50+ Customer survey questions for every step of the customer journey

The right customer survey questions can reveal exactly what’s working and what’s not at every stage of your customer journey. From first impressions to post-purchase loyalty, each touchpoint is an opportunity to ask the right questions and uncover insights you can act on. 

What you think customers experience when using your product or service and what they actually experience can be worlds apart. Asking targeted questions to hear about products in real-world contexts exposes blind spots and highlights opportunities you might not see from the inside. 

The best brands don’t wait for a public complaint or a frustrated tweet to know something’s wrong. They proactively collect feedback across the journey with a focus far beyond a single CSAT score.

In this guide, you’ll find 52 example survey questions you can adapt for your brand. The feedback you receive will help you strengthen every interaction and create experiences that people want to return to.

TL;DR

• Customer surveys go beyond CSAT scores: they uncover the why behind the numbers and show how experiences vary at each stage of the journey.
  
• Asking the right customer satisfaction survey questions helps you spot friction, improve onboarding, guide product decisions and strengthen loyalty.
  
• Tailor surveys to journey stages: awareness, purchase, onboarding, product use, support, loyalty and churn. This ensures you collect customer feedback that’s contextual and actionable.
  
• Analyze results by segmenting customers: track trends over time, compare sentiment and map insights back to journey stages.
  
• Act on what you learn: prioritize fixes, empower your customer support team, reward advocates and use a customer satisfaction survey template to speed up implementation.

Why is it important to understand the consumer experience?

Customer feedback reveals what your dashboards can’t: the hidden friction, mixed signals and silent drop-off moments that get overlooked when you rely solely on a customer satisfaction score or surface-level metrics. Brands often assume they know what’s working, but unless they collect customer feedback, it’s easy to miss what people actually experience when interacting with a business. 

Customer surveys bring those blind spots into focus. They help you:

• Uncover where messaging is misaligned with customer expectations
• Improve onboarding and reduce time to value
• Identify and fix weak points in support or service delivery
• Inform product development with real-world feedback
• Strengthen loyalty by showing customers you’re  listening to their concerns

When you don’t stay in tune with the customer experience, small issues can quickly blow up into serious problems. Marketing misses the mark. Product teams work off assumptions. Support teams stay reactive, not proactive. You may even attract the wrong customers altogether; those who churn quickly and leave negative feedback. 

And in the end, you’re left with well-funded strategies that don’t convert, don’t retain and don’t build the brand you set out to create. 
That’s where journey-specific surveys come in.  

Examining the customer journey through surveys

It’s tempting to try to understand your customer experience by stepping into their shoes. But no matter how good your intentions, you’re too close to your product to see it clearly. 

You already know how it works. You already know where to click. This familiarity makes it easy to overlook the friction, confusion or unmet expectations that real people encounter. 

That’s why surveying at key points in the customer journey is so powerful. Consumer expectations shift as people move from discovery to purchase, onboarding to support, loyalty to potential churn. Their needs and perceptions evolve, and so should your questions. One-size-fits-all feedback can’t capture the nuance of each moment. 

By mapping customer service surveys to specific journey stages, you can gather sharper, more contextual insights. Use this to drive action across teams, from marketing and product to support and CX.

Now, let’s walk through real-world survey questions tailored to each stage of the customer journey. You can then probe for the right information at the right time.

52 example survey questions to ask your customers

Consider the following customer experience example questions to be your starting point, not your script. 

It’s a library of prompts you can mix, match and adapt depending on your goals. 

Some will help you fine-tune your messaging. Others might reveal gaps in your onboarding, or moments when loyal customers start to disengage. 

No matter what type of survey you compile, keep these best practices in mind: 

✔️Stay context-aware: Align questions with where the customer is in their journey

✔️Use neutral language: Avoid first-person references to your brand to reduce bias

✔️Mix formats: Combine open- and closed-ended questions for richer insights

✔️Keep it focused: A few well-chosen  questions often perform better than long lists

Now, let’s break down each journey stage, with a short explainer and a curated set of example questions tailored to that moment.

Pre-purchase (awareness  and consideration)

At this early stage, you’re competing for attention and trust. Your customer satisfaction survey questions should uncover what people look for, what holds them back and how your product or messaging fares against their expectations.

1. What’s something you wish you had known before purchasing this product/service?

This question sheds light on critical information that customers were missing when making their decision. Their answers can help you close knowledge gaps in your messaging and pre-purchase content.

2. What nearly stopped you from buying from this brand?

People often face moments of hesitation before committing to a purchase. Price, trust and unclear value are some of the common culprits. Uncover these friction points to remove barriers that may be costing you sales.

3. When researching, what alternatives did you consider and why?

This question reveals who your true competitors are and what aspects of their offering appealed to your audience. Use the answers to this question to fine-tune your positioning and key product differentiators.

4. What stood out about our product/service compared to others?

Answers here highlight the elements of your value proposition that land well. In other words, it shows which USPs or use cases to double down on in your marketing. 

5. Was anything unclear or confusing on the website before purchasing?

Even small usability or copy issues can cause drop-off.  Including this question helps identify where customers felt uncertain or overwhelmed during the consideration phase.

6. What problem were you trying to solve when you found this company?

Understand your customer’s underlying “job to be done” so your messaging speaks directly to their needs and better matches search intent.

7. What motivated your last purchase with this brand, and did the product/service meet your expectations?

This question ties the original intent to the final outcome. It helps evaluate how well your offer delivers on the promise made in your marketing.

Purchase experience (decision making and checkout)

Experience matters in the moments just before and during conversion. Gathering customer insights at this stage helps you to identify what influences the buying decisions, where hesitation creeps in and whether the purchase process feels smooth or frustrating for your customers.

8. Did anything make you feel hesitant or unsure before completing your purchase?

Understanding where uncertainty arises helps improve how you support, guide and build trust with customers during the decision-making process.

9. What gave you the confidence to complete your purchase when you did?

This answer helps identify the reassurance factors, such as product details, reviews or guarantees, that made customers feel ready to commit.

10. How easy was it to navigate the checkout process?

Ask this to pinpoint usability issues or unclear steps during checkout. With the information, you can make adjustments to reduce drop-off and make the checkout feel seamless.

11. Was the information provided at checkout clear and complete?

This uncovers whether customers have all the information they need, like delivery timelines, return policies or fees, to feel informed during the checkout process.

12. Did you encounter any technical issues while completing your order?

Small glitches such as a discount code not applying at checkout or a button that doesn’t respond on mobile can cause frustration and lost sales. This type of product feedback helps you catch and resolve hidden technical blockers.

13. How quickly were you able to complete your purchase?

Speed is a big factor in satisfaction at this stage. In fact, 18% of US shoppers abandon their cart when checkout feels too long or complicated. Asking this question reveals whether customers see your process as fast and efficient.

14. Did the final price align with what you expected to pay?

Unexpected costs can derail a sale. If you know how well pricing and fees were communicated, you can pinpoint any surprise costs that cause drop-off.

Onboarding and activation

Once a customer has bought in, their first interactions with your product or service set the tone for the relationship. Honest feedback gathered from customer satisfaction surveys at this stage reveal whether your onboarding experience delivers on expectations. Surveys at this stage also reveal how quickly and easily customers reach their first moment of value.

15. How did you feel the first time you used this product/service?

Capture your customers’ initial emotional responses and impressions. Their valuable feedback will show how effective your onboarding and initial product or service impact is.

16. Was the onboarding process easy to follow?

Including this question in a survey helps assess whether instructions, tutorials or guided steps are clear and logical. Based on the feedback, you can amend processes to reduce the risk of early drop-off.

17. How quickly were you able to start using the product/service effectively?

Time-to-value is a critical onboarding metric. This question uncovers how long it takes for customers to feel confident and get real use out of the product.

18. Did you come up against any challenges during onboarding?

Survey responses here will help you identify barriers, confusion points or technical issues that cause friction and may impact activation rates.

19. Were the onboarding materials (guides, tutorials, training) clear and helpful?

Find out if your onboarding materials, such as FAQs, videos or walkthroughs, adequately assist people with getting up to speed.

20. How well did the onboarding process match what you expected after purchase?

This highlights any gaps between pre-purchase promises and the actual experience, which can affect trust and satisfaction.

21. What was your first “aha” moment with the product/service?

If you know the exact point when customers recognize value, you can refine onboarding to deliver that moment faster for new users.

Product usage and experience

Once onboarding is complete, it’s essential to find out if customers are getting what they came for. Gathering feedback at this stage helps you understand if customers are satisfied with features, functionality and overall usability of your product or service. Also, surveys can reveal opportunities to improve engagement and streamline adoption or product-market fit.

22. What’s the biggest challenge you face when using this product/service?

This question reveals obstacles or frustrations customers encounter in their everyday use of your product. This  feedback pinpoints where you can make adjustments to improve how intuitive or user-friendly your offering is. 

23. Can you recall a detail in your experience that stood out as especially positive or negative?

Focusing on specific positive or negative experiences provides clarity on what delights and what disappoints your customers. These insights guide strategic decisions to amplify what works and fix recurring pain points. 

24. Describe a moment where you felt frustrated while using this product or service. What could have been done differently?

Asking for a concrete example, along with a suggested fix, will highlight a clear path to prevent common sources of dissatisfaction among your customers. 

25. If you could change one thing about this product/service, what would it be, and what made that stand out to you?

At Attest, we believe the  two-part structure of this question is key. The first part identifies what needs fixing, while the second part gets you the “why” behind their choice; the context that makes feedback actionable. 

You’ll often discover that different customer segments will flag the same issue for different reasons. That helps you understand how to prioritize fixes and what kind of solution each group actually needs.

26. How does this product/service compare to your ideal version of such a product/service?

 A comparison of real performance to the customer’s “ideal” shows expectation gaps and can spark ideas for innovation or differentiation.

27. How has this product/service impacted your daily routine or life?

Survey responses here provide insight into the practical and emotional impact of your offering which highlights the value beyond functional features. Use the feedback to further enrich the customer experience.

28. Which features are most valuable, and which do you rarely use?

This reveals the must-have elements that keep people engaged and the ones that may need redesigning, better onboarding or removal.

29. Have you experienced any technical issues or usability problems? If so, how did they affect your experience?

Feedback on technical reliability and ease of use helps prioritise fixes that protect satisfaction and prevent churn.

Customer support interactions 

Support isn’t just about solving problems; it’s a key touchpoint that can deepen or damage trust. Ask for feedback after these interactions to gauge team performance and identify gaps in service. Use this to turn negative experiences into better ones.

30. How did the customer service team make you feel during your last interaction?

Emotional responses reveal whether the customer service representative left customers feeling valued, frustrated, or ignored. Positive trends can be reinforced, while negative feedback pinpoints training or process gaps.

31. How well do the brand’s communication channels (email, chat, phone, social media, website) meet your needs?

This feedback shows which channels customers prefer and whether they find them accessible, responsive and effective for getting help. You can optimize the various touchpoints for better engagement and information dissemination.

32. Was your issue resolved to your satisfaction?

Directly measuring resolution success lets you assess the team’s effectiveness and identify recurring problems that need root-cause fixes. A Likert scale works best for a question like this one. 

33. How quickly did you receive a response after reaching out for help?

Speed is often a deciding factor in support satisfaction. Tracking how long it takes to reply shows whether your team meets expectations and highlights possible support bottlenecks. 

34. Did you feel your concern was understood and addressed appropriately?

This gauges your customer support team’s empathy and listening skills which are critical factors in turning potentially negative experiences into trust-building moments.

35. Were you kept informed about the progress of your issue?

Proactive updates can make long resolution times more acceptable. This identifies if customers feel “in the dark” during the process.

36. How easy was it to find the right person or channel for your issue?

Ask this question to uncover whether customers struggle to find the right person or channel. Their answers show where to streamline support paths, reduce delays and improve overall satisfaction.

37. What could the business have done differently to improve your support experience?

Invite customers to offer suggestions to uncover actionable ways to fine-tune processes, scripts and systems for better service delivery.

Loyalty and retention

When customers stick around, it’s worth understanding why. Customer loyalty questions dig into what keeps people engaged, what drives repeat purchases and how well your brand delivers long-term value.

38. What was missing from your experience that you’ve found elsewhere?

This reveals what your competitors are doing better, so you can pinpoint gaps in your own offering. Answers here show where to improve, innovate and refine your product, service or loyalty strategy.

39. What’s one thing this brand could do to make your next experience better?

Actionable suggestions from customers can lead to quick wins in customer experience that significantly impact satisfaction and repeat business.

40. What aspect of your experience do you think the brand is not aware of but should be?

This question helps gather data on hidden aspects of the customer experience. You might discover overlooked pain points or pleasant surprises that can shape up service improvements or marketing messaging.

41. How likely are you to return to this brand for your future needs?

Likelihood-to-return feedback is a strong indicator of loyalty and helps you see what factors drive long-term relationships with satisfied customers. A Net Promoter Score (NPS) scale (0–10) works best here because it captures intent in a quantifiable way, making it easier to benchmark and track over time.

42. What does this brand represent to you?

Survey responses to this question give you insight into how customers interpret your brand values and personality. It gives you an indication of how well your image aligns with the experience you want to deliver. 

43. What keeps you choosing this brand over others?

This identifies the core strengths or emotional connections that anchor loyalty and shows you where to double down on what works.

44. How has your perception of this brand changed since your first purchase?

Tracking shifts in perception reveals whether customer trust, excitement and satisfaction grow or fade over time.

Churn, downgrade or cancellation

When customers leave, it’s often for a good reason. Collecting feedback post-cancellation helps you understand what pushed them away. Were expectations met, and most importantly, is there an opportunity to win them back?

45. What was the main reason for leaving, downgrading or cancelling?

Identifying the primary driver — whether it’s price, product fit or service issues — helps you prioritise improvements. Addressing these root causes can prevent future churn and resolve the most common pain points.

46. Did the product/service deliver what you expected based on what was promised before purchase?

If there’s a gap between the promise and the reality, it often becomes the root cause of churn. This feedback highlights where messaging, product features or onboarding need to be better aligned.

47. Was there a particular event or moment that triggered your decision to leave?

This question pinpoints the moment when frustration becomes serious enough for a customer to cancel or switch. Understanding these triggers helps you step in earlier and prevent churn. 

48. What could have been done differently to keep you as a customer?

Direct suggestions from departing customers often reveal quick wins, such as clearer communication, improved features or loyalty incentives. You can apply these insights immediately to strengthen your retention strategy.

49. Did the team advise you about alternative plans, options or features that might have met your needs?

Sometimes churn happens simply because customers don’t realise a better-fitting plan or add-on exists. This question uncovers communication gaps that, if addressed, could turn cancellations into plan adjustments instead.

50. How does this product/service compare to the alternative you’ve chosen?

A comparison against the replacement sheds light on your competitors’ strengths. It may also reveal gaps in pricing, features or customer experience that you can address in future iterations.

51. Would you consider returning in the future, and what would need to change for that to happen?

Even churned customers can be reactivated if you understand their deal-breakers. This feedback highlights which changes could make your brand appealing to them again.

How to analyze your customer experience survey results

You’ve seen how to ask the right questions across the customer journey. Now it’s just as important to know how to interpret the answers.

In our experience, we’ve found that teams often miss the biggest opportunities when they treat open-ended responses like just another data point to code and categorize. Different customers express themselves in completely different ways — and that variation can reveal richer insights than any standardized rating scale.

The goal should be  to connect what customers say to why they feel that way, so you can act decisively. Here’s [Name]’s advice on how to break down survey data to see both the big picture and the subtle details: 

• Segment customers and data: Break down survey results by customer demographics, purchase history or lifecycle stage, for example, frequent buyers vs first-time users. This segmentation helps you identify patterns or needs unique to certain groups.
  
• Look for trends over time: Compare your results with past customer feedback surveys to see whether changes are making a difference. For example, if satisfaction in onboarding rose 10% after a process update, you know you’re moving the right levers.
  
• Identify common themes: Create word clouds from the raw data to identify recurring themes like pricing, usability or customer support. Then search responses by those themes to build color around what’s actually being said. Thematic analysis often surfaces issues you didn’t anticipate. For instance, you might find that “training materials” appear in 30% of comments despite never asking about them.
  
• Cross-reference with other data sources: Validate survey patterns against social listening, customer support logs and sales metrics. If complaints about slow delivery match a dip in repeat purchases, you have both the “what” and the “so what.”
  
• Contrast sentiments between segments: Look beyond surface-level data to compare how different groups feel about the same topics. For instance, your enterprise customers might have high product satisfaction but low support satisfaction, while SMBs show the opposite.
  
• Analyze verbatim for emotional tone: Sentiment analysis tools can reveal if the language in responses is predominantly positive, negative or neutral. Emotional intensity could help predict churn risk more accurately than star ratings.
  
• Map feedback to customer journey stages: Tie each insight to a journey stage (awareness, purchase, onboarding, usage, renewal). This ensures you can target fixes where they will have the most impact.
  
• Benchmark against industry standards: Compare your metrics (such as NPS, CSAT) to sector averages. If your NPS is 45 and the industry median is 30, you have a competitive advantage worth promoting.

How to act on your customer feedback

Collecting feedback is only half the job; turning it into measurable improvement is where value is created. Here’s how to move from insight to action.

Prioritize actions based on frequency and impact

Identify frequently-mentioned issues. We advise prioritizing survey insights not just by how often issues appear, but also by the emotional weight behind them. 

For example, if several customers mention that the checkout process was confusing, listen closely to how they describe that confusion. Some sound frustrated (“I couldn’t figure out where to enter my code”), others disappointed (“I thought it would be easier”) and others anxious (“I wasn’t sure if my order went through”). That emotional context shows you which fixes to prioritize and what kind of solution each group needs.

Identify advocates vs. detractors 

Use Net Promoter Score (NPS) or similar frameworks to segment promoters (loyal brand advocates) from detractors (at risk of churn). Then, tailor retention strategies for each group, for example, reward advocates and address detractor concerns head-on.

Engage in follow-up conversations

Reach out to respondents who provided particularly insightful feedback for follow-up conversations. These often uncover root causes that structured data can’t. A targeted follow-up with just 10 customers could inspire changes that benefit thousands. 

When should you send a customer experience survey?

Sending a customer experience survey shouldn’t be a reactive measure; it’s a proactive step to better understand people who buy from you. 

Whether you’ve noticed a spike in complaints or just want to stay ahead, it’s important to time your surveys wisely. Regular surveys can help you keep a close eye on customer sentiment, so you can address any issues before they escalate.

Here are the optimal moments to send your customer experience surveys:

• Immediately after key touchpoints: Send surveys right after critical moments (a purchase, support interaction, or onboarding milestone) while the experience is still fresh. This improves data accuracy and provides details you can act on fast.
  
• Set schedules aligned to vertical context: Use smart cadence: for ecommerce, send 2–7 days post-delivery. In SaaS, a survey one month after sign-up is perfect. Regular check-ins every 3–6 months help maintain an ongoing relationship.
  
• Monitor for event-driven needs: Seasonality and usage patterns matter. For instance, send feedback surveys during busy event periods or after major feature launches to measure sentiment shifts.
  
• Test and send at higher response times: Survey open rates can vary based on your industry and the day you send it out. Over time, test open rates by sending a portion of invites out over several weekdays. Monitor responses and optimize the next batch accordingly. 

Consumer insight templates at your fingertips

Great customer experience surveys shouldn’t stop at CSAT scores. They can uncover the “why” behind the numbers so you can map sentiment, needs and behaviors across the full customer journey. This depth of insight is what turns raw feedback into actions that truly move the needle for your business.

Using well-designed templates makes it easier to get there. They give you structured, ready-to-use questions tailored to different stages of the funnel, from awareness to post-purchase, so you can surface the rich insights we’ve explored in this article. 

That’s exactly what Attest’s customer satisfaction survey templates are built for. Check out our Brand Perception, Customer Profiling, or JTBD (Jobs to Be Done) templates to kick-start your consumer insights journey. They’re straightforward, easy to use and packed with the kind of questions that reveal what your consumers really think and need.

Whether you need to refine your onboarding, test new product ideas or track long-term loyalty, these ready-made templates save time while ensuring your questions are sharp, relevant and strategically aligned.

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