Helping businesses across Ireland & UK understand their customers better, every day.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Customer Surveys

Published On

August 13, 2026

Last Modified

August 4, 2026

Share This Post

Customer surveys can be one of the most useful ways to understand what people think about your business. They work best when they are clear, focused and designed around the customer experience.

 

Do Keep Surveys Short and Relevant

Customers are more likely to complete a survey when it respects their time. A short survey with clear questions will usually give better feedback than a long survey that tries to cover too much.

 

Don’t Ask Questions You Will Not Use

Every question should have a purpose. If the answer will not help the business make a decision or understand the customer experience more clearly, it probably does not need to be included.

 

Do Give Customers Space to Explain

Scores are useful, but written comments often explain the reason behind them. A simple open question can help customers share what happened in their own words.

 

Don’t Let Feedback Sit Unused

Collecting customer feedback is only the first step. Businesses need to look for patterns, identify common issues and decide what practical changes should be made.

 

What a Good Survey Should Help You Understand

A good customer survey should help the business answer practical questions, such as:

  • What are customers happy with?
  • Where are customers getting frustrated?
  • Are service standards being delivered consistently?
  • What changes would improve the customer experience?

 

How Customer Perceptions Can Help

At Customer Perceptions, we help businesses design survey programmes that gather useful, relevant customer feedback. Surveys can show what customers think, while mystery shopping and customer experience improvement programmes can help businesses understand what is happening in practice.

 

Learn more about our services: 

Mystery Shopping.
Survey Services.
Customer Feedback Programmes.

 

Contact us for any further information on how to gather customer insight as efficiently and effectively as possible.