely to gather enough information for your project. And no one method is perfect.

Conducting multiple forms of research ensures you discover more about your customers and that your team gathers enough helpful data.

Find the right people

Your research won’t be effective if you’re talking to the wrong customer group. But how do you find the right people?

If you already have a product, it would be enormously beneficial to speak to your current customers . They have proven that they’re in your target audience.

Forums, advertising, local groups, and organizations are good ways to identify potential customers to participate.

Let’s say you’re designing a dog-sitting app. In this case, you’ll need to speak to dog owners who would like more flexibility to travel. You could find these people in online groups, through a local meeting, or even at a park that’s popular for dog walking.

Consider incentives

It’s also worth considering incentives. These can encourage the right people to get on board. For example, you might offer participants the chance to win a voucher or give them a small amount of cash to participate.

Ensure any incentives are meaningful for your target audience.

Develop meaningful insights

Collecting a range of data and information from multiple methods is helpful. However, it’s ultimately meaningless if that data isn’t collated into useful insights .

Ensure that data is accurately grouped and represented clearly and concisely so that the entire business can benefit from the learnings. You might need to hire a data analyst.

• Surprise and delight your customers

Keeping customers at the center of what you do is the only way to create products that are helpful for people.

All products should help customers, whether that’s by solving a problem, making their life a little bit easier, or entertaining them in some way. Customers should want to use your product and enjoy the process.

By researching your customers, you can truly understand how they feel , where their pain points are, how they behave in real-life situations, and what solutions would please them. Ultimately, all this helps you better serve your customers.

Should you be using a customer insights hub?

Do you want to discover previous customer research faster?

Do you share your customer research findings with others?

Do you analyze customer research data?

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Customer Research

What is customer research.

Customer research is conducted so as to identify customer segments, needs, and behaviors. It can be carried out as part of market research, user research, or design research. Even so, it always focuses on researching current or potential customers of a specific brand or product in order to identify unmet customer needs and/or opportunities for business growth.

Customer research can focus on simple demographics of an existing or potential customer group (such as age, gender, and income level). Indeed, these considerations are vital determinants of a product’s target audience. However, such research also often seeks to understand various behaviors and motivators —factors which place a product’s use and potential on a higher level of study. Thus, the goal of such research is to expose clear details about who is—or will be—using a product as well as the reasons behind their doing so and how they go about using it (including the contextual areas of “where” and “when”). Customer research may be conducted via a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods such as interviews, surveys, focus groups, and ethnographic field studies. It also commonly involves doing desk research of online reviews, forums, and social media to explore what customers are saying about a product.

While customer research is usually conducted as part of a design project, it is also often conducted in other departments of an organization. In some cases, customer research is part of marketing—for instance, to ensure that marketing campaigns have the right focus. In other cases, it can be carried out as part of concept development or ideation so as to identify opportunities for future products, services, or features. In any case, such research is an essential ingredient in keeping the end users in clear sight long before the end of any design phase.

Literature on Customer Research

Here’s the entire UX literature on Customer Research by the Interaction Design Foundation, collated in one place:

Learn more about Customer Research

Take a deep dive into Customer Research with our course User Research – Methods and Best Practices .

How do you plan to design a product or service that your users will love , if you don't know what they want in the first place? As a user experience designer, you shouldn't leave it to chance to design something outstanding; you should make the effort to understand your users and build on that knowledge from the outset. User research is the way to do this, and it can therefore be thought of as the largest part of user experience design .

In fact, user research is often the first step of a UX design process—after all, you cannot begin to design a product or service without first understanding what your users want! As you gain the skills required, and learn about the best practices in user research, you’ll get first-hand knowledge of your users and be able to design the optimal product—one that’s truly relevant for your users and, subsequently, outperforms your competitors’ .

This course will give you insights into the most essential qualitative research methods around and will teach you how to put them into practice in your design work. You’ll also have the opportunity to embark on three practical projects where you can apply what you’ve learned to carry out user research in the real world . You’ll learn details about how to plan user research projects and fit them into your own work processes in a way that maximizes the impact your research can have on your designs. On top of that, you’ll gain practice with different methods that will help you analyze the results of your research and communicate your findings to your clients and stakeholders—workshops, user journeys and personas, just to name a few!

By the end of the course, you’ll have not only a Course Certificate but also three case studies to add to your portfolio. And remember, a portfolio with engaging case studies is invaluable if you are looking to break into a career in UX design or user research!

We believe you should learn from the best, so we’ve gathered a team of experts to help teach this course alongside our own course instructors. That means you’ll meet a new instructor in each of the lessons on research methods who is an expert in their field—we hope you enjoy what they have in store for you!

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Customer Research: Types of Customer Research, Methods, and Best Practices.

In the ever-evolving landscape of business, understanding your customers is the key to success. Customer research, a systematic process of gathering and analyzing information about customers, plays a pivotal role in making informed business decisions and developing effective strategies. In this comprehensive guide, we delve into the types of customer research, the methodologies involved, and best practices for optimal results.

Comprehensive Guide to Customer Research: Types, Methods, and Best Practices

What is customer research.

Customer research involves the systematic exploration of customer behaviors, needs, preferences, and experiences. It combines qualitative and quantitative studies to gain insights into the target audience, facilitating informed decision-making and the development of strategies to meet customer expectations. The essential components of customer research include:

1. Research Objectives

Clearly defining research objectives is paramount. It involves determining the specific information or insights the organization aims to gather, ensuring the collected data aligns with organizational needs.

2. Target Audience Definition

Identifying the target audience is crucial, representing the group the research focuses on. This audience should mirror the organization’s customer base or intended market.

3. Research Methodology

Choosing appropriate research methods is vital. Whether surveys, interviews, focus groups, or data analytics, the methods should align with objectives, providing desired depth and breadth of insights.

4. Data Collection

Conducting data collection activities is core to customer research. Proper techniques, such as surveys, interviews, or data analysis, ensure the accuracy and reliability of gathered information.

5. Data Analysis

Organizing, categorizing, and interpreting collected data is essential. From quantitative techniques to qualitative research, the goal is to derive actionable insights that inform decision-making.

6. Findings and Insights

Effectively communicating research findings involves summarizing and presenting results. Visualizations, reports, and dashboards convey information clearly and understandably.

7. Recommendations

Based on findings, practical and actionable recommendations guide business decisions, whether for product improvements, marketing strategies, or customer experience enhancements.

8. Iteration and Continuous Improvement

Customer research is an iterative process. Regularly incorporating insights into strategies ensures organizations remain responsive to customer expectations and market changes.

Types of Customer Research

Understanding the various types of customer research is crucial for tailoring approaches to specific objectives. Some common types include:

1. Customer Satisfaction Research

Definition:.

Customer satisfaction research revolves around measuring and analyzing how satisfied customers are with a product or service. It helps in identifying areas for improvement and gauges overall customer contentment.

Key Elements:

• Surveys and Feedback Forms: Use structured surveys or feedback forms to quantify satisfaction levels.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS): Measures the likelihood of customers recommending a product or service.

Implementation:

Regularly conduct surveys and analyze feedback to gauge customer sentiment, focusing on enhancing areas with lower satisfaction.

2. Customer Needs and Preferences Research

This type of research aims to uncover the underlying needs, desires, and preferences of customers. It provides insights into what customers are looking for in a product or service.

• In-depth Interviews: Engage in one-on-one interviews to delve into the motivations and preferences of customers.
• Observational Studies: Observe customer behavior in real-life scenarios to identify unmet needs.

Conduct qualitative research through interviews and observational studies to gain a deep understanding of customer needs, informing product development.

3. Customer Experience (CX) Research

CX research focuses on understanding and optimizing the overall customer journey, identifying pain points, and ensuring a seamless and satisfying experience.

• Customer Journey Mapping: Visualize the entire customer experience, from initial interaction to post-purchase.
• Usability Testing: Evaluate the ease with which customers navigate through products or services.

Create detailed customer journey maps, conduct usability tests, and analyze customer interactions to enhance overall experience.

4. Brand Perception Research

This research assesses how customers perceive a brand, including awareness, image, associations, and loyalty. It helps in shaping and maintaining a positive brand identity.

• Brand Surveys: Measure brand awareness, associations, and loyalty.
• Competitor Analysis: Understand how the brand compares to competitors.

Regularly conduct brand perception surveys and analyze competitor strategies to maintain a positive brand image.

5. Customer Segmentation Research

Customer segmentation involves categorizing customers based on shared characteristics, behaviors, or needs. It enables targeted marketing strategies.

• Demographic Segmentation: Grouping customers based on age, gender, income, etc.
• Behavioral Segmentation: Segmenting based on purchasing behavior or product usage.

Analyze customer data to identify commonalities, enabling personalized marketing strategies for different segments.

6. Competitive Research

Competitive research involves analyzing competitors’ strategies, products, and customer experiences to identify opportunities for differentiation.

• Competitor Product Analysis: Evaluate features, pricing, and positioning of competitors’ products.
• Social Media Monitoring: Track customer sentiments regarding competitors on social media.

Regularly monitor competitors, analyze product offerings, and gather customer feedback to identify areas for improvement and differentiation.

7. Customer Journey Mapping

Customer journey mapping visualizes the end-to-end customer experience, identifying touchpoints, emotions, and areas for improvement.

• Customer Touchpoints: Identify and analyze all the touchpoints a customer has with the brand.
• Emotion Analysis: Understand customer emotions at each stage of the journey.

Create detailed customer journey maps, incorporating feedback from various touchpoints to enhance the overall journey.

These types of customer research provide organizations with a holistic view of their customers, enabling them to make informed decisions, improve products and services, and stay ahead in a competitive market. Each type serves a unique purpose, and a combination of these approaches ensures a comprehensive understanding of customer behaviors and preferences.

How to Conduct Customer Research: 10 Key Steps

Conducting effective customer research involves a systematic approach:

1. Define Research Objectives

Clearly define specific objectives to guide the research process and focus on relevant questions.

2. Identify Target Audience

Determine the specific target audience or customer segment that aligns with research goals.

3. Choose Research Methods

Select appropriate research methods and techniques, considering advantages, limitations, and resource requirements.

4. Develop Research Instruments

Design clear, concise research instruments such as survey questionnaires or interview guides.

5. Recruit Participants

Recruit participants matching the target audience criteria through various channels, ensuring communication clarity.

6. Conduct Data Collection

Implement chosen research methods, maintaining ethical guidelines, privacy, and data confidentiality.

7. Analyze Data

Use appropriate analysis techniques, whether quantitative or qualitative, ensuring rigor and alignment with research objectives.

8. Interpret Findings

Analyze patterns, trends, and relationships in data to gain insights into customer behaviors, preferences, or needs.

9. Communicate Results

Present findings clearly through reports, presentations, or visualizations, tailored to the target audience.

10. Apply Insights

Apply insights to inform business decisions, enhancing product development, marketing, and customer experiences.

Customer research is iterative; monitor outcomes, conduct follow-up research, and stay responsive to evolving customer needs.

Examples of Customer Research Questions

Crafting effective customer research questions is essential. Examples include:

• What factors influenced your decision to purchase our product/service?
• How did you first hear about our company?
• What specific features or aspects of our product/service do you find most valuable?
• What improvements or enhancements would you like to see in our product/service?
• How likely are you to recommend our product/service to others? Why?
• What obstacles or challenges did you encounter when using our product/service?
• How does our product/service compare to competitors in the market?
• How satisfied are you with the level of customer support you received?
• What are your expectations for pricing and value in relation to our product/service?
• How frequently do you use our product/service, and for what purposes?

Tailoring questions to the industry or service being researched ensures gathering relevant information.

Best Practices for Customer Research

Following best practices is essential for accurate and valuable insights:

1. Clearly Define Research Objectives

Identify specific goals and objectives to guide research, focusing on relevant questions and areas of investigation.

2. Use a Mix of Qualitative and Quantitative Methods

Combine qualitative and quantitative research methods for a comprehensive understanding of customers.

3. Identify Your Target Audience

Clearly define the characteristics and demographics of the target audience for accurate representation.

4. Create Unbiased and Neutral Questions

Formulate clear, unbiased, and neutral questions to avoid leading or influencing participant responses.

5. Use a Variety of Data Collection Methods

Explore various data collection methods, including surveys, interviews, focus groups, and social media listening.

6. Engage With Customers at Different Touchpoints

Interact with customers at different stages, from pre-purchase to post-purchase, to understand the entire customer journey.

7. Maintain Confidentiality and Anonymity

Assure participants of confidentiality and anonymity to encourage honest and unbiased feedback.

8. Analyze and Interpret Data Systematically

Systematically analyze data using appropriate techniques, identifying patterns and key insights.

9. Continuously Iterate and Improve

Regularly revisit research objectives, update methods, and gather feedback for continuous improvement.

10. Communicate Findings and Take Action

Present research findings to stakeholders, using insights to inform strategic decisions, product development, and marketing.

By following these best practices, organizations can conduct effective customer research, gaining valuable insights into customer behaviors and preferences.

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Empowering Businesses Globally: A Comprehensive Guide to Customer Research by Arensic

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Home › Product Career › What Does a Product Manager Do? › 17 Effective Customer Research Tips [+ Examples]

17 Effective Customer Research Tips [+ Examples]

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Market research plays a big role in the success of a business, so it is crucial to know what the needs of your target market are. Many companies that enter a market fail because of the lack of customer research.

Eric Ries, the author of The Lean Startup , says that startups fail because their product has no demand.

Real client feedback and research are excellent sources of actionable information on how to make a product thrive. Market researchers need to study past and current trends to forecast how the market will shift in the future.

This research is essential for business decisions on future campaigns to stay ahead of the curve and appeal to target audiences.

17 Customer Research Tips

1. identify the target audience.

Be aware of the target market’s demographics in order to market to them.

Focus groups, questionnaires, surveys, interviews, and analytical data gathered from online interactions of the business are used to research who the target audience is.

It’s critical to develop a customer profile that considers demographics like age, wealth, and interests, but also unmet needs and potential market shifts over time.

2. Discover new Opportunities

The fact of the matter is that the market is constantly shifting. Due to the ongoing evolution of the industry, researchers must apply their analytical abilities to determine the following:

• Current market trends
• Market size
• Market leaders
• Trend forecasts
• Demographics
• Geographical spread
• Gaps in the market

Understanding the current market and identifying prospects for company strategies, advertising, and goods requires gathering such data, and it also allows for identifying areas for improvement.

3. Leverage Online Reviews from Customers

Online reviews are a rich source of information on how customers feel about different products. Reading customer reviews is an easy and free way to see what people are saying – both good and bad.

Online reviews give business owners direct access to their customers’ thoughts, and they show what the business is doing right and what they’re not doing well. Given that everyone has access to these internet reviews responding to the valuable feedback from bad reviews is critical.

It is also important to remember to validate reviews. If someone mentions something about a product, that doesn’t mean it’s true. As such, recurring feedback is the most important.

Depending on the size of the company’s customer base, there may be too many online reviews to read, and the practice becomes redundant.

The way forward is to employ a software tool to gather all reviews onto a database and perform a keyword search to find recurring feedback on the product. Be sure to notice a pattern and take action to keep customers happy.

4. Use Market Research Tools

Market research tools are the way to go when on a tight budget, when resources do not allow hiring a market researcher, or if the data needs to be available sooner.

There are several market research tools. Like any software tool, some cater to the company’s needs better than others. They gather real-time data on customers, current market trends, demographics, market size, etc.

For its ease of use and accessibility, Google Trends gets the job done most of the time. However, there are more comprehensive market research tools out there that give a more detailed picture of the market.

5. Observe Your Competition

Entering an established market is far from easy. However, it does present an opportunity to learn from the market leader. Performing market research to find the most successful companies in your company’s industry can help to catapult the business to the top.

Now, this doesn’t mean you should copy the model used by others. But, learning their strengths and weaknesses gives customers a clear image of what they want.

Once a few companies have been researched, trends of what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong begin to surface. The next step is to adapt the business’ product to provide the perfect solution to its customers. In doing so, the company attracts new customers away from the market leaders.

Research the following about competitors:

• Market position
• Price/quality
• Average revenue
• Product range
• Target customers
• Strengths and weaknesses

6. Gather and Analyze Data

Although gathering data is a critical step in the process, it is even more crucial to evaluate and identify trends and changes that affect or may soon affect the business.

Data gathering and analysis must be ongoing processes that occur at every stage. Even if you conduct thorough research before releasing products, follow-ups, collecting client feedback, and market data need to continue.

In addition, make an effort to evaluate the success of marketing campaigns to inform subsequent campaigns.

7. Collect Customer Surveys

Not sure how customers feel about your product? Ask them.

A great way to gather customer feedback is through an online survey. It’s essential to keep these online surveys short and simple; nobody wants to fill out a 30-minute questionnaire about a business or product.

Save time by asking direct, meaningful questions that provide valuable information and will help to better understand customers’ needs. Open-ended questions are more useful for in-person interviews where the interviewer probes for a clear explanation of the customer’s thoughts.

8. See How Customers Use the Product

Watching how customers use products gives valuable insight into the customer’s views. More often than not, this feedback technique helps identify pain points customers face when using the product.

For example, when customers visit a company’s website, watch how they navigate through the site. Ask them to try to purchase something if it’s an e-commerce site and pick out any difficulties that the customer experiences. There’s nothing worse than trying to buy something online with a complicated purchasing process.

Another option is using heat mapping tools to track customers’ navigation of your business’ site. Once again, take action when recurring patterns of bottlenecks occur.

9. Conduct Customer Interviews

Market research involves interacting with people through in-person interviews, online focus groups, telephone surveys, digital questionnaires, etc.

Getting honest client feedback through interviews is a quick and easy way to learn more about their needs.

Participants must be aware of the purpose of the interview and how you will use their data. Be honest and sincere. Failure to do so has adverse effects in the future as it can distort statistics if participants don’t express their genuine opinions.

10. Use Data Available to the Public

Another great source of information is public data. It’s not always necessary to collect data, as government statistics are a wealth of information for market research.

Public records provide information like demographics, location, and behaviors which are vital to researchers looking to identify customer segments. This information then goes to marketing teams, who decide on a strategy for each element, and this is all from public data.

Public records or industry reports give a general overview of a business’s customers and how they behave. To take it a step further, employ market research tools like Google Analytics that pinpoint buyers’ persona.

11. Personalize Your Consumer Research for Each Project

Each project needs to be separate.  There is no one-size-fits-all method for finding solutions to issues relating to various market segments.

Consider the company’s goals every time a survey goes out if that’s how the business plans to collect most of the data for market research. Don’t do a single survey and distribute it to everyone.

Instead, make inquiries specific and address them to particular individuals. Customers taking part in a brand awareness survey mustn’t receive a duplicate of a customer satisfaction survey. It is also best to avoid sending out a single study to both groups that include questions about both subjects.

Market research is more accurate if it approaches each project independently and uses individualized problem-solving techniques.

12. Offer Incentives When Gathering Information

Consider the driving forces behind the respondents who supply the data when looking for strategies to improve market research. Offering incentives is a great way to attract more participants for data collection. Examples of incentives are discounts on their next purchase, the chance to win a prize or even the possibility to test out a product’s beta version.

Remember that the people giving the data value their time just as much as the business does. Think about the audience and the most effective incentives to encourage maximum involvement. For example, rewards intended for an older age group won’t be as attractive to younger age groups, and vice versa.

13. Research the Target Audience on Google Search

It’s as easy as that! Googling competitors is one of the most effective ways of researching the target audience.

Performing a Google search allows businesses to:

• read competitor’s customer reviews
• find out what customers say about their brand and product or service
• shape their online content to answer customer questions and difficulties

Google is an inexpensive tool for gathering customer data. It’s also important to see how customers find the product online because it’s never straightforward organic website traffic. Instead, using Google shows if customers arrived at your site via a link or social media post.

14. Try Social Listening

Most customers are on social media. The average person spends 2 hours and 25 minutes on social media a day, where they are free to be themselves.

This is a goldmine for consumer research because, besides being free, it’s a place where consumers feel comfortable speaking their minds.

Customers tend to feel pressured to answer questions during an online survey and thus aren’t always being honest to avoid insulting the company conducting it.

Therefore, reading what customers say on social media via a poll or throughout the comments section helps to paint a better picture of how they feel.

15. Ask for Feedback on Product Features

Product feature research must be a part of customer research before committing to expensive costs like large-scale production and advertising. 

If practical, consumer input on concepts and prototypes discloses design defects, packaging problems, and other concerns that save time and money.

The easiest way to collect information from beta testers is through qualitative data research methods like usability testing, a focus group, interviews, and open-ended survey questions.

16. Ask Customers to Rate Their Experience with Your Product

Many customer researchers gain valuable customer feedback through continuous rating bars as they navigate their website or tool.

For instance, after every Zoom call, the online video-call platform asks to rate the quality of the call. If the call is not up to standard and receives a low rating, they can take a short survey to fill out what went wrong, like a “low sound quality.” If the rating is high, the customer can thank you for your time and move on.

This data collection technique finds faults in products and services since the information presents as real-time customer feedback.

17. Make Use of Email Subscribers

Reaching out to email subscribers helps get feedback from multiple sources of existing customers. Whether they’ve been with the company for years or subscribed a week ago, these customers support and want to help the business.

Ask customer-focused questions regarding the product which aims to benefit them. Post a survey and offer incentives. 

Make sure that the subscribers have a valid email address.

Customer Research Example

Suppose you want to start a company that manufactures natural chemical-free cleaning products. The first step is to identify buyer personas and separate them into different segments. Then determine the following:

• New mothers who need to clean baby bottles
• Homeowners looking for an alternative cleaning solution
• Businesses/factories who worry about harsh chemicals getting into their water supply

Next, conduct consumer research and attempt to answer the following questions:

• What characteristics best describe this persona?
• What values does this persona hold dear?
• How does this persona purchase something?
• How does the consumer experience look?
• What are the main goals of this persona?
• What is the size of the market?
• What are this persona’s demographics?
• Where does this customer live?
• What expenses does this persona have?
• How often does this persona engage with you?
• Whose viewpoint does this persona value?
• Which media are appropriate for contacting this persona?
• What factors does this persona value while making a decision?
• Why does this persona select a specific product or brand?
• How do you affect this persona?
• What alternatives does this persona take into account?
• What kind of budget does the individual have for a solution?
• What difficulty does this persona have?

Once most of those questions have been answered, you can begin to form a clear image of the buyer persona of each segment.

The company’s marketing team then takes the information from the consumer research and develops marketing strategies to appeal to each segment.

Market Research FAQs

How long does it take to conduct customer research.

The primary market research gives an idea of what potential customers look for. Are there gaps in an untapped market that everyone else overlooks? 

While market research answers many concerns concerning an industry’s state, it may take weeks or even months for researchers to portray the commercial environment after looking into several aspects of the industry.

Why is marketing strategy necessary?

Having a marketing strategy is a vital part of any business’s plan. A marketing strategy enables the company to produce goods and services with the highest likelihood of turning a profit.

The ideal marketing strategy begins with market research, which considers the perfect target market, what competitors do, and potential future trends.

Market research is the process of obtaining data on target audiences and customers to confirm the success of a new product. It assists the team in refining an already-existing product or understanding brand perception that expresses the value of the organization.

With the help of this data, businesses can work out the benefits customers and clients seek, the price range at which they’re ready to spend, and how they set their product apart from the competitors.

How do primary and secondary market research differ?

Primary research involves performing analysis or hiring someone to do it for the company. It entails going to a source, such as current and potential clients in the target market, to gather information.

Primary research often costs more, takes longer to complete, and produces definitive results.

Primary research examples include:

• Focus groups

Gathered, organized, and published research by others is secondary research . It comprises research and reports from government organizations, industry trade groups, and other companies.

Most research is often secondary for small businesses because it is faster and cheaper to obtain than primary research.

Secondary research examples include:

• Government statistics
• Public records
• Industry reports

Conducting market and consumer research is worth it as it gives invaluable insight into a business’s customers and their needs. Their feedback drives the product; without it, it won’t sell.

After all, the product’s goal is to satisfy the target market’s needs and desires.

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17 Ways to Conduct Customer Research Right Now & Collect Valuable Feedback

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Whether you’re marketing a brand new startup or a seasoned veteran, there’s no substitute for real customer feedback and research.

After all, you can’t market anything effectively if you don’t know who you’re selling to.

Customer research is such a crucial part of marketing that, when we asked survey respondents how important they considered customer research to be, nearly 93% rated it as “Very Important” or “Crucially Important.”

“Marketers need to conduct customer research at the very least annually. In order to sell to someone, you need to know their needs,” said Tim Brown of Hook Agency .

Brown’s comment got us thinking—if customer research is so important, how often are people doing it? When we asked those same marketers that question, we got some varied responses. But crucially, the majority skewed toward more often, with over 25% reporting quarterly customer research efforts and nearly 20% reporting they conduct customer research daily .

So what are marketers actually doing to conduct that customer research? When we asked our respondents about that, there were 4 clear winners that more than half of the marketers we spoke with reported using:

• Customer interviews
• Email surveys
• Analytics analysis
• Online research

But we also heard about many other creative ways to conduct customer research that we hadn’t thought of before.

On that note, here are the 20 customer research methods marketers shared with us.

1. Leverage Existing Customer Reviews

Brian Jensen of Congruent Digital recommended turning to a familiar source for customer research: online reviews. “We used a tool called Apify to crawl and return all of our client’s reviews into a database. We then put into a text analysis tool to find the top keywords and phrases (attributes) customers used in their reviews.”

Jensen says they used this data to help improve the client’s messaging.

“Once we had the data and knew by occurrences what their customers enjoyed most about their experience, we updated ads and landing pages to better identify with the needs and expectations of prospects.”

2. Spend a Day in Your Customer’s Office

Phil Strazzulla of SelectSoftware shared another customer research method we hadn’t heard about before. Strazzulla recommended spending a full day, in-office with your customer, saying “This allows me to have informal conversations with the key stakeholders I need to market to in order to better understand their challenges, goals, language, and personalities.”

“Simply reach out to a potential or current customer and ask if you can work from their space for a day,” Strazzulla explained. “And have as much free time as you can to walk around and talk to people in the office about what they do and how you can help them with your product.”

3. Turn to Data Analytics

Analytics analysis was one of the top 4 answers we heard—but it’s a broad term, so we were interested to learn more about what marketers do with analytics.

“When we do customer and product research, we start by understanding how customers are using the tool by looking at their data and usage, and then benchmarking it with their industry,” said Supratim Da Dam of CallPage . “This allows us to have a solid idea of how our customers are deploying our solution, the gaps, successes, blockers, and more.”

Robert Baillieul of Lombardi Publishing uses Twitter Analytics to identify topics and pains that resonate with their customers. “Anything that consistently generates engagement rates north of 5% indicates a huge pain point for your customer—sometimes issues they would never admit to out loud. You can then turn these insights into new products, services, or content.”

“We get data from many tools we’re using (email marketing, website analytics, social media, and more),” explained Jonathan Aufray of Growth Hackers . “With the help of a great data analyst and a tool like Google Data Studio, we can quickly analyze our customers.”

Vira Vielmann of Seventh Scout says they turn to social media analytics most often. “We typically utilize social media analytics to learn more about the audience engaging with us. This gives us an amazing insight into their demographics and interests. They also let us know what topics and posts are doing well and which aren’t performing the best, so we can adjust our strategy and editorial calendars as needed.”  

4. Collect Customer Survey Responses

“My favorite way to get customer research is to send out an email survey,” James Pollard of The Advisor Coach said. “I keep it short (about five or six questions) and only ask them the questions that will have the biggest impact on my business.”

Based on the marketers we spoke with, there are more benefits to this type of research to learn the voice of customer than you may expect.

“When you really pay attention to the way that people share information with you,” Amber Vilhauer of NGNG Enterprises said, “you’ll notice your audience using specific verbiage and wording that you can bake into your website. Often times the way that you would describe your services is very different than the way that a customer or prospect would describe those services.”

“Ultimately, people want good products that will serve them well,” Mr. SR of Semi-Retire Plan explained, “so they do have an interest in giving you helpful information to improve your —especially if they’re an existing customer who already has an affinity for your brand.”

That said, marketing consultant Farheen Gill suggests giving customers a little added incentive. “Include them in the last phase of your welcome email journeys, but also offer giveaways for other surveys you need to run throughout the year (i.e. ‘Respond today to be entered into a drawing for a $50 gift card’).”

“What’s important,” said Andrea Loubier of Mailbird , “is that you dig deep with your surveys. Asking generic questions isn’t going to get you very far. Make sure your multiple-choice questions offer diverse answers and don’t be afraid to ask the hard questions. You may be shocked at just how much your customers are willing to share.”

Louis Watton of Shiply suggested another tip for getting insightful, honest answers. “One creative approach we’ve used in customer research is not letting interviewees know the company conducting the research at first.”

Explaining, Watton added, “Often we’ve found that customers will hold back on criticism if they know you work for that company. The most valuable insights and potential improvements we’ve learned have come from asking broader questions about the industry, which allows them to talk freely without worrying about insulting anyone.”

“We launch every new survey or questionnaire with a video,” said Charles Musselwhite of FunLovingCouples . “We don’t ask any more than 12 questions at a time, and we always add in a weird and obscure question or two to keep people on their toes and engaged.”

5. Watch Customers Use Your Product

Samuel Wheeler of Inseev Interactive offered up another top-notch tip, recommending marketers actually watch customers using the product, navigating the website, interacting with content, and more.

“It’s a great idea to ask users to narrate their thought process as they navigate the page and ask them to actually take an action (purchase or form submission). In addition to asking the users to talk through their decision-making process.”

“It’s a great way to get both quantitative and qualitative data,“ Wheeler added.

If you need to understand how customers are using your product to gather feedback, one tool you should consider for customer feedback is Usersnap. This helpful tool allows product managers, software engineers, designers, and marketers to instantly collect information from users on-site through screen captures, screen recordings, surveys, feature requests, menu buttons, in-app forms, visual drawings, and bug reports.

Another  feedback tool  you might consider to crowdsource customer feedback and feature requests is UseResponse. This tool allows you to create feedback communities where customers can post their feedback, while others can comment and upvote it.

Pro Tip: Here Is Your Go-To Dashboard For Measuring the Performance of Your Customer Support Team

No matter your role in customer support – agent, manager, or VP – your core focus is to ensure that customers’ issues, complaints, and information requests are always dealt with promptly and efficiently. But to stay on track, you may have to spend hours manually compiling data from different tools into a comprehensive report. Now you can quickly monitor and analyze your customer service performance data from Intercom in a single dashboard that monitors fundamental metrics, such as:

• New conversations . Track the total number of new conversations your customer support team handles daily, weekly, monthly, or within the specified date range.
• Open conversations by team member . View the total number of conversations in your support inbox that are still open and find out which team members are handling them.
• Leads . Track the number of leads generated by your customer support team within a specified date range. Dig deeper to learn the nature of the messages that help convert visitors to leads, and use your insights to improve future conversations.
• Users by tag name . View the total number of conversations your customer support team has handled over time and see how your team members tagged those messages in Intercom. Using tags makes it easier for anyone monitoring the dashboard to learn more about customer needs, interests, and issues.

Now you can benefit from the experience of our customer support experts, who have put together a plug-and-play Databox template that contains all the essential metrics for monitoring and analyzing the performance of your customer support reps. It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in customer service reports, and best of all, it’s free!

You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.

To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:

Step 1: Get the template 

Step 2: Connect your Intercom account with Databox. 

Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.

6. Leverage Publicly Available Data

We talk a lot about gathering and analyzing data these days, but one thing marketers often forget about is the wealth of existing data that are publicly available online. “A lot of people overlook the incredible amount of data that the government and nonprofits collect that can be useful for customer research,” said Jeromy Sonne of Reverb Agency .

“The most creative approach I’ve used to learn more about my customers is public records, which give me additional information about the customer’s location, demographics, behavioral specialties,” added Emily Andrews of RecordsFinder . “Public records have a big database, which helps me to understand how better I can sell my clients’ goods or services.”

Carmine Mastropierro of Mastro Commerce told us about a hybrid customer research process: “One approach I’ve used to learn more about my customers is a mix of online research and market research tools.”

“Studying industry reports,” Mastropierro explained, “allowed me to get a broad overview of who my customers are and how they behave. Then, Google Analytics and other online tools helped me narrow down demographics, interests, and other behaviors to refine my audience.

7. Use Facebook Audience Insights

Casey Hill of Bonjoro also recommended pulling customer data from where it’s readily available already. In Hill’s case, that’s Facebook’s Audience Insights tool.

“It’s a free tool through Facebook,” Hill explained, “and it will give you information on any intended audience.” According to Hill, Audience Insights can help marketers answer questions like:

• What kind of jobs do customers have?
• When are they active online?
• What pages do they follow?

“It’s an incredible tool for customer research that many people aren’t aware exists.”

8. Have a One-on-One Conversation

“I find that doing a 30-minute video call beats every other type of research,” said Corey Haines of Hey Marketers . “With the right questions in hand and a friendly conversational tone, so much can be uncovered that you would never know otherwise.”

Sarah McIntyre of Bright Inbound Marketing agreed with Haines, saying, “Actually talking with people is critically important to understand, not just what they think about your product or service, but how they found you, what the sales process was like, who else they were considering, why they chose you. Unless you actually ask, you’ll be running your marketing based on assumptions.”

According to Renee Bauer, Hello Marketing Agency abides by a similar strategy for customer research. “We do regular NPS surveys for a client, and we ask responders to let us know if they are willing to participate in a one-on-one interview. These interviews serve as a helpful supplement to persona research, and provide actionable information for our client about what’s important to their current customers and how they need to improve their service.”

“Face to face encounters in a more social setting (as opposed to an interview or focus group) will give you the most honest, instinctive, and digestible feedback,” said Kyle Turk of Keynote Search.

“Online feedback methods, although they still provide great feedback, allows the user to spend too much time thinking of a response, and the ability to manipulate their responses. It also really only captures your promoters and detractors. The core customer group that is neutral about your product or service will not engage in the feedback, leaving a large gap in data.”

Anna Kaine of ESM Inbound echoed Turk, noting that “picking up the phone for a talk with customers is always more personal and genuine than just sending out a questionnaire—because you can really probe and show you’re listening. It’s a far more human experience.”

“We are clear and open about the focus of the calls, and they’re always happy to help us – after all, it’s in their best interests for us to focus closer on their pain points,” Kaine added.

Paige Arnof-Fenn of Mavens & Moguls recommended make a tour of customer interviews. “Go on a Listening Tour. Ask a few smart, open-ended questions, then sit back and take notice. Start listening with no strings attached and you’ll be amazed at what you find.”

Ever Increasing Circles ’ Alistair Dodds seconded Arnof-Fenn’s last point, adding, “We’ve found out things that I don’t think would have ever come up in an office or business environment. And it’s helped us to really focus in on how to get the client to their real objective.”

9. Conduct Research With Google

It’s no surprise that the king, queen, and jester of online research is, of course, Google. But the marketers we spoke with noted so many novel ways to use Google search for customer research, including:

• Reading competitors’ customer reviews on Google My Business
• Researching the way customers speak about your product and industry
• Tailoring content toward real customer pain points and questions

“Google is an excellent resource to learn more about your customers, without the use of expensive tools,” said Ben Johnston of Sagefrog Marketing Group . “If you’re in a competitive space, look at your competition’s Google My Business profiles and read the reviews of satisfied and unsatisfied customers to learn what real customers like or don’t like about your direct competition.

Roman Zhyvitsk of Travel SEO Agency touted the importance of using Google to better understand how your customers speak about (and search for) your business. “When you sell your products or services online, it is highly important to know what search phrases people use to find it. Very often it is not as obvious as you might think.”

Johnston also noted how Google can help with ensuring content resonates with your customers, saying, “You can refine your content ideas to actually engage with your customer base by looking at ‘People Also Ask’ or ‘People Also Search For.’ That’s a direct insight into what kinds of questions your customer base is asking and what they’re interested in.”

Set Up Google Alerts for Customers and Prospects

In addition to conducting manual customer research on Google, Carlos Puig of BUNCH shared another pro tip: Google Alerts.

“Right after signing a contract with a new customer, I strongly recommend setting up a Google Alert for the name of the company and the names of the people you closed the deal with. Google will keep pushing relevant information that will help you understand the situation of your client and detect potential upsells.”

10. Ask Customers to Rate Your UX

Much of the advice we heard focused on overall customer information. But Victor Antiu of Sleek Bill says they focus on the micro aspects of customer experiences, too.

“Throughout the app, we marked micro-conversions. When the user finishes one (for example creates and sends an invoice), we show a small rating bar and based on the score he gives us, we either show him a small survey to find out what was hard, or we thank him and ask what we can improve.”

“It’s a similar system to what Skype and Booking.com do,” Antiu explained. “It’s a simple way to find pain points or issues in various funnels.”

11. Use Social Listening

“Social media is probably the best tool that you could use to understand the thought process of your client,” said Harry Gandia of Igniting Movement . “Social media can help a marketer discover what their target audience is thinking in real-time. Not many other mediums can offer that. And it’s totally free.”

Many of the marketers we spoke with invoked one form of social listening or another. After all, social media is where customers hang out—regardless of who your customers are.

Find Their Online Groups and Hangouts

“One approach we use to learn more about our customers,” Kelsey Miller of Pepperland Marketing explained, “is to find the online groups, forums, and communities that they frequent. This can be in the form of Facebook groups, Reddit threads, industry-specific forums, hashtags, and so on. This is helpful in understanding how these people interact with each other, the questions they are asking, the challenges they are facing, and so much more.”

Alexandra Sheehan of Coach Content recommends turning to Facebook Groups specifically. “I love joining Facebook groups that my audience is likely to be a part of and just observing their behavior. This shows you what really makes them tick. The things that annoy them, their true pain points, their sense of humor, little nuances like that.”

“ Find out where your customers are hanging out online,” advised Vinoth AJ of Apoyo Corp , adding, “One proven method is Quora. All we have to do is type a topic and it will display all questions related to that topic. Go ahead and read all the questions related to your market.”

Create Your Own Group

While many marketers recommend going where the customers are, there’s also some benefit to taking the Field of Dreams approach.

“By far the best way to learn more about our customers has been to create a dedicated Facebook group around our products,” said Jonathan Chan of Insane Growth . “Not only does this give us the ability to foster a real sense of community around our brand, but we have routine access to the most highly-engaged members of our audience.”

Jack Paxtone of VYPER echoed Chan, explaining, “Hosting a forum either on our website or on Reddit turned out to be a great way to build a database of feedback from our clients, while also engaging with them to build a strong relationship for our brand.”

“The Vyper Facebook Group is currently our most popular platform for getting to know our customers,” Paxtone added. “We can freely interact with each other, understand their likes and dislikes, and also request valuable feedback when we are beta testing new products and services.”

Jarrod Miller-Dean of Housecall Pro added, “We utilize community outreach in our private Facebook group. For example, by posing a question in the group and asking members for their help and response.”

12. Use Heatmap Tools to Understand How Customers See Your Website

Customer research is about more than just who your customers are. It’s also about understanding how they interact with your brand and your product. That’s why Sneh Ratna Choudhary of Beaconstac recommended using a heat mapping tool to better understand and optimize their website for the customers visiting.

“We’ve been using Hotjar to understand the exact pain points of users to implement a human-centered design.”

“For instance,” Choudhary explained, “our free QR Code Generator tool was receiving visitors, but there weren’t any real conversions. We looked at Hotjar videos only to find out that we had way too many CTAs to begin with. Upon realizing this, we scaled down our CTA to include only 3 major CTAs and our visitor-to-trial conversion rate is currently hovering at 15.6%.”

13. Keep It Informal

For some, customer research can feel like a weighty, formal undertaking—but it doesn’t have to be, and many of the marketers we heard from reminded us of that.

“So many business owners and entrepreneurs think that market research is this big, complicated thing,” Carla Williams Johnson of Carli Communications pointed out. “And, while you can conduct structured surveys and questionnaires, you can also simply ask your customers directly what they think of an idea that you may have.”

“Sometimes that direct, informal approach can give you the best feedback,” Johnson added.

Liz Courtney of BBMG took that idea to the next level, saying, “To get more realistic and meaningful insight into consumers’ needs, aspirations and behavior, we try to connect with them on their own turf. Visiting them in their homes, going shopping with them, or chatting with them in pairs with a friend rather than forcing them into unnatural settings like sterile focus groups or relying only on multiple-choice surveys.”

14. Tap Your Network for Feedback

Kathleen Marrero of First Fig Marketing & Consulting emphasized the effect an existing relationship can have on the kind of customer research and feedback you end up with, suggesting your network is a great place to start.

“I have found the best way to learn more about potential customers is to open up a friendly dialogue with connections I have on social media platforms. I have reached out to numerous connections on sites like LinkedIn and asked for a real, honest conversation about whatever space I am gathering information within, the good and bad and any other information that would help me better serve the community.”

“I have found that people are very willing to offer insight if there is no sales pitch,” Marrero added.

15. Leverage Your Email Subscribers

“Reaching out to email subscribers to ask what’s bothering them is one of the most effective ways to learn more about customers,” said Priscilla Tan of Content Kapow .

“Two weeks ago,” Tan shared, “I was struggling to write a blog post. I didn’t know which topics to focus on. Rather than going with my gut, I asked my subscribers. I gave them 3 options and picked the one with the most number of votes. Not only did it help with topic development, but it also helped me to dig deeper into the pain points they’re facing at work.”

16. Offer a Beta Version of Your Product in Exchange for Feedback

One common thread throughout the responses we heard was that, while customers do have an incentive to help you create a better product for them, that isn’t always enough to entice feedback or survey responses.

To combat that problem, Carsten Schaefer of Crowdy.ai suggested offering a beta or paired-down version of your product in exchange.

“We launched a beta for 100 days before going live with our product. We gave our beta users all the features completely free in exchange for one thing: feedback about our product and how they used it for their business,” Schaefer explained. “It has brought us incredible insights which we used in the final iteration of the product.”

17. Learn from Live Chat and Support Interactions

If there’s one painfully overlooked source of customer research, it’s the support team. Few other teams within a business have the kind of direct contact with customers that customer support pros see every day.

Zack Naylor of Aurelius said, “I make it a point to answer every single live chat we get on our website for product questions and requests. Often what happens is that I get to learn a lot about potential customers from what they’re looking for and end up being able to schedule a live call to dive deeper and learn more.”

Get to Know Your Customers

Customers are the lifeblood of every successful business, and finding business traction and growth depends on your ability to get to know and understand your customers.

Whether you’re ready to go big with a large, organized customer survey or simply want to chat one-on-one with a few customers, you’ll emerge better equipped to serve their needs and grow the business.

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10 real-life examples of using customer research findings in marketing

Last updated 27 February, 2024.

Raise your hand if you instinctively experienced one or more of the following at the mention of customer research: 

• Think that you need to pick up the phone, call a research company, and mentally prepare to go through stacks of tabular data. 
• Reject the idea because…well, you know your customers well enough and how to find them.
• Groan at the thought of it because it brought up unpleasant feelings.

Before you also almost instinctively close this blog post, hear us out! 

Customer research doesn't involve lab coats or big data. 🖖

The word ‘research’ connotes a large-scale, tedious investigation process of gathering data. This connotation is likely to come from the phrase ‘research and development’ recorded in 1923 for work on a large scale to drive innovation. 

So if you think you need to seek out research companies, or 200 customers, to conduct customer research to get information, you’re not alone . 

Etymologically , the word ‘research’ simply refers to the act of searching closely for a (ONE!) specific person or thing — let that sink in for a bit. 

And pssst: If you’re interested in this topic, stay tuned for more (and subscribe to our Advance Insider newsletter to make sure you won't miss any future posts! 👇 )

Has that sunk in yet? Let's talk a little more about customer research for b2b saas companies. 🤩

Here’s what customer research really is: It’s a conversation in which you have a clear goal(s) on a specific topic you need information on. 

From a marketing standpoint, customer research is a conversation about understanding the proper motivation and values that your customers are experiencing from using your product. It also helps to identify your ideal, and not so ideal, customer segments.

• Here’s a step-by-step guide for better B2B SaaS customer research to help you carry out one. ✅

The best part? You only need to talk to six people to identify a pattern that will validate your assumptions about your customers. Sometimes, you may only need three customer interviews to show you the bigger picture.  

Customer research eliminates the element of guessing

Let this sink in too. ☝️

If you have been trying to guess what appeals to your customers or why they leave you, then it’s time for customer research. If you have been basing your strategy on what you think your customers like, it’s also time for customer research. 

Building a strategy based on wrong information is setting yourself up for failure. We don’t want that, do we? Any customer research is better than no customer research at all (because you don’t live in their heads and, therefore, can’t speak on their behalf). 

Customer research is not just for marketing. It can be utilized throughout the entire company. For example: 

• Sales teams will benefit from understanding why customers are buying from you, not your competitors — how to talk to customers at different lifecycle stages, build rapport, and eventually close more sales.
• Customer success teams can understand the pain point of the product and figure out ways to better serve the customers. 
• Product teams have information that can help them develop a product that is sticky among their customers — the stickier the product, the longer the customer lifetime. 

The only way to know all that? Talk to your customers about their experience.

10 example use cases for customer research findings in marketing 🤑

You can probably tell by now how much we love seeking information (all that make-informed-decision talk is real). That’s because customer research is not just about finding new customers. It’s about finding the right customers AND retaining your existing customers — it’s the basis of the big growth game plan. 

Here are some of the discoveries our customers made from conducting customer research: 

1. It was the “side” product that had more value. ✅

In this particular case of having multiple SaaS products, our customer discovered that their main product wasn’t generating as much revenue as they’d assumed.

After having spoken to their customers, we found that there was a larger ideal customer segment for one of their smaller products — one that was not given much attention but was generating the most leads out of and required the least outbound efforts. 

• Result: Companies that were still using Excel sheets for their human resources management would need their software. Excel sheets are great for some tasks, but human resource management is not one of them. It was an overlooked pain point.
• The outcome from this? Our customer discovered a market fit for a product that had been disregarded. On top of that, we also created a content strategy that was targeted towards this specific customer segment to boost lead generation. 

2. The “larger” customers weren’t our ideal customer segment. ✅

Customer research is greaaaat for customer segmentation. In this case, we partnered up with a time management SaaS company. Their biggest challenge was not knowing their best customer segment with the longest lifetime. Churn was becoming an increasingly concerning problem, and their customer success team was using a fair amount of time on customers who were churning. 

Our research found that the churn rate was more significant among their larger customers because the product wasn’t meeting their needs.

In contrast, customers with a standard subscription package have a longer lifetime because it was exactly what they needed. 

• Result: After narrowing down their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) based on our research data, we were able to tailor our messaging to serve their existing ICP better — a huge step towards better retention and lesser churn. 

3. Being in front of the right audience yields results, fast. ✅

Many of our customers find it challenging to nail down their ICP properly. Due to that, they often end up in front of the wrong audience — it’s like talking to a brick wall! You know how frustrating that is. Not to mention expensive too (oh hello, customer acquisitions costs 💸💸💸)! 

We had narrowed down ICPs for many of our customers using our customer research framework. Based on the information we gathered, we were able to tailor our messaging according to their needs. 

• Result: In one of our cases, we successfully helped our customer boost their online sales . Our customer research data gave us insights into the different needs and situations of other industries — knowledge that allowed us to deliver various successful experiments and tactics that generated results. 👇

4. Customers were buying for entirely different reasons than what we thought. ✅

In this case, we partnered up with a company specializing in water efficiency.

They’d initially thought that their value proposition lies in helping their customers be more cost-efficient by being water-efficient. But our customer research revealed that it was otherwise. 

• A CRM tool to better nurture and quality leads.
• Content optimization and a new content strategy for their target industry.
• Approximately 15% monthly growth in organic traffic resulted in quality leads.

5. Time to enter a new market! Wait…they don’t want the same features?! ✅

Remember we mentioned that customer research is not just for marketing? This is one of those cases. Our customer was ready to enter a new market segment after successfully selling accounting software to enterprises in the past.

They assumed their new target customers would want the same thing or have the exact needs for product features as their existing customers. However, the findings from the customer research showed otherwise — their new target customers wanted something else.

• Result: We presented this data to our customer with the presence of the product team. While the team gained a clearer insight into features that matter most to their new target customers, they also needed to decide the best time to enter the market. 

What would you do if you were standing at a crossroad like that?

• Option 1: Go ahead blindly, and hope for the best.
• Option 2: Find your way, and strategize with the information as your guide. 

Even the most adventurous of us know never to wander into the wild without a map and a compass. As this was a very recent finding, we’re still in the midst of helping our customers decide the next feasible go-to-market actions — to develop desired features before the new target group market entry or to implement a new packaging or productization. 

6. Pivot, pivot, pivot! ✅

It is only by talking to a customer, an actual person you want to sell to, that you’ll gain the contextual value of what they want and are willing to pay for. Having that knowledge is king!

In the case of helping a HR management SaaS customer reach their growth targets, we found out that many of their customers didn’t realize they needed a HR management software until a salesperson reached out to them.

It turns out, a company should already invest in a HR management software when they have 30 or more employees.  

• Result: Instead of casting a wide net, we tailored their messaging to strengthen their positioning among companies with 30 or more employees but don’t yet have a HR management software. 

7. “This is how our customers compare us to our competitors?!” 🆘

During customer research, you’ll gain an understanding of your customers’ buyer experience — the way they buy the product, how they make comparisons between service providers, and how they compare the brand, features, and pricing.

This is exceptionally so when you have a complex product. Any kind of friction such as difficulties in getting information is a risk of losing that customer. And you won’t know about it unless you talk to your customer. 

• Result: We use insights and findings from customer research to help our customer strengthen their product marketing efforts and reduce friction for their customers. 

8. “We didn’t make this up. This is what our customers are saying.” 🙆🏻‍♀️

The highlight of our customer research framework is that you get to truly understand your brand and tone of voice from your customer’s perspective. When you get to hear (firsthand!) your customers speak about the products in their own words and what kind of challenges they face, you’re golden. Why? 

1) You no longer need to guess what kind of content to create when nurturing them.

2) You get endorsements and quotes you can use in your marketing game plan. Your customers are your brand ambassadors!

• Result: We utilized customer research findings in content creation. It’s as close to the customer as it gets. In one of our customer research interviews, several participants highlighted that they enjoyed how our customer communicated with them. It was personal and non-jargony as if talking to a co-worker. Based on that discovery, we modified our customer’s tone of voice. 

9. “We had brand research. But we didn’t know our customers were facing these challenges until now!” 🆘

There are two types of customer research: qualitative and quantitative. In this particular case, there were still gaps of missing information despite having existing brand research. 

Remember when we said ‘any customer research is better than no customer research at all’? This is it. Their existing research allowed us to identify themes that we then incorporated into our very own customer research framework. 

• Result: The entire process brought their customers to the table and allowed our customer to see the challenges their users faced and the solutions they were searching for. The insights we gained from this research enabled us to communicate the product's competitive advantages to their audience better. 

It was also an eye-opener for their product team. They gained a thorough understanding of how the team should develop the product and features that were particularly valuable to their target customer segment.

10. “We actually know what our customers need now.” 🙆🏻‍♀️

You know how frustrating it is when you don’t get to say what you want to say, and you don’t feel heard. Customers are the same. And their breakup with you comes in the form of the dreaded churn. Throughout our journey with customer research, we've learned that they appreciate being heard! 

• Result: In the above case (#9), we were able to capture their customers’ pain points which we used to build a content strategy that focused on nurturing their existing customers. 

Conclusion 🖖

A piece of advice for marketers? Talk to your customers. 

Customer research really isn’t as daunting as it sounds. Five things about customer research to take away from this piece: 

1️⃣ It is not only about finding new customers. It’s about finding the right customers AND retaining your existing ones. Listening to your customers helps you serve them better. 

2️⃣ You get to be in front of the right audience so that you won’t be talking to a brick wall.

3️⃣ You eliminate the element of guessing. You no longer need to take a shot in the dark. Yes, you CAN and should make informed decisions. 

4️⃣ It’s the basis of your strategy, game plan, and secret sauce to becoming your customer’s favorite vendor. 

5️⃣ You don’t need to talk to 200 customers to find the answer. You can if you want to. But talking to six customers is enough to give you the information you’re looking for. 

As to when’s the best time to do customer research? In most cases, customer research is needed when: 

• You have missing pieces of information, and you don’t have anything to work with anymore. 
• You plan to enter a new market or make changes to your products.
• It’s been several years since the last customer research. 

If you find yourself trying to figure out your next steps towards growth and don’t have an immediate answer to that, then the answer is: It’s time for customer research. 

Need help? We can help!

Customer research is always part of our growth marketing strategy, but we also happen to offer customer research as a single project. So quite logically, at this point we suggest you take a closer look at either our growth marketing services or customer research as a project pages for more details! Talk to you soon! 🤩✌️

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23 Excellent Customer Satisfaction Survey Examples [+ Templates]

Published: May 30, 2023

Your product or service revolves around your customers and their experience.

How do you gauge their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with your products? And, how do you decide to work on a new feature if you don’t know whether the customer needs it or not?

This is where customer satisfaction surveys come in, as their results let you know exactly how your customers are feeling — how satisfied they are.

This journey of providing your customers with a positive experience starts from the moment they land on your website and extends beyond the moment they become your customer. Without question, delighting them and encouraging them to become loyal customers is a never-ending commitment. As Derek Sivers from CD Baby puts it, “Customer service is the new marketing.” And that couldn't be truer.

In this post, we’ll cover:

The Importance of Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Customer satisfaction survey questions, best practices for creating customer satisfaction surveys, customer satisfaction survey template.

• Customer Satisfaction Survey Examples

5 Free Customer Satisfaction Survey Templates

Easily measure customer satisfaction and begin to improve your customer experience.

• Net Promoter Score
• Customer Effort Score

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Customer satisfaction surveys help businesses better understand and utilize the voice of the customer to sustain growth. There are several key reasons above and beyond this overarching goal that make customer satisfaction surveys a top priority for customer centric businesses.

1. Identifying negative themes in the customer experience: By conducting customer satisfaction surveys, companies can pinpoint negative themes that customers are having and work to resolve them. This helps improve the overall customer experience and increases customer loyalty.

2. Gauging customer loyalty: These surveys give customers a chance to share feedback that yields their propensity to be a loyal customer. Companies can use this information to better retain customers.

3. I dentifying customer trends: Surveys allow companies to identify trends in customer satisfaction over time. For example, if several customers have the same complaint about a product, there may be a shift happening in the market that your business hasn't noticed yet. Acting on this feedback can keep your business ahead of the curve to not only keep existing customers, but acquire new ones who are interested in that same trend.

4. Providing a competitive advantage: Companies that regularly conduct customer satisfaction surveys and make adjustments based on feedback are likely to outperform their competitors. This is because they are better able to meet customer needs and expectations.

5. Validating business decisions: Customer opinions and feedback are two of the most essential factors that validate decisions within your business, allowing you to become more equipped to meet their specific and immediate needs instead of basing your strategy on assumptions.

6. Shaping the customer lifecycle: Their opinions also shape the customer lifecycle. If you don’t know their thoughts, you have a lower chance of retaining them, delighting them, or enticing them to make future purchases.

With all of this in mind, you get opinions and information about satisfaction levels through your customer satisfaction surveys. Without them, you’d never know how your customers were feeling, and you’d never be able to meet their needs.

• What is your level of education?
• What is your approximate annual household income?
• Where do you work and what’s your job title?
• What industry are you in?
• What’s your most important priority when (insert something related to your industry)?
• What’s your biggest roadblock when (insert something related to your product)?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with your in-store experience today?
• How likely are you to recommend (insert product or service) to others?
• Rate your satisfaction with our team in resolving your issue.
• Did you feel that our team answered your inquiry promptly?
• Do you agree or disagree that your issue was effectively resolved?
• How likely are you to purchase again from us?
• How likely are you to return to our website?
• In your own words, describe how you feel about (insert company name or product here).
• How can we improve your experience with the company?
• What's working for you and why?
• What can our employees do better?
• How can our employees better support your business’s/your goals?
• How can we improve your experience with the website or the in-store location?
• Why did you choose our product over a competitor’s?
• What would be one word you’d use to describe us and why?
• May we contact you to follow up on these responses?
• In the future, would you be willing to take this survey again?
• If we were to update (insert product feature here), could we reach back out to talk about these changes?
• Can we connect you with a customer success manager via chat?
• Would you be open to discussing upgrade options for your product?
• Can we send you a list of useful resources for getting the most out of your product?
• How long have you been using the product?
• Which alternatives did you consider before purchasing the product?
• How often do you use the product or service?
• Does the product help you achieve your goals?
• What is your favorite tool or portion of the product or service?

If you want to obtain valuable feedback from your customers, then you have to ask them the right questions. Sharing information isn't always an easy task, and it's not the customer's job to provide your business with constructive criticism. Instead, it's the surveyor's responsibility to create a thought-provoking prompt that engages the participant.

Customer Feedback Questions

To get the most out of customer feedback you’ll need to make sure you’re asking the right questions. Open-ended questions are a great way to gain more thorough explanations about your customer’s experience with your brand, but they’re not the only types of questions you can ask.

If you're getting stuck on deciding what to ask your customers, here are some of the types of questions we recommend including on your customer satisfaction survey:

Product Usage

When it comes to customer success and satisfaction, your business must collect feedback about your product or service. If you don't, then it's more difficult to assess customer needs and provide effective solutions.

Finding out how satisfied your users are with your offer provides your marketing and product teams with valuable information that can be used to improve customer retention .

Some questions that you could ask in this section are:

• What would you improve if you could?
• Which product features do you consider the most valuable?
• Which product feature do you use most often in your day-to-day ?
• What points of friction have you encountered while using the product?
• If there was one new feature you could suggest, what would it be and why?

Demographics

Demographics are essential to marketing and sales teams because they make it easier for companies to segment customers into buyer personas . By grouping customers based on key characteristics, this categorization helps employees visualize their target audience. Marketing and sales teams can then use that information to pursue leads that are most likely to convert.

When asking these types of questions, be sure to embrace a proactive and inclusive approach. These questions shouldn't be mandatory, so always provide an option for customers to omit an answer. Your goal is to extract honest information, but you don't want it to come at the expense of the customer's comfort.

Here are some demographics questions that you should consider including in your next survey:

• How old are you?
• Where are you located?
• If applicable, what gender do you identify as?
• What is your employment status?
• What is your marital status and do you have children?

Psychographics

Psychographic questions dig deeper than demographic questions, uncovering information relating to your customers’ preferences, habits, behaviors, and tendencies. It’s not about who your customer is, but why they do what they do.

Psychographic questions may seem intrusive, but they’re highly valuable pieces of information that give you a glimpse into the reasons for your customer’s buying habits. They’re usually phrased concerning your industry and not specifically about your product.

These questions are instrumental in customer satisfaction surveys because you can indirectly find out how you can better serve your customers.

Here are a few questions you might ask:

• Do you prefer to shop on your phone or your laptop?
• E.g. if you’re a mortgage lender, you might ask, “What’s your most important priority when buying a home?”
• E.g. if you’ve created a recipe-sharing app, you might ask, “What’s your biggest roadblock when trying to access the best recipes online?”
• How much time do you spend on (insert social media platform you’d like to use for advertising)?
• How much does sustainability matter to you in purchasing a product?
• How do you feel about (insert product type)?
• E.g, if you sell women’s razors, you might ask, “How do you feel about women’s razors?”
• What do you dislike about (insert product type)?
• How many hours a day do you spend doing (insert something that relates to your product)?
• E.g. if you sell ergonomic car seats, you might ask, “How many hours do you spend driving?”

Satisfaction Scale

Sometimes there are aspects of your offer or business that you want feedback on, but they aren't things that your customers are actively addressing. In these cases, it helps to be direct and ask customers how they feel about these specific details.

Before you do, you'll have to determine a quantifiable way to measure their responses. Adopting a satisfaction scale section is a great way to create a consistent approach to quantifying this subjective survey feedback. A few ways that you can implement this scale are:

• A scale measuring from 1 to 10 (or another number). 1 means the customer was extremely unsatisfied and 10 means the customer was very satisfied.
• A descriptive scale that measures a customer's response from unsatisfied to satisfied. The customer is given a shortlist of responses to choose from that range from “very unsatisfied” to “very satisfied."
• A picture scale that uses images to symbolize customer satisfaction. For example, you can use happy, sad, and indifferent emojis to quickly gather customer feedback.

Example questions include:

Open-text questions are survey questions that allow the participant to write out their response within a text box. This allows users to fully express their opinions using the customer's voice instead of the company's pre-written responses.

While they can sometimes be time-consuming to analyze, these questions encourage the participant to be honest and give them the freedom to address any topic. Open-text questions can be an instrumental asset when determining the core values of your customers.

Here are open-text questions you can ask in your next survey:

• Do you have any additional comments or feedback for us?

In the last section of your survey, you'll want to include questions about the steps that'll happen after submission. These questions permit your team to follow up with the participant in the future.

This comes in handy when you roll out changes and want to get updated feedback from the same customers that were surveyed earlier. You can phrase these types of questions in a few different ways:

While measuring customer satisfaction can be tricky to manage, asking effective questions can reveal highly valuable customer insights — and the questions we’ve listed above will do the trick.

Next, we’ll go over best practices for creating customer satisfaction surveys.

• Make sure you choose the right survey tool.
• Always ask short and relevant survey questions.
• Send the surveys at the right time.
• Always A/B test your surveys.
• Thank your customers for their feedback.

Designing a customer satisfaction survey is no easy task. Luckily, there are a few best practices that will help you increase response rates and get much-needed feedback from your customers.

1. Make sure you choose the right survey tool.

Choosing the right survey tool is important because it can significantly impact the quality of your results. A good survey tool should be easy to use, customizable, and be able to provide in-depth analytics. It should also have the ability to automate survey distribution and analysis.

Without the right customer survey feedback tool , you’ll have a whole lot of data and no way to distill it or glean valuable insights from it. Choose a tool that gives you the ability to ask different types of questions, examine basic metrics such as response rates, and track customer sentiment over time.

2. Always ask short and relevant survey questions.

No one enjoys spending a lot of time answering surveys, so be sure to keep your survey questions short and to the point. Asking short and relevant survey questions is the key to earning high completion rates. Long and complex survey questions can be overwhelming and may discourage customers from providing any feedback at all.

On the other hand, shorter questions allow customers to easily comprehend what is being asked and are more likely to provide accurate responses. When asking open-ended questions, keep the minimum character count short, make the question optional, or offer an incentive.

3. Send the surveys at the right time.

Give a lot of thought to the placement of your surveys throughout the customer journey. It wouldn’t make sense to send a survey to someone who’s only just subscribed to your blog — nor would it make sense to send one year after a customer stopped doing business with you.

Sending surveys at the right time is critical to getting accurate feedback. Customers are more likely to provide feedback when they are in a position to evaluate their experience with your company.

When do you send a customer service survey? Send it after a lengthy interaction with one of your teams, a few weeks after purchase or onboarding, and a few times throughout the year to measure the customer’s happiness.

4. Always A/B test your surveys.

A/B testing is an excellent way to find out whether your surveys are as effective as they can be. Simply create two versions of the survey with minimal changes. You can change the order of the questions, the number of questions, the wording, and even the color of the buttons. (Change only one thing at a time so you can accurately measure its impact on the survey.)

By comparing the results of each version, you can determine which version yields the highest response rate and provides the most accurate feedback. This can help you refine your survey strategy and improve the overall quality of your survey data.

5. Thank your customers for their feedback.

Thanking customers for their feedback is important to show that you value their opinion and are committed to improving the customer experience. It also helps to improve customer loyalty and increases the likelihood that they will provide feedback in the future.

Whether it’s through a gift card, a discount, or simply a nice email, always thank the customer for their time, regardless of the nature of the feedback.

By thanking customers for their feedback, you signal that you take their opinions seriously and are committed to addressing their concerns. This can help you maintain strong relationships with your customers and drive long-term business success.

Ready to craft your own customer satisfaction survey? Use the template in the next section to get started.

How To Use Customer Satisfaction Survey Results

1. define customer segments..

Customer satisfaction surveys can be used to segment customers based on their preferences. With these survey results, you can tailor your approach to specific customer groups and provide more personalized experiences.

2. Track customer satisfaction over time.

Identifying changes in customer sentiment can be difficult if you don't have multiple data points over a long period of time. Regular customer satisfaction surveys can be used to track this and address issues before they become systemic problems.

3. Benchmark against competitors.

Customer satisfaction survey results can be used to benchmark your company’s performance against competitors. This way, you'll identify areas where your company may be falling short and implement changes to improve your standing in the market.

The following customer satisfaction survey template can help you get answers from your customers in one easy step. It asks one simple question: “How satisfied were you with your experience today?” If you’d like, you can add more questions to get more details from your customers.

To make a copy of this template and get 4 bonus templates, click here .

Now you’ve got a template and are ready to create your customer satisfaction survey. In need of some inspiration? Take a look at these examples we pulled from different companies.

Customer Satisfaction Survey Examples from Real Brands

We’ve covered why asking for customer feedback is important and the types of questions to include, but you still might be wondering how to put it all together. Let’s check out the customer feedback example questions below from real companies to gain insight into how to roll out a survey of your own.

HubSpot is another company that uses NPS surveys to assess customer satisfaction. This score primarily comes into play with its customer support and success teams, who can be reviewed after each new interaction.

HubSpot's engineers then use these responses to address areas in their software that could use improvement. By using this scoring system, HubSpot can attain both qualitative and quantitative data to direct its product development efforts.

What we like:

HubSpot uses its surveys to create product-level improvements, and the best part is that for customers, answering one question is an effortless way to give feedback. So it’s a win-win on both sides. When you carry out surveys, be sure to forward the feedback to the right department to address any issue that your customers brought up.

The Hilton Hotel company provides its customers overnight stays with promising customer service, upholding its century-old reputation.

To better understand what people’s stays were like, it offers a one-page survey where customers can willingly submit their feedback. It’s just a few questions long, most of which are logistical (such as where the visitor stayed and how long they stayed there for). Users then have the option of elaborating.

This seemingly simple survey from Hilton gives unhappy guests an easy, friction-free opportunity to submit feedback about their recent stay. It’s hosted on a public URL that guests can access without needing to get through any barriers. The questions are simple and easy to answer.

Uber has two target audiences — the drivers and the passengers — and it does a great job collecting opinions and reviews from both. The passengers give ratings after every ride, and the drivers rate the passengers as well.

This survey makes it fair and transparent for both the driver and the passenger, and these ratings affect both parties’ reputation as well. If a passenger has a lower rating, the driver has the authority to decline the booking. If you run a business with two target audiences, create a survey for both.

Netflix provides its customers with curated entertainment recommendations that would not be possible unless they had a great understanding of customer satisfaction.

Overall, Netflix brings out its A-game when it comes to customer experience. With its recommendation system, it is as customer-friendly as one can get. Netflix studies the behavior of all of its customers and recommends movies and shows per their ratings, likes and dislikes, or just what they have been watching. It also collects feedback periodically to improve its offerings.

In this survey, Netflix tries to better understand users’ behaviors and preferences. This shows that even if you dominate the market like Netflix does , you shouldn’t stop there. Continue collecting feedback from your customers and users, and don’t be afraid to get granular to understand their needs.

Slack is a business messaging app that helps professionals connect from anywhere. It bases its product development entirely on customer feedback.

In fact, customer feedback is at the epicenter of its efforts. For instance, there's a command within the application where users can send feedback to the Slack team, or just tell them what features the users would like to have. The co-founders read all the user feedback and made sure they responded to every ticket raised.

In the email above, Slack invites the user to take a survey to improve its offering. The email is short and to the point.

Slack’s commitment to collecting customer feedback is commendable, and so are its invitations to take the survey. In the above example, Slack makes the survey seem more exclusive by mentioning that it was only sent to a few people. Don’t be afraid to curate a short list of customers to send the survey to, especially if it seems like those customers would be more likely to answer.

Drift provides businesses with a revenue acceleration platform that caters to a buyer-centric world. The above survey asks one simple question: “How likely are you to recommend Drift to a friend or colleague?” Sometimes, that’s really all you need.

Drift sends Net Promoter Score®, or NPS, surveys. NPS is a critical SaaS metric used to measure customer satisfaction. The only question it asks is whether the customer is likely to recommend the business to a friend or colleague — and this can be enough of an indicator of a customer’s happiness with your brand.

Paytm has always taken customer opinions into account and has taken serious steps to improve the customer experience.

Taking customer experience and security to another level, Paytm has created a “ bug bounty ” to catch fraudulent merchants. If customers accidentally buy fake movie tickets through the platform, for example, Paytm allows them to get refunds on their bookings.

Paytm gives users the opportunity to tangibly improve the product by giving them the ability to report bugs directly on the app. Plus, it not only collects customer feedback, it acts on it, too, by fixing those bugs. Overall, Paytm provides plenty of avenues for turning an unhappy customer into a happy one.

Another example of a product that provides great customer service is Skype, a business recognized for its telecommunication technology. If you call people using Skype, you know that it asks for feedback after every call. But more than that, it believes in immediately solving customers’ problems.

In the survey above, Skype asks for feedback on the quality of the call. It’s just three questions long, and when it comes to surveys, the shorter, the better. It also gives users the ability to quickly answer the questions by offering multiple choices instead of letting them write out an answer (though they have that option, too).

Skype gets straight to the point in this simple three-question customer satisfaction survey. Even more, it keeps the focus on the product by only asking about “Audio Issues” and “Video Issues.” If you sell a product where users might run into issues, consider asking targeted product performance questions, then leave a blank text box for users to elaborate.

Amazon, one of the most popular eCommerce websites in the globe, exceeds user expectations by collecting all kinds of information. When you contact its customer service department, it sends you a customer feedback survey that asks three questions about your interaction:

• Please rate the service provided by the Amazon representative.
• Please rate how well you could understand the Amazon representative.
• Anything else to add?

But Amazon doesn’t stop there. It makes information easily accessible in a knowledge base , so users can find answers and troubleshoot on their own. This reduces the chances of incorrect purchases, which can make all the difference in a customer's buying decisions.

Amazon’s customer satisfaction survey is a great way to gauge how happy the customer is after getting help from the customer service team. It’s important because customers only reach out when they’re unhappy — so sending a survey like this one helps Amazon understand whether the customer is happy again. Like Amazon, be sure to send surveys after your customers interact with your service team.

10. Twitter

Zomato is one of the largest food delivery and review websites in the world, and its success can be largely attributed to customer satisfaction.

Another product with two types of audiences — restaurants and hungry diners — Zomato puts both of their needs and expectations into consideration. Every restaurant gets rated on the food, and every buyer gets to rate the restaurants. In the above survey, it asks for feedback with one simple statement:

“Tell us what you love about the app, or what we could be doing better.”

Then it allows users to free-write their thoughts.

This open-ended survey format is perfect for websites and apps. You would ideally always include the option to give feedback in a pop-up button, banner, or tab that users can click. That way, you don’t need to contact users first; they can voluntarily submit feedback to you.

12. Greyhound

H&R Block Advisors sent another well-timed customer satisfaction survey — just after “Tax Season” in the U.S.

For accountants and financial advisors, the months before the tax filing deadline are the busiest, so a prompt survey after filing with H&R Block helps the company gauge how many returning customers it can expect.

H&R Block Advisors smartly sends the survey at a busy time for its business. If your business also has busy periods or periods where people are more interested in your products, send surveys during those time ranges to optimize the amount of responses you receive. You’ll get more submissions simply because you have more customers during those months.

Measuring sentiment, in addition to satisfaction, is important when surveying your customers.

In this survey, GEICO asks about customer sentiment regarding a specific interaction during the purchase process — and the general feeling of the experience as well. In this way, GEICO can smooth out specific roadblocks throughout the customer journey, and get an in-the-moment snapshot of its wider customer sentiment.

GEICO’s example is simple, short, and to-the-point. It only has three questions and gives an additional avenue for contacting GEICO’s customer service team. Always give respondents a second option for submitting feedback or contacting your team to better gauge how satisfied they are with your brand.

16. Taco Bell

HubSpot for WordPress is a plugin that adds CRM functionalities, forms, and live chat to WordPress websites. In this survey, HubSpot aims to find out whether the plugin has been working as designed. It has just one simple request: “Rate your experience using HubSpot for WordPress.”

We recommend using this format for product-related surveys — specifically those that have to do with a single specific feature. For instance, if you recently rolled out a new update, this single-question survey can help you measure your customers’ opinions about the new addition to their software or product.

The five-star scale is simple to understand and makes it easy to answer, because all the user has to do is provide a star rating. The users can also answer straight in their email, instead of needing to access an external survey link. Sometimes, you don’t need to include complicated questions and options to create an effective customer satisfaction survey.

19. McDonald's

McDonalds is a fast food company that knows exactly how to cater to its customers, even deploying different strategies in countries across the world. One way it tracks success is through incentivized feedback.

One feature that stood out on this McDonald's survey was the labeled receipt on the right-hand side. The element is highlighted so participants know exactly what McDonald's is asking them about in the corresponding survey. Not only does this ensure McDonald's gets accurate information from the survey, but it also reduces any friction customers may have if they're unsure or confused about a question.

20. Home Depot

When customers go to hardware stores, they’re looking for a business that will satisfy their home renovation needs, and Home Depot delivers just that. It collects feedback from customers to improve its offerings and provide better service moving forward.

To entice participants to take the survey, Home Depot offers a $5,000 Home Depot gift card. Offering a sweepstakes entry up-front is a great way to ensure that you get feedback from customers who are more likely to purchase from you again. If you weren’t interested in Home Depot, you wouldn’t take a $5,000 gift card. Right away, you get to gauge the customer’s continuing interest in your business.

21. INBOUND

INBOUND is a yearly experience that brings together professionals and business leaders who are interested in growing their company the inbound way. To improve the experience every year, INBOUND asks for feedback — but first, it thanks attendees for coming and provides a link to the year’s recorded content.

This more easily compels the recipient to continue engaging with INBOUND. Even if they don’t answer the survey at the moment, they may come back later if they watch a recording of an INBOUND talk.

INBOUND’s example is great because it not only thanks attendees for attending, it also provides value by providing a link to the content library. Additionally, it gives respondents alternative ways to reach the INBOUND team. In your surveys, thank your customers for their business and provide additional value so they continue engaging with your brand.

Etsy’s customer satisfaction survey takes a slightly different approach. Rather than sending the survey from a customer service rep’s email, it is sent from Etsy’s research team instead. Even more, a picture of the research team member is included at the end, making it easy to forge a human connection with the person who might actually read the survey responses.

Once you click on the link, you’re taken to an extensive survey that asks a multitude of questions. While shorter surveys are typically better, Etsy establishes the right expectations by sending the survey from the research team. This gives you the impression that the survey will be long and extensive, because it’s being used for research purposes.

Etsy’s example is a winner because it opens with a personal greeting from one of Etsy’s team members. Even if the email was mass-sent, that greeting immediately makes it feel more personal, and the picture of the Etsy staff member only personalizes it further. Lastly, if you plan to send a long survey, feel free to call it “research” to establish the right expectations.

23. Autonomous NYC

Sometimes, you don’t need a fancily designed email to ask for feedback. Instead, you can send an email just like Autonomous NYC’s. And if you don’t feel comfortable including a picture of yourself like in the Etsy example, you can simply include your first name to give the survey request a more personal feel.

Once you click on the link, you’re taken to a 2-page Google Form survey that measures the user’s happiness with their experience on Autonomous NYC’s website. The survey is clear, succinct, and easy to fill out.

Autonomous NYC’s customer satisfaction survey hits all the right notes. It’s short, but not so short that Autonomous NYC’s team can’t glean any insights. It also makes most questions optional, so that users have the choice to walk away after answering two questions. Give the same option to your survey recipients by making at least a few of the questions optional.

Get More Customer Feedback to Grow Your Business

Knowing how your customers feel about you is instrumental in growing your business. Use customer feedback surveys to collect information that can create lasting and positive changes in your company. When you know how your customer feels, you can make decisions that lead to higher revenue and increased customer retention, empowering you to grow better.

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.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in November 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Here at GWI we publish a steady stream of blogs, reports, and other resources that dig deep into specific market research topics.

But what about the folks who’d appreciate a more general overview of market research that explains the big picture? Don’t they deserve some love too?

Of course they do. That’s why we’ve created this overview guide focusing on types of market research and examples. With so many market research companies to choose from, having a solid general understanding of how this sector works is essential for any brand or business that wants to pick the right market research partner.

So with that in mind, let’s start at the very beginning and get clear on…

Market research definition

At the risk of stating the slightly obvious, market research is the gathering and analyzing of data on consumers, competitors, distributors, and markets. As such it’s not quite the same as consumer research , but there’s significant overlap.

Market research matters because it can help you take the guesswork out of getting through to audiences. By studying consumers and gathering information on their likes, dislikes, and so on, brands can make evidence-based decisions instead of relying on instinct or experience. 

What is market research?

Market research is the organized gathering of information about target markets and consumers’ needs and preferences. It’s an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining competitiveness.

If a business wants to know – really know – what sort of products or services consumers want to buy, along with where, when, and how those products and services should be marketed, it just makes sense to ask the prospective audience. 

Without the certainty that market research brings, a business is basically hoping for the best. And while we salute their optimism, that’s not exactly a reliable strategy for success.

What are the types of market research?

Primary research .

Primary research is a type of market research you either conduct yourself or hire someone to do on your behalf.

A classic example of primary research involves going directly to a source – typically customers or prospective customers in your target market – to ask questions and gather information about a product or service. Interviewing methods include in-person, online surveys, phone calls, and focus groups.

The big advantage of primary research is that it’s directly focused on your objectives, so the outcome will be conclusive, detailed insights – particularly into customer views – making it the gold standard.

The disadvantages are it can be time-consuming and potentially costly, plus there’s a risk of survey bias creeping in, in the sense that research samples may not be representative of the wider group.

Secondary research 

Primary market research means you collect the data your business needs, whereas the types of market research known as secondary market research use information that’s already been gathered for other purposes but can still be valuable. Examples include published market studies, white papers, analyst reports, customer emails, and customer surveys/feedback.

For many small businesses with limited budgets, secondary market research is their first choice because it’s easier to acquire and far more affordable than primary research.

Secondary research can still answer specific business questions, but with limitations. The data collected from that audience may not match your targeted audience exactly, resulting in skewed outcomes. 

A big benefit of secondary market research is helping lay the groundwork and get you ready to carry out primary market research by making sure you’re focused on what matters most.

Qualitative research

Qualitative research is one of the two fundamental types of market research. Qualitative research is about people and their opinions. Typically conducted by asking questions either one-on-one or in groups, qualitative research can help you define problems and learn about customers’ opinions, values, and beliefs.

Classic examples of qualitative research are long-answer questions like “Why do you think this product is better than competitive products? Why do you think it’s not?”, or “How would you improve this new service to make it more appealing?”

Because qualitative research generally involves smaller sample sizes than its close cousin quantitative research, it gives you an anecdotal overview of your subject, rather than highly detailed information that can help predict future performance.

Qualitative research is particularly useful if you’re developing a new product, service, website or ad campaign and want to get some feedback before you commit a large budget to it.

Quantitative research

If qualitative research is all about opinions, quantitative research is all about numbers, using math to uncover insights about your audience. 

Typical quantitative research questions are things like, “What’s the market size for this product?” or “How long are visitors staying on this website?”. Clearly the answers to both will be numerical.

Quantitative research usually involves questionnaires. Respondents are asked to complete the survey, which marketers use to understand consumer needs, and create strategies and marketing plans.

Importantly, because quantitative research is math-based, it’s statistically valid, which means you’re in a good position to use it to predict the future direction of your business.

Consumer research 

As its name implies, consumer research gathers information about consumers’ lifestyles, behaviors, needs and preferences, usually in relation to a particular product or service. It can include both quantitative and qualitative studies.

Examples of consumer research in action include finding ways to improve consumer perception of a product, or creating buyer personas and market segments, which help you successfully market your product to different types of customers.

Understanding consumer trends , driven by consumer research, helps businesses understand customer psychology and create detailed purchasing behavior profiles. The result helps brands improve their products and services by making them more customer-centric, increasing customer satisfaction, and boosting bottom line in the process.

Product research 

Product research gives a new product (or indeed service, we don’t judge) its best chance of success, or helps an existing product improve or increase market share.

It’s common sense: by finding out what consumers want and adjusting your offering accordingly, you gain a competitive edge. It can be the difference between a product being a roaring success or an abject failure.

Examples of product research include finding ways to develop goods with a higher value, or identifying exactly where innovation effort should be focused. 

Product research goes hand-in-hand with other strands of market research, helping you make informed decisions about what consumers want, and what you can offer them.

Brand research  

Brand research is the process of gathering feedback from your current, prospective, and even past customers to understand how your brand is perceived by the market.

It covers things like brand awareness, brand perceptions, customer advocacy, advertising effectiveness, purchase channels, audience profiling, and whether or not the brand is a top consideration for consumers.

The result helps take the guesswork out of your messaging and brand strategy. Like all types of market research, it gives marketing leaders the data they need to make better choices based on fact rather than opinion or intuition.

Market research methods 

So far we’ve reviewed various different types of market research, now let’s look at market research methods, in other words the practical ways you can uncover those all-important insights.

Consumer research platform 

A consumer research platform like GWI is a smart way to find on-demand market research insights in seconds.

In a world of fluid markets and changing attitudes, a detailed understanding of your consumers, developed using the right research platform, enables you to stop guessing and start knowing.

As well as providing certainty, consumer research platforms massively accelerate speed to insight. Got a question? Just jump on your consumer research platform and find the answer – job done.

The ability to mine data for answers like this is empowering – suddenly you’re in the driving seat with a world of possibilities ahead of you. Compared to the most obvious alternative – commissioning third party research that could take weeks to arrive – the right consumer research platform is basically a magic wand.

Admittedly we’re biased, but GWI delivers all this and more. Take our platform for a quick spin and see for yourself.

And the downside of using a consumer research platform? Well, no data set, however fresh or thorough, can answer every question. If you need really niche insights then your best bet is custom market research , where you can ask any question you like, tailored to your exact needs.

Face-to-face interviews 

Despite the rise in popularity of online surveys , face-to-face survey interviewing – using mobile devices or even the classic paper survey – is still a popular data collection method.

In terms of advantages, face-to-face interviews help with accurate screening, in the sense the interviewee can’t easily give misleading answers about, say, their age. The interviewer can also make a note of emotions and non-verbal cues. 

On the other hand, face-to-face interviews can be costly, while the quality of data you get back often depends on the ability of the interviewer. Also, the size of the sample is limited to the size of your interviewing staff, the area in which the interviews are conducted, and the number of qualified respondents within that area.

Social listening 

Social listening is a powerful solution for brands who want to keep an ear to the ground, gathering unfiltered thoughts and opinions from consumers who are posting on social media. 

Many social listening tools store data for up to a couple of years, great for trend analysis that needs to compare current and past conversations.

Social listening isn’t limited to text. Images, videos, and emojis often help us better understand what consumers are thinking, saying, and doing better than more traditional research methods. 

Perhaps the biggest downside is there are no guarantees with social listening, and you never know what you will (or won’t) find. It can also be tricky to gauge sentiment accurately if the language used is open to misinterpretation, for example if a social media user describes something as “sick”.

There’s also a potential problem around what people say vs. what they actually do. Tweeting about the gym is a good deal easier than actually going. The wider problem – and this may shock you – is that not every single thing people write on social media is necessarily true, which means social listening can easily deliver unreliable results.

Public domain data 

Public domain data comes from think tanks and government statistics or research centers like the UK’s National Office for Statistics or the United States Census Bureau and the National Institute of Statistical Sciences. Other sources are things like research journals, news media, and academic material.

Its advantages for market research are it’s cheap (or even free), quick to access, and easily available. Public domain datasets can be huge, so potentially very rich.

On the flip side, the data can be out of date, it certainly isn’t exclusive to you, and the collection methodology can leave much to be desired. But used carefully, public domain data can be a useful source of secondary market research.

Telephone interviews 

You know the drill – you get a call from a researcher who asks you questions about a particular topic and wants to hear your opinions. Some even pay or offer other rewards for your time.

Telephone surveys are great for reaching niche groups of consumers within a specific geographic area or connected to a particular brand, or who aren’t very active in online channels. They’re not well-suited for gathering data from broad population groups, simply because of the time and labor involved.

How to use market research 

Data isn’t an end in itself; instead it’s a springboard to make other stuff happen. So once you’ve drawn conclusions from your research, it’s time to think of what you’ll actually do based on your findings.

While it’s impossible for us to give a definitive list (every use case is different), here are some suggestions to get you started.

Leverage it . Think about ways to expand the use – and value – of research data and insights, for example by using research to support business goals and functions, like sales, market share or product design.

Integrate it . Expand the value of your research data by integrating it with other data sources, internal and external. Integrating data like this can broaden your perspective and help you draw deeper insights for more confident decision-making.

Justify it . Enlist colleagues from areas that’ll benefit from the insights that research provides – that could be product management, product development, customer service, marketing, sales or many others – and build a business case for using research.

How to choose the right type of market research 

Broadly speaking, choosing the right research method depends on knowing the type of data you need to collect. To dig into ideas and opinions, choose qualitative; to do some testing, it’s quantitative you want.

There are also a bunch of practical considerations, not least cost. If a particular approach sounds great but costs the earth then clearly it’s not ideal for any brand on a budget.

Then there’s how you intend to use the actual research, your level of expertise with research data, whether you need access to historical data or just a snapshot of today, and so on.

The point is, different methods suit different situations. When choosing, you’ll want to consider what you want to achieve, what data you’ll need, the pros and cons of each method, the costs of conducting the research, and the cost of analyzing the results. 

Market research examples

Independent agency Bright/Shift used GWI consumer insights to shape a high-impact go-to-market strategy for their sustainable furniture client, generating £41K in revenue in the first month. Here’s how they made the magic happen .

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Customer Feedback Surveys: Types, Questions, and Templates

12 min read

Customer feedback surveys serve as invaluable tools for gathering actionable insights directly from your audience.

However, it’s important to know when and how to trigger the forms to gather user feedback , for increased response rate and data credibility.

In this article, we explain the definitions, types, examples, and best practices of customer feedback questionnaires to help you increase your response rate.

• Customer feedback forms gather user insights and sentiments that allow you to improve your product/service.
• Collecting customer feedback helps to build user-centric products, measure satisfaction, identify areas for improvement, and boost user retention.
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT). Track overall satisfaction with your product or service.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS). Measure customer loyalty by asking how likely they are to recommend your product to others.
• Customer Effort Score (CES). Determine your platform’s ease of use.
• For close-ended questions . Use a Likert or rating scale, give dichotomous options, or offer multiple choices.
• For open-ended asks. Allow users to answer using their own words.
• Onboarding. Rate from one to five your overall satisfaction with the onboarding process .
• Customer service experience. Overall, how would you rate your experience with our customer service team?
• Product usage. Have you encountered any issues or challenges while using our product? If yes, please describe.
• Product usability . Did you find it easy to navigate through our product?
• Quality. Which specific aspects of our product do you find most valuable?
• New feature release. Were there any features or functionalities missing from the new release that you would have expected to find? If yes, please describe.
• Customer experience. How was your experience with our product?
• Customer loyalty. On a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with your overall experience using our product?
• Best practices for feedback collection involve triggering the surveys in context, keeping them short, avoiding leading questions, and closing the feedback loop.
• To collect user feedback by building in-app surveys and keep track of your analytics in the same place, try Userpilot. Get a demo .

Try Userpilot and Take Your Customer Satisfaction to the Next Level

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What are customer feedback surveys?

Customer feedback surveys are a way of gathering user insights and sentiments about your product. Through a customer satisfaction survey, companies can determine what’s working and what’s not and plan for new features or improvements.

For example, a poor result in onboarding overall satisfaction shows that you need to offer a better experience to new users.

Why should you collect customer feedback?

Collecting customer feedback allows you to build user-centric products that serve them better. But also, you should launch a customer survey to gather feedback and:

• Measure customer satisfaction over time. Stay on top of the CSAT and your NPS rates by using surveys to discover user expectations and feelings. Use the same scale over time to compare year-on-year results.
• Identify areas of improvement. Gather actionable analytics , review the customer sentiment, and determine which aspects of your platform could use more work.
• Increase user retention. Collect customer feedback to build a direct line of communication with your users. Showing that you listen to their ideas can help improve your customer retention.

Types of customer satisfaction surveys

There are different types of customer satisfaction surveys in SaaS depending on the insights that you want to get.

For example, you’ll ask different questions to measure customer satisfaction vs. to track whether or not they’d recommend your platform to others.

Here are the types of questionnaires to keep in mind when creating customer satisfaction surveys:

1. Customer satisfaction score (CSAT) surveys

The CSAT is a metric that reveals overall satisfaction. To determine your business’s CSAT, ask different questions to your users via a customer satisfaction survey.

It’s crucial to ask users to answer on a rating scale of five or seven points to get quantitative answers. Look at this CSAT survey template for inspiration.

The question usually starts with “On a scale of 1 to 5, how satisfied are you with X?” or “Rate how satisfied you are with X.”

The X can change depending on your goals, i.e., to measure post-product upgrade satisfaction, interactions with your customer service teams, or your onboarding process .

2. Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys

This type of customer satisfaction survey measures customer loyalty and retention . You get an NPS by asking users how likely they are to recommend your platform.

The NPS is tracked on a scale of one to ten and separates the answers into three groups:

• Detractors . Customers who feel dissatisfied with your product (ratings from one to six).
• Passives . Indecisive or not overly satisfied, but also not unsatisfied customers (seven and eight ratings).
• Promoters . People who are excited about your product, are loyal, and will recommend it to others (ratings nine and ten).

Choose one of the types of NPS surveys (relationship or transactional) that fits your goals best. Also, compare your NPS with benchmarks of customer satisfaction in the industry.

3. Customer effort score (CES) surveys

The third type of customer satisfaction survey measures the CES. This KPI determines product ease according to users.

You can get this score by asking questions such as: “On a scale of one to five, how easy did you find it to complete X?”

You can use a customer effort score survey template to determine how easy it is to:

• Navigate your website.
• Adopt new features.
• Find support.
• Complete onboarding tasks.

Types of customer survey questions

Just like there are different types of surveys, there are diverse forms to ask questions. These can be open-ended or close-ended survey questions .

Here’s a list of five types of survey questions :

1. Likert scale questions

The Likert scale is a method to quantify answers based on a very specific range from five to seven points. These usually help determine a customer’s level of agreement or disagreement.

For instance, a question such as “How satisfied are you with our customer service?” allows respondents to rate their experience along a spectrum of satisfaction – from Very dissatisfied to Very satisfied.

2. Rating scale questions

This is similar to the above, but rating scale questions usually refer to a numerical or a more vague range. E.g., rate from 1 to 5, and use these emojis to determine your satisfaction, on a scale of dissatisfied to very satisfied. For example:

Q: On a scale of 1 to 5, how satisfied are you with our onboarding guidance?

A: 1 – – – 5

3. Dichotomous questions

Ask questions with two possible answers and let the customer decide between them, i.e., yes/no, agree/disagree, or truth/false.

The goal of dichotomous questions is to gather the absolutes. I.e., overall, is the user more satisfied or dissatisfied with your product? For example:

Q: Did you find the information provided helpful?

Use open-ended questions to follow up and gain more information.

4. Multiple choice questions

As the name implies, these questions present customers with several options to choose from. Here, customers can select one or multiple answers that apply to their experience. For example:

Q: Choose one from the list below. Which of the following features do you find most valuable?

A: a. Automated reporting; b. Integration capabilities; c. Customizable dashboards; d. AI-driven analytics; e. Others (Please specify).

5. Open-ended questions

Contrary to all of the above, these are questions where users get to write their answers. The goal of open-ended questions is to gain details and verbatim of the user experience.

These constitute the qualitative part of the survey responses. You can usually add open-ended questions at the end of the survey as a follow-up. For example, you can trigger different NPS follow-up questions depending on the score they chose.

Q: Can you expand on why you wouldn’t recommend the product to others?

Templates for customer satisfaction survey questions

Use these templates to build customer satisfaction surveys and gather insights across the full customer journey lifecycle. Here are questions to ask for different purposes:

For measuring onboarding satisfaction

A good onboarding survey should have around seven to ten questions to maximize the chances of getting answers. So, mix some closed-ended questions with one or two open-ended ones.

Build your internal customer onboarding feedback survey template to measure satisfaction with your customer’s response onboarding experience consistently over time. Examples include:

Rating or Likert scale questions :

• How would you rate the accessibility of resources (e.g., knowledge base, help center) during the onboarding process?
• Rate from one to five your overall satisfaction with the onboarding process .
• How would you rate the onboarding experience compared to similar products you’ve used in the past?

Dichotomic questions :

• Are the onboarding materials (tutorials, guides, etc.) helpful?
• Do you agree or disagree with this statement: The onboarding was comprehensive and contained useful learning materials.

Open-ended questions :

• Were there any aspects of the onboarding process that you found particularly confusing or unclear?

For evaluating the customer service team experience

The best way to reduce the customer service gap is by identifying your customer expectations and needs in terms of the customer support team itself. You can do this through customer service surveys .

Here are some customer satisfaction survey examples for service rating:

• Based on the recent interaction with X customer service representative, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with our company?
• Overall, how would you rate your experience with our customer service team?
• How would you rate the accessibility of our customer service channels (e.g., live chat, email, phone support)?

Dichotomic + open-ended questions :

• Were there any challenges or frustrations you encountered while interacting with our customer service team? If yes, please explain. (Dichotomic + open-ended)

For determining product and usage frequency

Ask product survey questions to gain insight into your product’s usage. For example, if you want to know which features people value the most.

Product satisfaction surveys are different than heat maps because you get to discover the customer sentiment behind usage.

Examples of questions to ask here:

• Truth or false: I use X feature every time I interact with the product.
• Have you encountered any issues or challenges while using our product? If yes, please describe.
• Are there any specific tasks or processes for which you primarily use our product?
• Are there any features or functionalities that you would like to see added or improved in our product to better meet your needs?
• Why did you choose our product over your previous solution?
• If you had to modify or add something to our product, what would it be?

Multiple choice questions :

• How often do you use our product every week?
• Which specific features of our product do you use most frequently?

For measuring product usability

The goal of a product feedback survey is to identify key aspects of your product that might be confusing or overly complicated to your users and come up with a plan to fix them.

Here are some customer satisfaction survey templates to determine issues with the customer experience:

Likert or rating scale questions :

• Overall, how would you rate your satisfaction with our product usability?
• How would you rate the clarity of provided instructions within our product?
• Rate your agreement with this phase: I know where to find the help desk.
• Did you find it easy to navigate through our product?
• Truth or false: The website is easy to navigate.
• Were there any features or functionalities within our product that you found confusing? If yes, please describe.
• Did you encounter any errors or bugs while using our product? If yes, please describe.
• Which feature did you find easiest to use? a. AI-driven analytics. b. Interactive dashboards. c. Automated alerts.

For assessing your product or service quality

A picture is worth a thousand words but poor quality can cost you thousands. Stay on top of how your users perceive the quality of your product/service over the years. Use their answers to influence future product improvements.

Ask these product evaluation survey questions :

• How satisfied are you with the pricing of our [product/service]?
• On a scale of one to seven, rate your likeliness to renew your subscription or continue using our product/service based on the value it provides.
• How disappointed would you be if you could no longer use our product?
• Which specific aspects of our product do you find most valuable? a. Features. b. Integrations. c. Ease of use. d. Customer service. e. Overall customer experience.
• What do you think sets us apart from our competitors? a. Features. b. Integrations. c. Ease of use. d. Customer service. e. Overall customer experience.

For gaining feature release feedback

Query your existing customers on their satisfaction levels with your new feature right after launch. Measure the effectiveness of the new functionality and assess basic usability through questions of this sort:

Likert or rating scale questions:

• Overall, how would you rate your satisfaction with the recent feature release?
• Rate from dissatisfied to very satisfied, how content you are with X feature.

Dichotomic + open-ended questions:

• Have you encountered any issues or challenges while using the new feature(s)? If yes, please describe.
• Were there any features or functionalities missing from the new release that you would have expected to find? If yes, please describe.
• Are there any additional features or improvements you would like to see in future updates? If yes, please describe.

For evaluating the customer experience

Happy customers have a good experience and recommend your product to others. Create customer experience surveys to collect their opinions on your overall product or service experience.

Here’s a possible customer satisfaction survey template for measuring experience:

• How was your experience with our product?
• How would you rate the helpfulness of our customer service representatives?
• Did you encounter difficulties using our product? If yes, please describe.
• Is there anything else you’d like to share about your experience with us?
• What is one thing we could do to improve your experience with [product or service]?

For tracking customer loyalty

As you know, satisfied customers are usually loyal ones. So, review this metric in tandem with others and segment customers depending on how they feel about your company. Assess their loyalty levels by asking these questions:

• On a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with your overall experience using our product?
• How likely are you to recommend our product to others?
• If you were to change companies and were in charge of using a tool for X, would you recommend us? (Yes/No)
• What is the main reason we won your business?

Best practices to improve feedback collection across the customer journey

To improve your survey distribution and data collection, here are a few best practices we recommend:

• Contextualize the customer satisfaction survey. Trigger questions based on specific interactions or at certain times during the customer lifecycle. A contextual, in-app survey can increase your response rate and have higher credibility.
• Keep them short and simple. Avoid asking multiple questions, especially if you include open-ended ones. Try to stick to three to five for in-app questionnaires. This helps prevent survey fatigue and increase completion rates.
• Avoid leading questions . These are the kinds of questions that hint at the answer. For example, “Our support team solved your problems quickly, haven’t they?” This can result in survey bias and inaccurate survey data.
• Close the customer feedback loop . Show your customers that you care about them and are willing to fix their pain points by getting back to them. Inform them about changes, plans, or future improvements based on their feedback.

With careful planning and implementation, customer feedback surveys are powerful tools to improve your customer satisfaction survey’s efficacy. It’s also best to use a no-code tool for the automation and scalability of your in-app surveys.

Interested in collecting actionable insights from your users? Get a demo to start building your own customer feedback survey without coding!

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Understanding What is Churn: Your Essential Guide to Retention Metrics

Customer experience  (CX) defines a customer’s journey with a company, including both direct and indirect touchpoints. Businesses that place the emotional needs of the buyer persona at the forefront of the CX strategy fosters great relationships. Forrester reports that CX is a high priority for about 75%  of global business and technology professionals and their organizations. However, finding ways to increase customer engagement and brand loyalty can be a challenge. Here are seven customer experience trends that can help business leaders elevate their companies and improve their CX strategies.

Get the ‘AI for Customer Service’ guidebook

A new generation of consumers creates a need for new approaches to customer relationships. While sustainability is a growing value aligned to business, the way companies approach customer-centric sustainability efforts ought to be different for their younger consumers.

A brand needs to implement sustainability as part of its identity to better connect with this new age of consumers. Gen Z and Millennial customers are  27% more likely to purchase from a company  than older generations, if they believe that the brand cares about its impact on people and the planet. Even better, if the company’s product or solution is higher quality because of sustainable contributors, the brand might exceed customer expectations.

Reformation is a trendy clothing company that uses their commitment to sustainability as part of their business strategy. Unlike most e-commerce sites, Reformation has a dedicated navigation for customers to explore their sustainability efforts. The section headline of the site is their tagline, “ Being naked is the #1 most sustainable option. We’re #2 .” Along with punchy marketing, the brand details exactly how they’re providing sustainable products. They site their production process, material sourcing information, product care information and even their sustainability reports. By providing transparency and communicating their mission, Reformation became known for their commitment to social good among the younger generations.

A customer interaction with a business often goes through multiple touchpoints before that customer decides to engage with the brand. By implementing an omnichannel CX strategy, companies can expedite this process through interacting with their customer base in different places like social media apps, streaming platforms, e-commerce sites and more.

It is important to understand customer behaviors on various channels. For example, brand recognition on a podcast episode is great for awareness, but how many times do you click out of a podcast to purchase something? It may not be the channel for driving the digital customer experience; however, it might be one touchpoint in the customer journey. Adjust messaging to best fit different platforms and adapt marketing strategies to create a seamless omnichannel experience for your customers.

A company that has a consistent omnichannel strategy is Disney. Along with a memorable logo and the slogan “The most magical place on earth,” Disney keeps the spirit of its brand alive across the various platforms they serve. The founder, Walt Disney, wanted to create a seamless experience for customers that emphasizes the themes of family, fun and entertainment throughout all messaging.

Today, this strategy is visible in the My Disney Experience tool, which places the control in the hands of the customer to create their dream Disney trip. Keeping in mind a customer-centric omnichannel strategy, Disney considers each interaction that a child might have with the brand when positioning their messaging. This includes movies, TV ads, in-store costumes and in-person character experiences.

The name states the benefit itself, loyalty programs reward customers for their continued business, but they are also shown to increase customer retention. A total of 79% of customers are more likely  to do business with a company because of their loyalty program. Many businesses are even personalizing their programs, adding a hierarchy of loyalty status, to highlight their most loyal customers. Given the correlation between customer retention and customer loyalty, it is important that companies have a proactive approach to improving on their loyalty program benefits.

Beauty retail giant Sephora is known for their  Beauty Insider Program . Free to join, this program recognizes shoppers into tiers based on their annual store spending—Insiders, VIB and Rouge. Each tier rewards shoppers for their spending by equating points amount to a given dollar, for example Insiders get one point for every dollar spent. Along with a free birthday gift, all members get access to free, trial-sized products. As you move up the tiers more rewards are given spanning from early access to new product launches, higher discounts, more birthday perks, makeup training classes and even complimentary full-sized products.

Customers want to have control over their interactions with a company. AI-powered chatbots allow customers unlimited access to information through messaging. Also, optimizing search on webpages makes for an easier digital CX. Businesses should provide more of these self-service options for their customer experience—like booking appointments, order tracking and customer support bots. Allowing your customer base access to this information gives them the functions to control their customer journey. Access to more information allows your customers to feel trusted, which is the foundation Airbnb build their business on.

For many reasons—building trust, including customers in decision-making and creating a belonging culture—Airbnb has great customer loyalty. The company connects strangers renting their properties with people looking to stay in different locations across the world. This model sounds like it can invite disaster; however, by providing a trusted 24/7 customer support program, Airbnb upholds their CX. The company uses an omnichannel experience, through providing bots, live agents, social media messaging, in-app messaging and 24/7 phone and email support. Also, the  Airbnb Help Center  includes a plethora of resources at the customer’s disposal. They can choose their tailored experience, whether they’re a guest, host, experience host or travel admin. Along with optimized search, the help center includes blogs, FAQs, contact information and topic level organization.

As stated, emotional connection with customers is a foundational element of CX. Using data, companies can implement hyper-personalization into their CX strategy. Enterprises can collect predictive analytics from customer relationship management (CRM) systems to better personalize experiences. CRM systems provide 360-degree customer data—from sales, marketing and other functions—that can inform features like product recommendations, virtual cart reminders, SMS stock alerts and even greeting customers by name when shopping online.

How can businesses differentiate their personalization efforts to better connect with their customers? Improving the hyper-personalization of CX was identified as a  top use case by 42%  of AI decision-makers. Through technology like generative AI, companies can better identify trends in individual’s behavior and create personalized experiences. AI is not a new territory for eBay. The company has been using the technology to create better experiences for both sellers and shoppers.

Along with their personalized shopping assistant, Shop Bot, eBay announced the release of a generative AI powered-listing tool for sellers. The new tool, which is identified by eBay as a new “ magical listing experience ,” can extract information pictures that are provided by the seller to create descriptions and optimize the selling experience. Another example of how this tool works is that a seller can give their item a title and use generative AI to get recommended categories and other information that describes the item. Overall creating a more streamlined listing process for eBay sellers.

Just as AI can help with hyper-personalization, it can also help businesses to develop new experiential marketing strategies that better connect with customer expectations. IBV reported that  78% of global executives have an approach  to scale generative AI into customer and employee experiences. Through creating memorable experiences, businesses can develop a more emotional connection to customers. Even exploring and understanding new technologies like virtual and augmented reality might help businesses create an immersive experience for their customers.

One example of this is IKEA teaming up with Apple’s iOS 11 and ARkit to launch  IKEA Place  to equip their customers to be better interior designers. The app allows for furniture to be placed virtually in their residence via AR technology through their iPhone. According to IKEA the accuracy is at 98%; this allows customers to picture their products in their personal space before purchasing and eliminates the need to travel to a store location.

Customers are willing to share personal information, especially knowing it can provide real-time solutions and hyper-personalization. In fact,  50% of customers are willing to share personal information  to help create a tailored CX. These metrics can create advancements to relationships, products and service experiences with a business. However, customers want to know how their data will be used and they want to trust that the company can protect their personal information against data breaches. It is important for companies to share usage and privacy intentions with clear messaging so users can better understand how their data is benefiting their customer journey.

Listen now: Using AI for Marketing

A customer’s needs vary depending on the individual, and generative AI can support businesses in pleasing as many customers as possible through hyper-personalization. A proactive company implements a modern CX strategy that is accompanied by new technologies. IBM has been helping enterprises apply trusted AI in this space for more than a decade. Generative AI has further potential to significantly transform customer and field service with the ability to generate more human-like, conversational responses. IBM Consulting puts customer experience strategy at the center of your business, helping you deliver consistent and intelligent customer care with conversational AI.

IBM watsonx™ Assistant  is a market-leading, conversational AI platform that is designed to help you overcome the friction of traditional support and deliver exceptional experiences. IBM watsonx and IBM Consulting’s deep expertise in customer journey mapping, design, platform implementation and data and AI can help you harness best-in-class technologies to implement transformation across the customer lifecycle.

Read: Key components of a winning customer experience strategy

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20 Best Customer Success Tools of 2024

For successful companies, customer satisfaction is the ultimate goal, and the journey doesn’t stop at acquiring clients; it begins there. As companies face intense competition and shifting consumer expectations, they increasingly rely on advanced tools that they can confidently use to engage, retain, and thrill their customers. Let’s talk about the 20 best customer success tools of 2024.

The age of customer-centricity requires a shift in how businesses approach customer relationships. No longer a reactive pursuit, customer success has transformed into a strategic necessity for long-term growth. As we embark on this journey to explore the 20 best customer success tools of 2024, we uncover the complex network of analytics, automation, and personalized engagement that forms the foundation of modern customer success management, enlightening us about the immense potential of these approaches.

What are Customer Success Tools?

Customer success tools, a suite of software platforms and solutions, are a powerful resource for businesses. They enable companies to foster strong, mutually beneficial relationships with their customers. By harnessing the power of data analytics, automation, and personalized engagement strategies, these tools provide insights into customer needs, anticipate challenges, and deliver exceptional experiences throughout the customer lifecycle.

Customer success tools are instrumental in helping businesses proactively engage, retain, and grow their customer base. They enable companies to gather and analyze customer data, identify trends and patterns, and take targeted actions to enhance satisfaction and loyalty. These tools often include features such as customer health monitoring, lifecycle management, feedback collection, and predictive analytics, all aimed at driving long-term value for both the customer and the business.

A dedicated customer success team equipped with these tools is crucial for customer success. These teams are pivotal in managing customer relationships, addressing queries, and ensuring customers get the most out of the products or services.

Ultimately, by leveraging robust customer success tools and a dedicated team, businesses can effectively monitor customer health scores, anticipate needs, and proactively address issues before they escalate. This proactive approach promotes stronger customer relationships and cultivates a loyal customer base that is more likely to advocate for the brand and contribute to its long-term success.

What are the Uses of Customer Success Tools?

Customer success tools are not just tools but empowering resources that enable businesses to enhance the overall customer experience and drive business growth. Here are some of the key uses of these empowering tools:

• Customer Engagement: Customer success tools enable businesses to foster meaningful customer interactions across various channels, facilitating customer conversations and addressing customer queries effectively. These tools help strengthen relationships and build rapport by providing personalized communication and support.
• Retention Optimization: One of the primary proactive goals of customer success tools, such as customer health score trackers, is to minimize customer churn and maximize retention rates. Through data analysis and proactive interventions, businesses can identify at-risk clients and take targeted actions to address their needs and concerns, improving overall retention rates.
• Data Analytics: Customer success tools leverage data analytics to achieve insights into customer behavior, preferences, and satisfaction levels. Analyzing customer data empowers businesses to discern trends, patterns, and areas ripe for improvement, enabling customer success teams to make data-driven decisions.
• Lifecycle Management: These tools support businesses in managing the complete customer journey, spanning initial onboarding through renewal and expansion phases. By automating processes and workflows, companies can streamline customer interactions and ensure a seamless experience at every stage, effectively managing the customer lifecycle.
• Feedback Collection: Customer success tools empower businesses to collect customer feedback via surveys, feedback forms, and various communication channels. By systematically gathering and analyzing customer feedback, companies can glean invaluable insights into customer satisfaction levels and pinpoint areas for enhancement, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

Customer success tools are crucial in helping businesses proactively engage with their customers, optimize retention rates, leverage data insights, manage the customer lifecycle effectively, and gather valuable feedback to drive continuous improvement and growth. With these existing tools, companies can stay ahead of customer needs and ensure their satisfaction.

Importance of Customer Success Tools

Customer success tools are the key to unlocking customer advocacy, satisfaction, and loyalty.

Here are the importance of those tools:

• Enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Proactively engage with customers throughout their lifecycle.
• Reduce customer churn and improve retention rates.
• Leverage data analytics for insights into customer behavior and preferences.
• Streamline customer interactions and workflows.
• Identify areas for product and service improvement through feedback collection.
• Drive long-term value for both the customer and the business.

Customer success tools are vital in helping companies to thrive in today’s competitive market. By prioritizing customer satisfaction and utilizing innovative tools and strategies, companies can forge stronger relationships with their customers, driving growth and success in the long run.

9 Best Customer Success Tools of 2024

In an era of paramount customer satisfaction, businesses increasingly turn to advanced solutions to engage, retain, and delight their customers.

1. QuestionPro

QuestionPro is a versatile survey and feedback management platform that helps businesses gather customer insights to drive informed decision-making.

Key Features:

• Robust survey creation tools with various question types and customization options.
• Advanced analytics capabilities to analyze survey data and derive actionable insights.

Customizable reporting dashboards for visualizing survey results and trends.

• Integration options with other business systems for seamless data transfer and analysis.
• Multi-channel feedback collection, including web, mobile, email, and more.

Pricing: Most popular plans start at $99 per month, with pricing tiers available for businesses of all sizes. Custom pricing options are available for enterprises with specific needs.

2. Gainsight

Gainsight is a comprehensive customer success platform designed to help businesses drive proactive engagement, retention, and growth. It offers tools for analyzing customer data, automating workflows, and monitoring customer health data to ensure long-term success.

• Utilize advanced analytics to glean insights into customer preferences and behavior.
• Automation capabilities for streamlining customer interactions and workflows.
• Health monitoring to identify at-risk customers and take proactive actions.
• Integration with CRM and other systems for seamless data management and analysis.

Pricing: Custom pricing based on business size and requirements.

Totango is a customer success management platform designed to help businesses increase customer retention, reduce churn, and drive growth.

• Customer health scoring to identify at-risk accounts and prioritize actions.
• Lifecycle management features to guide customers through onboarding, adoption, and expansion.
• Automated workflows for proactive customer outreach and intervention.
• Integration capabilities with CRM, support, and marketing systems for holistic customer management.

Advanced analytics and reporting to measure success metrics and track performance over time.

Pricing: Custom pricing is available upon request and tailored to each business’s specific needs and scale.

Zendesk is a globally trusted customer service and engagement platform relied upon by businesses worldwide. It provides a comprehensive suite of tools to efficiently manage customer interactions across various channels, including email, chat, phone, and social media.

• Ticketing systems for efficient management of customer support requests.
• Knowledge base management for self-service support options.
• Integration with CRM and other business systems for seamless data synchronization.
• Customizable reporting and analytics dashboards for performance tracking.

Pricing: Zendesk offers a range of pricing plans starting from $55 per agent per month, with additional features available in higher-tier plans.

5. Salesforce Service Cloud

Salesforce Service Cloud stands out as a robust customer service platform. It offers a unique blend of tools for case management, knowledge base creation, and omnichannel support. It’s designed to help businesses deliver exceptional support experiences, setting them apart.

• Knowledge base management for providing self-service support options.
• Integration with Salesforce CRM for a unified view of customer interactions.
• AI-powered chatbots for automating customer support tasks.
• Advanced analytics and reporting capabilities for monitoring service performance.

Pricing: Salesforce Service Cloud pricing starts from $25 per user per month, with additional costs for customization options and advanced features.

6. CustomerSuccessBox

CustomerSuccessBox is a comprehensive customer success software that empowers businesses to nurture strong and mutually beneficial customer experience.

• Automated customer onboarding and lifecycle management processes.
• Customer health data monitoring and predictive analytics to identify at-risk accounts.
• Personalized engagement strategies based on customer segmentation and behavior analysis.
• Customizable dashboards and reporting to track key metrics and performance indicators.

Pricing: Custom pricing based on business needs and requirements.

7. Catalyst

Catalyst is a customer success platform that focuses on customer health scores, proactive engagement, and lifecycle management.

• Customer health scoring algorithms to assess the health of individual accounts.
• Integration with CRM and other business systems for centralized data management.
• Real-time alerts and notifications to flag potential risks or opportunities.
• Analytics and reporting features to track customer success metrics and outcomes.

Pricing: Custom pricing options available.

8. ChurnZero

ChurnZero is a customer success software focused on reducing customer churn through advanced analytics, automation, and health monitoring.

• Customer health score to prioritize and monitor engagement and satisfaction levels.
• We have automated workflows and playbooks for proactive customer outreach and intervention.
• Real-time alerts and notifications to notify teams of potential churn risks and opportunities.
• Integration with CRM and other business systems for seamless data synchronization and analysis.

Pricing: Custom pricing is available and tailored to the specific needs and scale of the business.

Custify is user-friendly customer success software that empowers businesses to effortlessly track customer health, automate workflows, and drive retention. 

• Customer health monitoring tools to assess customer accounts’ well-being and identify improvement areas.
• Workflow automation capabilities for streamlining repetitive tasks and ensuring consistent customer engagement.
• Integration options with CRM systems, communication tools, and other business applications for data synchronization.
• Reporting and analytics features for tracking key metrics and measuring the impact of customer success efforts.

Pricing: Plans start at $999 per month.

10. Vitally

Vitally is a customer success platform specializing in monitoring customer health and enabling proactive engagement strategies. It gives businesses the tools to track and analyze customer data, identify trends, and predict customer experience.

• Customer health monitoring is used to assess the well-being of each customer’s relationship.
• Segmentation tools to categorize customers based on their health scores and other parameters.
• Personalized playbooks for executing targeted engagement campaigns.
• Integration capabilities with various business systems for streamlined data management.

11. SmartKarrot

SmartKarrot is a customer success software solution that drives engagement, retention, and growth. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools to help businesses monitor customer health scorecards, collect feedback, and deliver personalized experiences.

• Health scoring to assess the overall health of customer relationships.
• Lifecycle management features to guide customers through various stages of their journey.
• Customer feedback collection and analysis for continuous improvement.
• Automated workflows to streamline processes and enhance efficiency.

Pricing: Plans start at $6,600 per year.

12. Planhat

Planhat is a right customer success software designed to help businesses manage and optimize their customer requests. It provides tools for tracking customer health, lifecycle management, and proactive engagement to drive long-term success.

• Proactive engagement tools such as automated messaging and playbooks to nurture customer relationships.
• Integration capabilities with CRM systems, communication tools, and other business applications.
• Reporting and analytics dashboard for monitoring customer metrics and performance.

Pricing: Custom pricing is available upon request.

13. EverAfter

EverAfter is a customer success automation platform that delivers personalized experiences throughout the customer’s journey. It helps businesses build strong customer communications by providing tools for onboarding, adoption, and ongoing engagement.

• Automated touchpoints and messaging to guide customers through key milestones and activities.
• Health scoring and risk assessment to identify areas for improvement and proactive intervention.
• Integration with CRM and communication tools for seamless data synchronization and engagement.
• Analytics and reporting dashboard to track customer health, satisfaction, and retention.

14. ClientSuccess

ClientSuccess is a customer success management software designed to help businesses drive retention, expansion, and advocacy. It provides tools for tracking customer health, managing renewals, and fostering strong relationships.

• Customer health monitoring to assess engagement, satisfaction, and potential churn risks.
• Renewal management features to streamline the renewal process and maximize retention rates.
• Integration capabilities with CRM, support, and billing systems for comprehensive customer data management.
• Reporting and analytics dashboard for tracking key customer metrics and performance indicators.

UserIQ is a customer success platform that helps businesses drive user adoption, retention, and expansion. It provides onboarding, engagement, and insights tools to optimize the user experience and maximize customer satisfaction.

• User onboarding guidance and walkthroughs will help users get started with the product.
• In-app messaging and notifications to communicate important updates, announcements, and offers.
• User analytics and behavior tracking to understand how users interact with the product and identify areas for improvement.
• Reporting and analytics dashboard for tracking user adoption, engagement, and satisfaction metrics.

16. HubSpot

HubSpot is a comprehensive CRM and customer success platform that helps businesses attract, engage, and delight customers. It provides tools for marketing, sales, and customer service to deliver a seamless customer experience.

• Sales automation tools for managing leads, contacts, and deals to accelerate the sales process and drive revenue growth.
• Customer service tools for managing support tickets, inquiries, and feedback to deliver exceptional customer experiences.
• Integration capabilities with third-party apps and tools for seamless data synchronization and workflow automation.
• Reporting and analytics dashboard for tracking marketing, sales, and customer service performance metrics.

Pricing: Plans start at $890 per month.

17. ZapScale

ZapScale is a customer success automation platform that helps businesses reduce churn, drive expansion, and improve customer satisfaction. It provides tools for health scoring, lifecycle management, and proactive engagement to optimize the customer journey.

• Health scoring to assess customers’ overall health and satisfaction and identify potential churn risks.
• Lifecycle management features to automate key customer touchpoints and activities throughout the customer journey.
• Integration capabilities with CRM, support, and billing systems for seamless data synchronization and workflow automation.
• Reporting and analytics dashboard for tracking customer health, satisfaction, and retention metrics.

Natero is a customer success software that helps businesses predict, analyze, and manage customer health and engagement. It provides tools for health scoring, lifecycle management, and proactive outreach to drive retention and expansion.

• Predictive analytics to forecast customer behavior, identify churn risks and prioritize actions for intervention.
• Health scoring is used to assess customers’ overall health and satisfaction and identify areas for improvement.

19. Salesmachine

Salesmachine is a customer success platform that helps businesses reduce churn, drive expansion, and improve customer satisfaction. It provides tools for health scoring, lifecycle management, and proactive engagement to optimize the customer journey.

Pricing: Plans start at $75 per month.

20. Velaris

Velaris is a customer success software that helps businesses track and manage customer engagement and satisfaction. It provides tools for engagement tracking, automation, and reporting to drive retention and growth.

• Engagement tracking to monitor customer sentiment, interactions and behaviors.
• Automation features to streamline customer touchpoints and workflows for improved efficiency and effectiveness.
• Integration capabilities with CRM, support, and communication tools for seamless data synchronization and workflow automation.

Why QuestionPro can be The Best Choice

QuestionPro is a top choice for customer success due to its comprehensive features that drive customer engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty. Here’s why it can be the best choice:

Versatile Survey and Feedback Management:

QuestionPro offers robust survey creation tools with various question types and customization options. This versatility allows businesses to tailor surveys to their specific needs and gather detailed customer feedback.

Advanced Analytics Capabilities:

The platform provides advanced analytics capabilities to analyze survey data and derive actionable insights. Powerful analytics tools enable businesses to delve deeply into customer preferences, behaviors, and satisfaction levels, providing invaluable insights.

Customizable Reporting Dashboards:

QuestionPro offers customizable reporting dashboards for visualizing survey results and trends. By providing real-time visibility into customer feedback, these dashboards empower businesses to make informed decisions and take proactive actions.

Integration Options:

The platform seamlessly integrates with other business systems, allowing for seamless data transfer and analysis. This integration capability ensures businesses can leverage existing data and workflows, maximizing efficiency and effectiveness.

Multi-Channel Feedback Collection:

QuestionPro supports multi-channel feedback collection, including web surveys, mobile surveys, email surveys, and more. By adopting a multi-channel approach, businesses can engage with customers across various touchpoints, ensuring a thorough feedback collection.

QuestionPro’s versatility, advanced analytics capabilities, customizable reporting dashboards, integration options, multi-channel feedback collection, and affordable pricing make it a compelling choice for businesses looking to drive customer success and satisfaction.

In the dynamic realm of modern business, the significance of customer success tools cannot be overstated. These tools are indispensable assets, guiding businesses to cultivate meaningful and enduring customer relationships. By harnessing the power of data analytics, automation, and personalized engagement, companies can meet and exceed customer expectations, driving unparalleled levels of satisfaction and loyalty.

Furthermore, customer success software options drive innovation and growth, equipping businesses with the tools they need to maintain a competitive edge in today’s rapidly evolving landscape. These tools provide invaluable insights and resources that shape customer-centric strategies, from streamlining customer interactions to predicting and preempting potential issues. As businesses increasingly emphasize customer experience as a fundamental aspect of their operations, adopting practical customer success tools becomes a strategic necessity for ensuring long-term success and prosperity.

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