Customer Satisfaction Survey for an Online Store - Why and How Create

In today’s article, you will learn how to conduct a customer satisfaction survey in an online store to boost sales in your e-commerce business.

Who knows best?

Or whom are you creating your store and products?

Who knows the best way to improve your products or what is still missing? Who knows the problems in your store that hinder purchases? Of course, your CUSTOMERS!

Steve Jobs said that customers don’t know what they want yet, and one needs to be a visionary and a creator…

Let’s be honest. If you don’t have significant capital from investors for market research and testing, it’s better to ask your customers. They know and will tell you what they need.

What specifically should you ask? That will be covered later.

Who should conduct the survey?

I don’t have research and statistics on this, but from experience, I know that the vast majority of people in e-commerce marketing have never spoken to their customers.

Speaking to your customer, means talking to the person who has PAID for your products or services. The person who is in your target group, and could possibly make a purchase, or maybe even said they would buy but didn’t complete the transaction, is not the person you should be talking to!

When I started marketing at Tebim, one of the first and most important tasks I carried out was calling a few of our customers, having a conversation, and conducting a survey with them. It wasn’t an online store survey because we provide Prestashop store implementation services, so we conduct B2B marketing.

Therefore, I asked 26 questions about the customer’s journey through our purchasing process and their satisfaction with our services.

I’m writing this article from a practitioner’s perspective, and I want to encourage you to survey your online store because our survey provided us with valuable information that improved our marketing, sales process, and customer service. I know it will be the same for you.

So, if you’re an e-commerce manager, you should personally conduct the customer satisfaction survey as soon as possible. If you don’t have a manager yet, dear owner, do it yourself. Why is it worth it?

The value of an online store survey

I answered this question a bit in the introduction, but to summarize, it’s worth conducting a customer satisfaction survey for your store because it will tell you:

• Where they heard about your store and how they found it
• Why they bought from you instead of the competition
• What difficulties they encountered while placing an order
• What you can do to make them buy more willingly, easily, frequently, etc.
• What products were missing that they would have gladly purchased
• Most importantly, they will tell you things you wouldn’t come up with on your own!

How to conduct an e-commerce survey

At this point, you’re probably expecting a list of various survey creation tools.

However, using an automated online survey tool is not always the best solution. It depends on the number of transactions in your online store.

If you have fewer than 10 transactions per day, the best option would be to conduct a customer satisfaction survey in the same way I do at Tebim.

You can create a survey using the free and user-friendly tool called Google Forms. It’s a simple and quick solution. I will describe the process of creating a survey step by step later on.

Now, here’s the worst part!

Pick up the phone, dial the customer’s number, and make the call. During the conversation, ask the survey questions, and enter the customer’s responses into the survey form.

Why conduct a telephone survey?

If you have fewer than 100 customers per week, it means that sending an online survey via email will be filled out by no more than one person per week. Such a small amount of data is insufficient to draw any conclusions.

By calling ten people, you can expect 3-5 responses to your questions, which significantly increases the effectiveness of this approach.

There is another significant advantage. During a phone conversation, you can ask additional and probing questions.

In my opinion, even if you have a large number of orders and can conduct a customer satisfaction survey in an automated way, it’s still important to take the time each month to call a few customers.

Now, let’s address a common objection. Many people say, “But what if the customer doesn’t want to be called?“

So, put yourself in the customer’s shoes. You purchased shoes from an online store, and after a week, the manager calls you to ask if the package arrived, if the shoes are okay, and if you’re satisfied with the service.

From my experience, the majority of customers will be happy, and your call will only increase their loyalty.

And if you come across a dissatisfied customer regarding the product or service, there’s nothing better! You will immediately learn what you can improve in your e-commerce business.

Tools for conducting an online store survey

When I had to conduct my first customer satisfaction survey, I started looking for different tools. However, after an hour, I made a decision – just do it. I use various tools on Google Drive every day, and there is also a tool for surveys.

If you have fewer than 100 orders per day, don’t waste time looking for other tools. Create your first survey using Google Forms.

If you have more than 100 orders per day, consider using HotJar. You can use it for various customer behavior studies in your store, such as recording heatmaps, user sessions, page and cart abandonment, and more.

The advantage of using HotJar for conducting an e-commerce survey is that you can find a recording of a user session where they filled out a specific survey. This way, you can closely examine how that customer behaved during the ordering process in your store.

If you need to implement a tool like HotJar for these types of studies and tests in your e-commerce business, feel free to contact us. We’ll be happy to advise you on whether your store already has sufficient traffic, which tool to use, and if you wish, we can assist with the implementation.

Where to place a customer satisfaction survey

If you have chosen an automated method of measuring customer satisfaction, you need to decide where to ask them to fill out the survey evaluating your store:

• Before placing an order, offer a discount code in exchange for a promise to complete the survey (preferably in a remarketing advertisement).
• On the thank you page, immediately after the order has been paid.
• Via email or SMS:
  • On the day of the order (if you want to inquire about the purchasing process).
  • On the day of receiving the shipment or a few days later (if you want to inquire about post-sales support and the product).

The length of an e-commerce survey

The length of an e-commerce survey should depend on the form and benefits for the customer in completing the survey.

Here’s where a telephone survey has another advantage—it can be much longer, within reasonable limits, as you will encounter customers who are very willing to talk and spend a lot of time.

In our case, it averaged 30 minutes, but I must remind you that these were B2B services, and I asked about the entire purchasing process, which usually takes several months.

When it comes to automated surveys, it requires testing. Start with 3-4 questions, gradually add more, and observe the conversion rate (the ratio of the number of orders or clicks on the survey link to the number of completed surveys). If the conversion rate starts to decline, it means that the survey is already too long.

If you promise a discount for completing the survey, then of course, you can afford a longer and more comprehensive survey.

What questions to ask in an online store survey

There is no template for ready-made questions because each survey has (or should have) its own purpose.

The goal of the survey

Before you start creating questions for your survey, ask yourself: What is the purpose of creating it? One of our main goals was to identify keywords that customers search for when looking for a solution, such as our service. This allows us to create content that customers are looking for instead of guessing. That’s why we mapped out the five stages of our sales process and asked specific questions for each of these five stages. For example, when choosing an e-commerce platform, where did you gain knowledge?

So now think about what the purpose of your survey is.

Example survey purposes: to identify SEO keywords, analyze traffic sources, reasons why customers bought from us (e.g., to highlight them on the product page), delivery time and packaging quality (whether they arrived in good condition), customer service or product satisfaction, etc.

Example questions in an online store survey:

• Why did you choose our online store?
• What are your values and which ones are most appreciated by customers? (You can list 5 values in a closed-ended question to see which ones are highly valued by customers. This way, the marketing department will know what to emphasize in advertising messages.)
• Are there any products that you couldn’t find in our store?
• Did you visit our physical store before making a purchase?
• What do you appreciate most about our product?
• How can we improve our product?
• What would have to happen for you to order again from our store?
• Is there anything we did wrong that we can improve?
• What are we doing really well and what do you appreciate?
• To what extent was placing an order easy and intuitive? (1 – very difficult, 3 – normal, 5 – very easy)
• Was finding the product easy? (0-5)
• What challenges did you face when placing an order?
• Did you receive appropriate support when you needed it?
• Did the product description include all the necessary information?
• Which product features are important to you as a customer?
• What could make you buy from another online store?
• Did you check the prices of the product in other stores? Which ones?
• Was there anything that almost made you give up on placing an order?
• What can we do to make you say WOW! with your next order?
• Did you visit our blog before making a purchase?
• When did you first hear about our company

 How to create a survey with Google Forms

1.  to your Google Drive.
2. Click on “New” and select “Google Forms” and then “Blank Form.”
3. Create your questions. You can create different types of questions and insert images and videos. An interesting feature is the ability to create a new section by clicking the button indicated by the arrow in the image below. In this way, users will see the next set of questions only after completing the first section and clicking the “Next” button.
4. Click “Send” to share the survey via email, survey link, or embed code directly on your website.
5. You can make use of various add-ons to enhance the basic features.
6. One useful add-on is “Form Notifications,” which allows you to receive an email notification when someone completes the survey.
7. Responses can be viewed within the form, in a Google Sheets spreadsheet, or downloaded as a .csv file.

Summary

I hope that I convinced you to implement a survey in your online store. Remember that it’s not just about what you know but what you do. So don’t wait! Call your customers or send out the first survey today! Choosing questions and creating the survey will only take 2-4 hours. Investing time in implementing these actions will undoubtedly be very beneficial.