Understanding Survey Types

NPS measures customer loyalty by asking one simple question:

"On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?"

Customers are grouped into three categories:

• Promoters (9-10): Loyal enthusiasts who will refer others and fuel growth
• Passives (7-8): Satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who could be swayed by competitors
• Detractors (0-6): Unhappy customers who can damage your brand through negative word-of-mouth

NPS Score = % Promoters - % Detractors

Example:

• 100 responses: 70 promoters, 20 passives, 10 detractors
• NPS = (70% - 10%) = +60

• Above 50: Excellent
• 30 to 50: Good
• 0 to 30: Needs improvement
• Below 0: Critical issues

Perfect for:

• Measuring overall relationship health
• Quarterly or bi-annual check-ins
• Benchmarking against industry standards
• Tracking loyalty trends over time

Send after:

• Customer completes a service or project
• Major milestones (1 year anniversary, etc.)
• Significant improvements to your offering

Not ideal for:

• Immediate transactional feedback (use CSAT)
• Measuring ease of use (use CES)
• Very new customers (wait until they're more established)

Healthcare/Dental: 40-60 Professional Services: 30-50 Retail: 30-40 B2B Software: 30-40

CSAT measures satisfaction with a specific interaction, product, or service:

"How satisfied were you with [specific interaction]?"

Customers respond using a 5-emoji scale:

• 😠 Very Dissatisfied (1)
• 😟 Dissatisfied (2)
• 😐 Neutral (3)
• 🙂 Satisfied (4)
• 😀 Very Satisfied (5)

CSAT Score = (Number of satisfied customers / Total responses) × 100

Satisfied = customers who chose 4 or 5 (🙂 or 😀)

Example:

• 100 responses: 80 chose satisfied/very satisfied
• CSAT = 80%

• Above 90%: Excellent
• 80-90%: Good
• 70-80%: Room for improvement
• Below 70%: Action needed

Perfect for:

• Post-purchase feedback
• After appointments or service visits
• Following customer support interactions
• Measuring specific touchpoints

Send after:

• Customer completes a purchase
• Appointment or consultation ends
• Support ticket is resolved
• Product/service is delivered

Not ideal for:

• Overall relationship measurement (use NPS)
• Complex multi-step processes (use CES)
• Long-term loyalty tracking (use NPS)

Make it specific to your business:

• "How satisfied were you with your dental cleaning today?"
• "How satisfied were you with your haircut?"
• "How satisfied were you with our delivery service?"
• "How satisfied were you with your dining experience?"

CES measures how much effort customers had to expend to complete a task:

"How easy was it to [complete task]?"

Customers respond on a 7-point scale:

• 1-2: Very Difficult
• 3-4: Somewhat Difficult
• 5: Neutral
• 6-7: Very Easy

CES Score = Average of all responses

Higher scores (closer to 7) indicate less effort required.

Example:

• 100 responses with average score of 6.2
• CES = 6.2/7 = 89% (very easy)

• Above 6.0: Excellent (low effort)
• 5.0-6.0: Good
• 4.0-5.0: Moderate effort required
• Below 4.0: Too difficult

Perfect for:

• Onboarding new customers
• Self-service interactions
• After resolving support tickets
• Process improvement initiatives
• Website/app usability feedback

Send after:

• Customer completes onboarding
• First-time use of self-service portal
• Support ticket resolution
• Account setup or configuration
• Product installation

Not ideal for:

• Emotional satisfaction (use CSAT)
• Overall loyalty (use NPS)
• Simple transactions (use CSAT)

Tailor it to specific processes:

• "How easy was it to book your appointment?"
• "How easy was it to find what you were looking for?"
• "How easy was it to complete your purchase?"
• "How easy was it to get your issue resolved?"

Custom surveys let you create completely tailored feedback forms without being constrained by NPS/CSAT/CES methodologies.

Perfect for:

• Industry-specific feedback needs
• Multi-topic questionnaires
• Market research
• Product development feedback
• Event feedback forms
• Employee surveys (if using internally)

Examples:

• Restaurant menu feedback with questions about each course
• Gym membership survey covering facilities, classes, and staff
• Real estate showing feedback
• Workshop or training evaluation

With custom surveys, you can:

• Use any combination of 9 question types
• Create multi-page surveys
• Build complex conditional logic
• Collect both quantitative and qualitative data

Learn more in Question Types.

Unlike NPS/CSAT/CES, custom surveys don't generate a single score. Instead, you'll analyze:

• Individual question responses
• Response patterns across questions
• Qualitative feedback themes
• Custom metrics you define

Ask yourself:

What do I want to measure?

• Overall loyalty → NPS
• Satisfaction with interaction → CSAT
• Ease of process → CES
• Something else → Custom

When am I sending it?

• Immediately after interaction → CSAT or CES
• Quarterly/periodic check-in → NPS
• Event-driven (signup, upgrade) → CES
• Anytime → Custom

What action will I take?

• Track trends over time → NPS
• Fix specific issues → CSAT
• Improve processes → CES
• Research and exploration → Custom

You don't have to choose just one! Many businesses use:

1. Quarterly NPS - Overall relationship health
2. Transactional CSAT - After every interaction
3. Process CES - For key processes (onboarding, support)

• NPS: Send quarterly to all active patients
• CSAT: Send after each appointment
• CES: Send after first visit (onboarding) and online booking
• Custom: Annual survey about new services and hours

Begin with one survey type that matches your primary goal:

• Building loyalty? → NPS
• Improving service? → CSAT
• Streamlining processes? → CES

• Space out different survey types
• Don't send NPS and CSAT on the same day
• Respect your customers' time

For NPS, CSAT, and CES:

• Use the standard questions (you can customize slightly)
• Calculate scores the correct way
• Compare to industry benchmarks

This ensures your scores are meaningful and comparable.

Always include at least one open-ended question:

• "What's the main reason for your score?"
• "What could we improve?"
• "What did we do well?"

Scores tell you what customers think. Comments tell you why.

Now that you understand survey types:

1. Create your first survey - Put this knowledge into practice
2. Explore question types - Learn about all 9 question types
3. Set up sequences - Automate survey sending
4. View reports - Analyze your scores

Can I change a survey's type after creating it? No, the survey type is fixed at creation. Create a new survey if you need a different type.

Should I use NPS or CSAT for my business? Both! Use NPS quarterly for loyalty, and CSAT after each transaction.

Can I customize the NPS question? Slightly. You can change "[Your Business]" but keep the core question consistent for valid benchmarking.

Which survey type gets the best response rates? All perform similarly. Short, timely surveys get better responses regardless of type.

Ready to measure what matters? Choose your survey type and start collecting feedback! 📊