How to Set-up a Post Purchase Survey For Better Results (+sample questions)
Post-purchase surveys are an awesome feedback tool.
Seriously, they're non-intrusive. They give you data while it's fresh in your shoppers mind. And best of all, they have super high response rates. Post-purchase surveys are so powerful, that we recommend virtually every merchant to implement them as soon as possible.
But creating a post-purchase survey isn't always straightforward.
That's why we and we put together this handy guide to help you create a simple, post-purchase survey in just a few minutes. We’ll go over exactly what questions you should ask as well as where, when, and how to set it up.
Let's jump in!
What is a Post Purchase Survey?
A post-purchase survey is a series of questions you serve to your customers after they've purchased from you.
Post-purchase surveys can include anything from 1-5 star ratings to questions about user experience, but the goal is generally the same: to give you information to enhance the customer experience going forward.
Post purchase surveys come in many formats. Two of the most common formats used by eCommerce merchants are email surveys and thank you page surveys.
Both of these formats give you valuable data - however we'd argue that thank you page surveys (also known as order confirmation page surveys) are superior because they:
- Get higher response rates compared to email surveys.
- Capture data while it's freshest in your shopper's mind.
- Take very little time to set-up.
With that in mind, let's move on to how you can build a post purchase survey in your store. But just before that, there's one thing to be aware about when using post-purchase surveys.
The Limitations of Post-Purchase Surveys
So far we've hard sold the benefits of post-purchase surveys. While post-purchase surveys are immensely useful, you need to be aware that they're an inherently biased form of feedback.
Why? Well, asking questions after a sale means only customers who converted give answers. Given that this segment represents an average of around 2% of your store's visitors, this is a skewed segment to draw conclusions about your entire store from.
The name of these somewhat skewed insights is "survivor bias."
If you're looking at survey responses from customers who've converted, you'll be missing out on much of the data that caused other visitors to not buy in the first place.
That's why it's important to use a mix of data in your strategy. One useful way around this might be to compare data from both pre and post-purchase surveys. Another helpful form of feedback comes in the form of heatmapping tools - which give you insight into how non-converting users behave on your site.
What Questions to Ask in a Post Purchase Survey?
Ok, with the benefits and limitations of post-purchase surveys under our belts, let's examine some questions to ask in your post-purchase survey. While these questions are a great staring point, ultimately, the questions you'll ask should align with your marketing and business goals.
When designing your post-purchase survey, ask yourself what data you need to reach the specific KPIs you're hoping to achieve. For example, are your looking to increase your CVR? Boost your AOV? Grow your retention rate? Identify the best marketing channel? The questions you ask in your post-purchase survey need to inform the specific goal you want to attain.
With that in mind, let's look at some of the most useful questions you can ask your customers.
a) Why did you choose to buy from our store?
This is a great question to give insight into your customer's buying motivation. A friend of mine recently discovered that a significant proportion of her shoppers were buying gifts for friends and family - this insight allowed her to adapt her offering and marketing to convert more of these shoppers. Some variables you might include are:
- You has the best price
- Best shipping options/speed
- I had a promo code
- I was referred by a friend
- Product reviews
- I couldn't find the product anywhere else
- You appeared in Google search results
- You have great customers service
b) How did you find our store?
Knowing where customers tend to hear about your store can help you to focus on the marketing channels with the highest chance of success. Some channels to include (provided you're using them all) are:
- Facebook ad
- Google ad
- Google search
- Twitter ad
- Instagram - ad or post
- Instagram influencer
- Holiday gift guide
- Blog post
- Radio ad
- Newspaper/magazine ad
- Referred by a friend
- Other/Don't remember
c) Did the customer experience meet, exceed, or fall short of expectations? Why?
Knowing how the customer experience stacks up to expectations can help you to better manage those expectations and improve customer satisfaction. Delve deeper here with the following questions:
- Did you find all of the items you were looking for?
- Were the shipping fees what you expected?
- Did you find the store easy to navigate?
- How would you rate your experience with customer support?
- If you could improve one thing, what would it be?
d) What's your preferred communication method?
If most of your customers prefer text communications, it's moot to put more resources into your phone line or email support. This question can help you discover which support & marketing channels to hone in on. You can also ask them what kind of updates they'd like from you. For example, do they want content like blogs, gift guides, and promotions or would they prefer only essential order-related communication. If you want to be more flexible, you can use a platform like UCaaS platforms that unite all business communication channels and third-party software integrations within one unified platform to prevent miscommunications that negatively impact customer experience.
e) Was your checkout experience hassle-free? If not, tell us why.
A hassle-free checkout experience is the basis of a high conversion rate. The more hassle in your store, the less customers make it to the finish line.
f) What's your reason for choosing us over other brands?
Are customers choosing your store because it's better than the competition, or purely out of convenience? Here's a question that will help you figure that out.
g) What's one thing you did/didn't enjoy about our store?
When including this question, we recommend to only ask one of the options (either did or didn't, but not both at once).
This question can help you do more of what works while sifting out the onsite features that don't work.
How to Add a Post Purchase Survey to Your Shopify Store with ReConvert
In this section, we'll be using ReConvert to add a post-purchase survey to a Shopify store.
Luckily, it's not too difficult. You can do the same in just about 4 steps.
Step #1: Navigate to the Survey Dashboard
First, you'll want to get to the survey dashboard. Once in the main dashboard of ReConvert, you can find it here:
Step #2: Create a Survey for Your Store
Next, you'll want to create the actual survey.
From the dashboard, you'll find a button that looks like this:
You'll have various options for questions to include, so it's up to you to decide what to ask. Here are a few great post-purchase survey questions:
- Where did you find out about our store?
- How would you rate your shopping experience today?
- How likely are you to refer us to a friend?
- What's another product you'd like to see on our store?
- Did you run into any problems while shopping on our store? If so, please let us know what they were below.
Step #3: Add a Post Purchase Survey Widget to Your Thank You Page
After the Survey has been created, you'll want to navigate to the Thank You Page Builder.
From there, you'll see a post purchase survey option in the widget menu:
Simply click the widget and drag it where you'd like on the page.
Step #4: Select the Survey You Want to Include
There's no limit to how many survey templates you can create, so the next step is to choose the exact one you want.
Using this functionality, it might be useful to include different sets of questions depending on which product a customer is buying.
Once you've selected the right survey, just save the page and you're done!
With that out of the way, let's cover some more great questions to include in your thank you page.
4 Tips for Increasing Customer Satisfaction Through Surveys
Not sure how to implement them? Here are a few key tips to get the most out of post purchase surveys in your store.
1. Don't Overload Customers with Questions
Many customers are willing to answer a couple of questions after a purchase, but that doesn't mean they want to fill out a whole test.
If you include post-purchase surveys in your store, keep it to 3-5 questions max. Any more than that and you may frustrate customers or cause them to not answer any of the questions.
2. Make Your Questions Highly Specific
When creating your questions, keep them as specific as you can.
The more open-ended a question is, the higher the chances an answer won't be productive. Instead, guide customers towards the type of answers you want.
Take the question "How was your store experience today?"
Sure, you may get some valuable insights, but you'll also get plenty of answers along the lines of "good."
If you asked "Was your shopping experience better or worse than expected? What was the main reason(s) for that?" You'll get much more informative answers.
3. Don't Be Pushy
Post purchase surveys are meant to help you improve your store, not detract from the customer experience.
If you make surveys mandatory or continue to shove them in customer faces, the only things you'll get are negative reviews and a lack of returning business.
It's okay to suggest customers fill out the survey, but avoid creating intrusive pop-ups and make it easy to say no.
4. Offer Rewards for Customer Feedback
While you shouldn't force customers to complete a post-purchase survey, that doesn't mean you can't add some incentive to do so.
Offering a small discount on future purchases is a great way to increase your answer rate for surveys.
Oftentimes, customers will ignore survey questions, so that small nudge might just be what they needed.
Discounts aren't the only ways to increase the answer rate, you could also get creative. Plenty of stores us a wheel spinning game to entice customers, like this one:
Using Post Purchase Surveys to Elevate the Customer Experience
Asking for direct customer feedback is one of the most straightforward, and effective, methods to get store data.
Which is why it's a shame that more merchants don't use them effectively.
Asking highly specific questions, offering incentives to answer those questions, and using it as part of your wider marketing plan is key to consistent improvement to your bottom line.
And after reading this guide, you're a few steps closer to those insights.
If you enjoyed this guide, make sure to check out some of the other content on the ReConvert blog.
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