The 5 Most Effective Voice of the Customer Survey Questions

Surveys offer a powerful way to conduct voice of the customer research. Ask the right Voice of the Customer customer survey questions, and your company can learn what your customers have to say about your brand, products, and services, as well as understand overall customer sentiment and measure customer KPIs like customer satisfaction (CSAT), customer effort score (CES), and more. 

Gaining the right insights can provide incredible value. Consider that 73% of brands with above-average customer ratings deliver stronger financial performance than their peers, and it’s easy to see how effective voice of the customer (VoC) initiatives can pay off in the long run.

Not only that, brands that ask for and act upon feedback are more likely to be viewed favorably for prioritizing helping customers feel heard and valued.

So what are the right Voice of the Customer survey questions to ask? We’re glad you asked. Here are five of the most effective ones your company can begin collecting feedback about right away.

Top Voice of the Customer Survey Questions

#1: How would you rate the call?

One of the most frequently asked VoC survey questions, this prompt helps companies measure CSAT at the company and agent level.

When collected on an ongoing basis, these responses can help identify gaps in the customer experience, encourage customer service team members to self-correct, lead to improvements in customer service training programs, and more.

Best practices for using this voice of the customer survey question effectively:

• Ask customers for their honest opinion using a simple 1-5 scale.
• Solicit feedback immediately after a transaction or interaction with a company employee.
• Calculate your company-wide CSAT score by averaging the survey responses you collect.
• Based on the customer’s response, follow up in the moment with an even more granular survey question: “What did [agent name] do particularly well/where could [agent name] improve?” Asking this question helps companies keep track of agent-level CSAT.

#2: Did we solve your problem today?

Asking this question will help your company evaluate your first contact resolution (FCR) rate, a measure of the efficiency and effectiveness of your customer service team operations.

This metric tells us how often your company is able to resolve customer service issues that arise within the first call, email, chat, or text a customer initiates to receive support.

That’s important because when FCR is low, costs go up and when FCR is high, revenue goes up.

Best practices for using this voice of the customer survey question effectively:

• Ask customers for their honest opinion by providing a Yes/No response.
• Share FCR performance with agents to help drive performance and align the team to clear, shared goals.
• See our guide: First Call Resolution: 26 Tips for Improving Your First Call Resolution Rate for even more best practices.

#3: How likely are you to recommend our brand to a friend?

The answers you receive will help calculate your Net Promoter Score (NPS), assess customer loyalty, and find out how your company compares to the competition.

Best practices for using this voice of the customer survey question effectively:

• Ask customers to respond to the question using a simple 1-10 scale.
• Use agent-level NPS scores to highlight customer service training opportunities to improve service performance.

#4: Before contacting us, did you try to solve your issue using our support articles?

Effective self-service resources like video tutorials, FAQs, and knowledge base content can help customers solve their own problems independently, leading to positive gains across KPIs like customer satisfaction and engagement, conversions, and revenue.

But how do you know if your customers are even aware of and taking advantage of these resources?

Asking this very question can help you measure your self-service option utilization to find out how widely these resources are being used.

Best practices for using this voice of the customer survey question effectively:

• Use this KPI to guide updates to your company’s website navigation and self-service content offerings, making them easier to find and use.

#5: How much do you agree or disagree with the following statement: This brand made it easy for me to handle my issue?

Follow up with customers after they reach out to your customer service team to measure your company’s customer effort score (CES). Based on your customers’ responses, you’ll be able to evaluate the likelihood that your customers will keep doing business with your company.

Best practices for using this voice of the customer survey question effectively:

• Ask customers for their honest opinion using a simple 1-7 scale.
• Deploy this survey immediately following any given customer support interaction.
• Use your CES scores to optimize agent training and encourage self-correcting behavior.

Top Brands Use Voice of the Customer Surveys to Improve KPIs

Medallia Agent Connect helps the world’s leaving service-oriented brands survey customers in real time to optimize team performance and drive improvements in customer satisfaction, loyalty, and more.

Ready to ignite agent performance? Check out Medallia’s guide, 4 Steps to Supercharge Contact Center Agent Performance, to learn how leading contact centers are putting the right systems and processes in place to achieve success.