First aid for setting up a customer satisfaction survey

Is this your first customer satisfaction survey? Then you probably have a lot of questions. You are not alone. Picture the meeting. Leadership asks who will take ownership of the customer satisfaction survey that returns every two years. It is an honour, and a serious job. People avoid eye contact. The business team is too busy. It should not become a communications only project. And because you are the quality manager, the task lands with you. So now it is yours. You feel the responsibility, and you feel the uncertainty. Where do you start, and how do you make time for it alongside everything else?

The start of a customer satisfaction survey

This situation is common. Many organisations decide with real enthusiasm to run a customer satisfaction survey. Then the hard question follows. Who will do it? If you are organising it this year, you are likely starting with a big set of question marks. This blog helps you move forward with five check questions. If you can answer them before you begin, you set yourself up for a smoother survey and stronger results.

1. What is the goal of the customer satisfaction survey?

Running a customer survey is not a goal in itself. You do it to show accountability, to improve, or to genuinely innovate. Be clear about what you need most. If accountability matters most, scores and numbers are often enough. If you want to improve, you need to understand the reasons behind standout results. If you want to innovate, you must actively search for fresh insights.

2. Who should I involve before setting up a customer satisfaction survey?

Involve people early, and they are far more willing to act later. So bring the right colleagues into the process as soon as possible. They will help you build the survey properly, and they will be more motivated to work with the outcomes once the results are in.

3. What do we want to learn from our customers?

Did you start by drafting the questionnaire right away? That is the number one trap for first time survey owners. Stop for a moment. First, sharpen the goal. Then align internally on the themes that matter most. Only build the questionnaire once the full survey setup is clear.

4. Which customers will we ask in the customer satisfaction survey?

This is a key choice, and it can trigger debate. Most organisations do not ask everyone. They work with a sample. You might also choose to speak only with your most important customers. Or you focus on a specific group, such as customers in a particular sector. What matters is that your selection matches your goal and what you want to do with the results.

5. What is the best method within your budget?

Choose the method based on the goal of the survey and the customers you want to involve. Do you need depth to improve or innovate? Then talk to a selective group of customers at a strategic level. That customer deserves a real conversation, even if it costs more. Do you have many customers you work with less intensively? Then questionnaires are often the better fit. You can reach a large group at relatively low cost, even with continuous surveying. That gives you a representative picture, which helps when your primary goal is accountability. Not sure which survey method to choose? Then it helps to compare methods before you commit.