Best UX survey questions to ask your users

Let’s face it: with all the competition and accessibility available today, your customers have options. They can simply decide to go elsewhere if they are dissatisfied with the experience your product provides or feel it’s too expensive. If they don’t think your product is keeping up with the competition, they may choose a competitor’s product over yours.

To prevent your competition from scooping up your customers, you need to provide the best experience possible. But how can you do that?

User experience (UX) surveys are essential for gathering customer data. They can provide the information needed to improve your current user experience and enhance or upgrade your existing products or services.

Ultimately, knowing how your customer experiences your product and making it the best it can possibly be can put you on the path to success.

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User experience surveys are a set of questions that gather both qualitative and quantitative data about how your users interact with your product. The questions can be open-ended or close-ended.

Your business can use data from UX surveys to determine product fixes, enhancements, and new features. It can also help you decide which products to add to an existing line and show you how your customers view service, usability, and value.

Users can explain their answers in open-ended questions, such as: “How do you feel about XYZ?”

A closed-ended question gives choices. An example would be: “Was the XYZ app easy to use?” Your user might need to choose between “true” and “false,” or “yes,” “no,” and “I don’t know.”

All UX surveys generally measure one of two types of metrics:

• Behavioral—measures what the user does when exposed to your product

• Attitude—measures how the user responds to your product

UX surveys must be constructed to collect the right data from the right person at the right time and in the right structure. This might sound confusing and difficult, but the proper tools enable you to design UX surveys to yield the data needed to improve the user experience.

Before you start creating your UX survey, decide on your objectives. Is there a particular issue that needs to be addressed?  Zero in on anything that defines a negative customer experience, such as a decline in sales, a lack of repeat customers, or complaints made to customer care. Decide on the kind of feedback you’ll need and what you will do with it when collected.

Once you decide on the type of data you’ll be collecting and how it can be useful in your research, work on designing the questions. Make sure they are relevant and focused on the user experience.

Questions should be concise, and the overall survey should be short and to the point. Use a combination of open-ended and closed-ended questions. This enables users to be specific about the reasons for their responses.

Try not to complicate the questions. Instead, stick to the user experience identified with questions that are simple to understand and answer.

Here are the three most commonly used UX surveys:

1. Customer effort score (CES) surveys determine how easily users can interact with your product. Consider how easy it is to get support, upgrade, or move around in your app or site.

2. Customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys measure how satisfied your users are after engaging.

3. Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures customer satisfaction and how likely they are to recommend your product or service.

How do I survey my users?

You can carry out UX surveys via an app, website, or even email. Determine how your user best responds to your product and attempt to conduct the survey in that way.

For example, if your user has telephoned your customer care team, your survey might take place on this channel after the interaction. If the user is using an app, you might present the survey through the app or direct them to a secure site.

How many questions should a user survey have?

There is no set rule about the number of questions in a user experience survey. However, long surveys with long questions will get a lower level of participation than short, focused questions within a concise, focused survey.

You should be able to reduce the number of questions by making them clear and to the point.

Your goal when creating a UX survey is to get the most accurate, insightful data from your targeted user. The following best practices can help you design a UX survey to fulfill those objectives.

Set your goal

Your survey should be manageable, focusing on a specific set of data. Too much data can become diluted, while too little can leave your research incomplete and inaccurate.

Be brief and focused

Users might get distracted or bored if your survey is too lengthy or complex.  But don’t just keep the survey short—your questions should also be short and to the point, focusing on the end goal.

Avoid bias

Survey bias can lead to false data. Don’t design questions to confirm your own beliefs or lead the user in a way that would skew the answers.

Keep questions clear and transparent

Always focus on one answer. Don’t ask an open-ended question requiring multiple answers.

Here’s an example: “Would you like to see more applications like this, and which ones would you like to see the most?” This type of question results in unclear, unfocused, and inaccurate answers.

Offer rewards or incentives

Many users are more likely to take surveys if you offer a reward or incentive. Consider offering a discount or coupon for completing the survey.

Be selective about when you run a UX survey

Users may become bored if they are asked to participate in a survey every time they use your product. They may even think the surveys they took in the past were a waste of time.

Once you have determined your UX survey’s goal, you can decide on the best type of survey for you. Below are the five most common types of UX survey questions with some examples of each. Remember to use the best practices listed above to design your questions.

User persona survey questions

User persona questions aim to learn about your customer, their needs, why they make the choices they do, and why they are loyal users.

How did you hear about product XYZ?

The goal here is to find out where your customer shops and the communication channels they use.  Did they hear about your product through social media, other marketing campaigns, or word of mouth?

What made you choose product XYZ over competitors?

Customers have choices. They may have chosen your product because of its price, properties, or reputation. Knowing why your user decided to use your product enables you to further expand your marketing efforts in those areas.

General UX feedback survey questions

These are general questions to determine if the user is happy or unhappy with the product. The questions are very general and provide a basic overview of their feelings.

On a scale of 1–10, how would you rate your satisfaction with product XYZ?

Questions like this are easy to analyze with a numerical rating and give you information that unlocks improvements.

If the cost of product XYZ were to increase slightly, how would you feel about purchasing it?

This type of question helps you decide if a product’s price should increase, or if the user would find similar changes acceptable.

UX research survey questions

These questions allow you to drill down into more specific areas of user experience. If your customer is unhappy, you can’t correct it until you know why. The data obtained from asking these questions can move you in that direction.

What one thing would make product XYZ better for your use?

Besides asking the user to respond with one thing, this question invites a response without parameters. Answers obtained from this question will let you know where to make improvements and what they should look like.

What feature, if any, is unnecessary for your use of product XYZ?

Depending on the responses you get, you may find that a particular feature is useless and should be removed. Your users might even reveal that the feature is flawed.

Customer satisfaction UX survey questions

Keeping your customers happy means increased revenue and a larger customer base. Drill down on what makes them happy and capitalize on that strength to increase satisfaction in other users.

Would you recommend product XYZ to your friends and family?

If your user won’t recommend your product, this indicates some level of dissatisfaction. You will then have the opportunity to probe into the reasons for their response.

What are your favorite features of product XYZ?

This is a great opportunity for multiple choice questions, which narrow responses and make them easier to analyze.

You might offer choices such as cost, availability, system upgrades, size, or power. You might also include an “other” option with space to leave a comment. This is helpful for responders who have more context or information to offer. 

Customer service team UX survey questions

These questions are designed to collect data on the kind of service provided by your customer care team. You may want to be specific by using the name of the person who dealt with the customer.

Did Sally resolve your issue?

This open-ended question allows for an essay-type response. If the answer is yes, no further information is needed. If the answer is no, move on and give the user a chance to tell you why the issue was unresolved.

Rate your experience with Sall

You can easily score your customer care team members using a number system.

Applying your UX survey results quickly and effectively is key. Dovetail provides an easy solution for importing and tagging your survey comments to find patterns and themes. Learn more about how Dovetail can provide lightning-fast analysis features such as transcription, tagging, thematic clustering, and sentiment analysis.