It’s crucial to survey customers at various points throughout their buying journey, especially after they make a purchase. Post-purchase surveys allow businesses to collect valuable insights about their marketing efforts, the products or services they provide, and the overall customer experience.
In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about effectively surveying customers after a purchase with the right post-purchase survey questions.
What is a post-purchase survey?
Post-purchase surveys are a way for businesses to gather customer feedback after a purchase. These surveys typically include a few short questions to start a conversation about the customer experience and how to improve it. Businesses often prompt customers with a post-purchase survey on the Thank you page and ask about anything from why the customer chose to buy from you to how they discovered your brand.
Why collect post-purchase feedback?
Collecting post-purchase feedback will allow you to better understand how customers feel about the buying journey as well as your product or service.
With that feedback, you can:
- Strengthen customer satisfaction: Your customers have made it this far in the customer journey, so it’s time to double down on keeping them satisfied. A post-purchase survey helps you discover even more data-based insights about who your customers are, what their needs are, and how to meet those needs better than competitors.
- Personalize your marketing efforts: Your product might appeal to different customer types, so it’s helpful to be able to collect data and segment feedback by who you want to market to. With this intel, you can develop marketing strategies that target your ideal buyer persona.
- Identify pain points: A post-purchase survey will help pinpoint the issues your customers faced during their experience buying from you so you can effectively close the loop on those issues and correct the experience for future customers.
- Boost customer loyalty: Satisfied customers are more likely to make repeat purchases, as well as tell their family and friends to purchase from you, too.
Post-purchase survey questions
Feeling ready to reap the benefits of sending post-purchase surveys to your customers? Here are 34 post-purchase survey questions to help you get started gathering customer feedback. You can tweak the questions as needed to fit your specific goals and what’s most relevant to your audience.
Conversion rate optimization questions
If customers are experiencing friction in their online or app checkout process, you need to know about it. Use these conversion rate optimization questions to find out how to improve this moment in the customer journey.
- Did you experience any difficulty making a purchase on our website [or app]?
- What would make your experience shopping on our website [or app] easier?
- How easy was it to complete your purchase on our website [or app] today?
- If you could change one thing about shopping on our website [or app], what would it be?
- Would you recommend making a purchase on our website [or app] to a friend?
Personalization questions
Asking demographic survey questions will help you better understand who your customers are, as well as how to segment customers to personalize your marketing efforts.
- What is your gender identity?
- How old are you?
- What is your employment status?
- What is your annual household income?
- Where do you live?
Marketing attribution questions
Learning about the channels that are driving customer conversions can help you augment the marketing strategies that are working – and take a closer look at the ones that aren’t.
- What led you to choosing our brand over other options you were considering?
- How did you hear about us?
- Did positive customer reviews influence your purchasing decision?
- Did family, friends, or colleagues recommend our product (or service)?
- How long have you known about our brand?
- Where did you first learn about us?
TIP: Check out our “How did you hear about us?” survey template here.
Product questions
Asking product-related questions can help inform your product roadmap and where to focus your development or design efforts.
- What problem does this product help you solve?
- How often will you use the product you just bought?
- What are you most looking forward to regarding the product you just purchased?
- What problem does this product or service help you solve?
- How would you rate the overall quality of this product?
- What feature(s) are you most looking forward to using?
- Based on the quality of the product you purchased, would you recommend it to a friend?
- How satisfied are you with the quality of product you received?
TIP: Try some of our product-specific survey templates for in-depth product feedback here.
Customer satisfaction questions
Customer satisfaction questions get at the heart of how happy your customers are with their recent purchase and with your brand overall.
- How satisfied are you with your purchase today?
- How satisfied are you with your overall experience purchasing from our brand?
- How likely are you to recommend us to a friend?
- Is there a new product or service you wish we would offer?
- What one thing would improve our product or service?
TIP: Measure how satisfied customers are using Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) surveys.
Pricing feedback questions
Pricing can be a key differentiator in a competitive market. Ask these questions to gain insights into how your product fares compared to competitors.
- How satisfied are you with the value of this product relative to its price?
- Do you think the price of this product is reasonable?
- Based on its price, would you recommend this product to a friend?
- Do you consider this product to be worth the price you paid?
- Does this product’s price align with your expectations for quality and value?
TIP: Ask customers how they feel about your pricing with our pricing sensitivity survey template here.
Post-purchase survey examples by industry
If you’re unsure what a post-purchase survey could look like for customers in your industry, here are three examples of surveys, plus some questions specific to those customer experiences.
1. Ecommerce brands
When customers shop online, they can experience pain points in the process. Ask these questions to uncover the insights you need to smooth out the online shopping experience.
- Did you experience any technical issues when shopping on our website [or app]?
- Did the images and description match the product you received?
- Were you satisfied with the product you received?
- How would you rate the checkout page experience?
2. Brick-and-mortar retail stores
Asking about the retail store experience is a unique opportunity to learn more about your customers. Retail brands can ask customers about their in-store experience, impressions of customer service, and much more. Here are some retail survey questions to consider:
- How easy was it to find what you were looking for in our store?
- How would you rate the helpfulness of our team?
- Were you satisfied with your in-store shopping experience today?
- What one thing would improve your experience in our store?
3. Subscription services
Subscription services, from streaming platforms to Software as a Service (SaaS), have become a mainstay in the market. Here’s what to ask these customers about their recurring purchases on a weekly, monthly, or annual basis.
- Does the price of this subscription match your expectations for quality and value?
- Would you recommend [your subscription service] to a colleague or friend?
- What features of this service do you find most valuable?
- How could we improve?
Channels to send post-purchase surveys
1. Email surveys
Email surveys are a great way to collect post-purchase survey feedback. The key is to ensure your emails are sent in a timely manner, so customers can provide accurate feedback while their purchase is still top of mind.
To support your survey response rates, automatically send surveys after a purchase. You can also personalize subject lines and intro messages to give customers additional context and incentivize them to respond.
TIP: Display your survey directly in your customer’s inbox using Delighted’s email surveys.
2. In-app surveys
Mobile app surveys are another effective way to gather post-purchase feedback. You’re meeting customers where they already are, and at a time when they’ve proven comfortability using your app (i.e., after they’ve completed a purchase).
With in-app surveys, you can ask customers specific questions about the app experience, garnering insights you otherwise wouldn’t from other survey types.
3. Website surveys
There are many instances when you’d want to send website surveys, such as after a customer abandons their cart or cancels a subscription. For collecting post-purchase feedback, a transaction completion page survey is especially useful.
Whether the customer has checked out, subscribed, or scheduled an appointment, now’s the time to collect feedback about their website experience. You can also include a free-response question so customers can tell you more about their experience in their own words.
TIP: Delighted’s new Web Widget allows you to ask customers anything directly on your website. Learn more about it here.
4. QR code surveys
QR code surveys allow customers to quickly scan a code with their smartphone and complete a post-purchase survey. Consider including QR codes on printed receipts, on signage located around your store or event, on assembly instructions, or even directly on your products.
TIP: With our link surveys, you can generate a QR code survey for free.
Post-purchase survey best practices
Knowing the types of survey questions to ask is just the start. Check out these survey design best practices to help you maximize the effectiveness of your surveys and collect valuable customer feedback.
1. Use a post-purchase survey template to get started
A post-purchase survey template can take the guesswork out of how to design your survey, especially if you’re just getting started.
TIP: Jump directly into our post-purchase survey template here to start gathering customer feedback for free.
2. Optimize your survey for all device types
Make it as easy as possible for customers to respond to your post-purchase surveys by offering compatibility across multiple device and browser types. For example, if you’re creating in-app surveys, be sure they’re compatible with both iOS and Android phones.
3. Ask both close-ended and open-ended questions
Asking a mix of questions allows you to gather complementary feedback: quantitative feedback (via close-ended questions) that allows you to tally and track metrics over time and qualitative feedback (via open-ended questions) that provides a story behind the data.
4. Personalize your survey based on your customers
One of the benefits of collecting customer feedback is a better understanding of your customer base. Tailor your post-purchase surveys to your customer type to avoid asking redundant or irrelevant questions.
For example, you don’t need to ask repeat customers how they heard about your brand (hint: you’ve likely already asked them in a previous survey). Instead, ask them specific questions relevant to their experience, such as “How satisfied are you with your overall experience purchasing from our brand?” or “Is there a new product or service you wish we would offer?”.
TIP: Delighted’s ecommerce integrations allow you to sync feedback back to your ecommerce platforms, like Klaviyo, HubSpot, Salesforce, and more. That way, you already have the customer information and context you need to automate your post-purchase surveys.
5. Get the timing right
Similar to asking questions based on customer type, you also want to personalize the timing of your surveys based on your customers.
For some customers, it makes sense to include a post-purchase survey on the Thank you page to gather real-time feedback. For others, it would be better to wait to ask for product feedback until the item’s been delivered to the customer’s home (for instance, when you’re asking, “How satisfied are you with the quality of the product you received?”).
Fortunately, ecommerce integrations like Delighted + Shopify make it easy to automatically trigger post-purchase surveys after customers have placed an order or after an order has been delivered. Don’t use Shopify? Our Best Practices for Sending Surveys guide has you covered with tips and tricks for optimized survey timing.
Start surveying with post-purchase survey templates
Ready to start sending post-purchase surveys to your customers? Choose from one of our many survey templates or jump directly into our post-purchase survey template here.
