Customer Satisfaction Survey
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is simple: “How satisfied were you with [this interaction]?” on a 1-5 scale. One question, one number, one clear signal about what’s working or broken.
Use it when you need immediate feedback about a specific moment-a support call, a delivery, a checkout process, a product feature.
Typical use cases:
- Measure satisfaction with a single touchpoint
- Quickly identify when operations are failing
- Track whether process changes actually improved anything
- Compare performance across teams or products
CSAT Survey Template
CSAT measures satisfaction with one specific interaction. Send it immediately after a support call, a purchase, a delivery, or any defined touchpoint.
CSAT gives you actionable operational feedback. If satisfaction drops for a particular process, you know exactly what to fix.
Use this when you want to:
- Spot broken steps in a process (checkout, onboarding, support)
- Track changes to one team’s performance
- Give teams feedback they can act on within days
- Prevent small issues from becoming brand problems
Structure:
- Standard satisfaction question tied to the interaction: “How satisfied were you with this support interaction?”
- One conditional follow-up: “What specific issue caused your rating?” or “What made this experience work well?”
When to send it:
Send immediately-within hours if possible-while the experience is still fresh, because memory fades, emotions shift, and a week-old survey gets a shrug instead of real feedback.
But don’t survey every tiny touchpoint. Survey fatigue is real, and once customers start ignoring your surveys, they don’t stop. Pick the moments that matter.
For overall relationship health, use NPS instead. CSAT is best for measuring specific interactions, not overall loyalty.
Calculate your CSAT Score
CSAT is calculated as a percentage using the “top-two box” approach-only the highest satisfaction scores count.
This focus on the top two values matters. Research shows these scores are the most accurate predictors of customer retention. The neutral middle (3) doesn’t count-CSAT measures active approval, not passive tolerance.
Good CSAT scores vary by industry. For SaaS and high-expectation sectors, competitive organizations target 85-90%. Below 80% signals problems.
The CSAT Scale
Top-Two Box Calculation
Designing a Useful CSAT Survey
A good CSAT survey is short and focused. Surveys with 2-3 questions consistently outperform longer ones. People are busy, you’re asking for a favor, and every extra question costs you responses. You don’t need many questions; you need the right ones.
Keep the structure simple:
- Core satisfaction question - one IntervalScale element with a 1-5 rating scale
- One conditional “why” question - a multi-line String element for open feedback, tailored to the customer’s score
- Optional follow-up permission - “Would it be okay for us to follow up with you?” (Yes/No)
Use Conditional Logic
Ask different follow-up questions based on the customer’s score. A detractor needs different questions than a promoter.
For Detractors (1-2):
- Goal: Service recovery and root cause analysis
- Question examples:
- “What specific issue caused you to rate your experience this way?”
- “What changes would you suggest to improve the [product/service]?”
- “What was the most disappointing aspect of your experience?”
- “Was there a specific moment when things went wrong?”
For Neutrals (3):
- Goal: Understand ambivalence and identify barriers to satisfaction
- Question examples:
- “What was missing from this experience that would have made you fully satisfied?”
- “What small change would make a big difference?”
Don’t ignore neutral feedback. These customers aren’t unhappy enough to complain, but they’re not satisfied enough to stay either-they’re one competitor’s discount away from leaving. Fix what’s missing and you turn fence-sitters into fans.
For Promoters (4-5):
- Goal: Identify what’s working and gather testimonials
- Question examples:
- “What made this experience work well for you?”
- “Would you be willing to share your experience as a testimonial?”
Pick the Right Scale
5-point scale (1-5): Standard for CSAT. Quick to answer, widely understood. Use this unless you have a reason not to.
7-point scale (1-7): Slightly better discrimination for single-question surveys. Use this if you’re starting fresh and want more granularity. Don’t switch if you already have data on a 5-point scale-continuity matters more than marginal improvement.
10-point scale (1-10): Provides high discrimination but increases cognitive load. Works well if you’re already using NPS and want consistency across metrics.
Binary (thumbs up/down, yes/no): Minimum cognitive load, maximum response rates. Use this for high-volume, low-stakes interactions where you just need “good” or “bad.” Not suitable for relationship surveys.
Ask Permission to Follow Up
Add a third question: “Would it be okay for us to follow up with you?”
This lets you:
- Contact detractors to fix issues before they leave
- Reach out to neutrals to understand what’s missing
- Ask promoters for testimonials or referrals
Timing Is Critical
Every day you wait, response rates drop and memories blur into “it was fine, I guess.”
One exception: for severe negative experiences, consider a brief cooling-off period (1-2 days). You want feedback on service quality, not a rating shaped by someone still fuming at their keyboard.
What to Do With Results
- Follow up with detractors before they escalate-or worse, before they post about it
- Use neutral feedback to find the friction points you’ve gone blind to
- Thank promoters and ask for testimonials (happy customers usually say yes if you just ask)
- Watch trends, not single spikes-one bad score might be someone having a rough day; three in a row is your problem
- Read the comments-the number tells you something’s wrong, the comments tell you what
- Fix low-scoring touchpoints before they drag down everything else
Start from a template above, adjust the wording, add conditional questions, and keep it under two minutes.
CSAT vs. Other Metrics
CSAT is best for transactional feedback. For relationship health, use NPS. For ease of use, use CES. They measure different things, and mixing them up leads to confused dashboards and bad decisions.
CSAT:
- Measures satisfaction with a specific interaction
- Actionable operational feedback-someone can actually do something with this tomorrow
- Leading indicator: catch problems before they show up in your churn rate
- Best for high-volume touchpoints where you need quick signal
NPS:
- Measures likelihood to recommend (the “would you tell a friend?” question)
- Predicts retention and growth-slowly, but reliably
- Use for overall relationship health, not for fixing yesterday’s support call
CES:
- Measures ease of completing a task-”how hard was this?”
- Particularly useful for support and onboarding where friction kills conversion
- Low CES + low CSAT = the process works but the experience is miserable
Recommended combination: Use CSAT for specific touchpoints (support, checkout, delivery), NPS for quarterly relationship health, and CES for processes where ease matters (onboarding, support). Most companies only need two of the three.