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Isn’t it a great feeling when you’ve “validated” an idea or product design with the whole team? You throw out a question and get a resounding YES in return! It might feel right in the moment—but in reality, the idea could be pretty bad.
To gather real feedback and data, a survey is your safest bet.
Surveys help you collect insights from lots of people. Whether it’s customers, employees, or an entire target audience, a survey lets you capture a broad range of opinions.
To help you succeed, we’ll cover what a survey is, the most common types, and how to create a great one.
What is a survey?
A survey is a research method for collecting data, information, and feedback by asking a set of targeted questions. Organizations use surveys to form hypotheses and, for example, to forecast a market.
Whether you want feedback after a webinar, to understand how customers experience your service, or to publish a research study—you can do it with a survey.
The benefits of running surveys
Building tailored questionnaires helps you understand what triggers your customers, how satisfied they are, and gather valuable input to respond to the market more effectively.
Every company, regardless of industry, benefits from running different kinds of customer surveys regularly, because:
Surveys give you hard facts
You need to know whether a complaint is an isolated incident or a common problem. Likewise, one customer’s praise doesn’t equal organizational success.
Surveys provide a wide-angle view of the current state, the problems, and the challenges you might have. The entire point is to gather enough data—and act on it.
A small investment with big payoff
Whether it’s a one-off project or a survey tool subscription, this could be one of your best investments. A survey can be the difference between a successful and a failed product launch. It can explain why customers churn—or why employees leave after three years.
They help you make objective decisions
Surveys are an impartial way to support decision-making. In other words: stop relying on gut feeling.
An anonymous survey gives you data to make sound decisions based on analyzed results. You can immediately focus on what matters instead of wasting time and resources on areas that don’t.
Common types of surveys
The possibilities are endless—from opinions on cilantro to how new hires rate your onboarding. Here are some of the most common types.
Customer survey
The customer—ever-changing and hard to pin down. How much would you pay to read their mind? Customer surveys are your third eye, giving you a window into how your customers think.
Companies that survey regularly understand their customers and audience better. You can quickly learn how someone discovered your product, how they think you could improve it, and how they perceive your customer service.
Customer surveys drive growth by supplying data that can shape marketing campaigns, support processes, and your website’s UX.
Read more about customer surveys here.
Employee survey
Your most important resource is your people. A well-executed employee survey paves the way for happier, higher-performing teams—and it doesn’t stop there. Results often help with recruiting too, by showing how employees rate your workplace. Because surveys can be anonymous, they’re one of the most effective ways to get the truth—on leadership, engagement, and more. The most successful companies run employee surveys continuously.
Market research survey
To reach new potential customers, you need a solid grasp of what’s happening in your industry. Being relevant gets easier when you can spot trends early and draw the right conclusions.
Market research should educate your organization by revealing what truly makes you fly:
What challenges does your audience face? What motivates them?
It also complements your “big data,” which answers what people do. Take Google Analytics—you can see when a visitor leaves your site, but not why. Market research gives you the why: Is it price? Payment options? Something else causing drop-off?
NPS® survey (Net Promoter Score)
Do you track this? NPS tells you how likely customers are to recommend your product or service.
By mapping how people perceive your brand, you can quickly identify detractors and learn how to turn them into promoters—those happy customers who gladly recommend you to friends and colleagues.
When you score well on NPS, you can trigger a (metaphorical) avalanche—word-of-mouth growth where customers spread the gospel of how great your product or service really is!
How likely are you to recommend our product to a friend or colleague?
How do you create a good survey?
No surprise here: like any initiative, surveys need clear goals—even clearer than usual.
“It’s to find out what people thought of our webinar” isn’t enough. Try something like:
Goal: Identify which parts participants found least interesting or useful, so we can simplify and improve the content.
That kind of goal creates a natural action plan to continuously improve a webinar, a process, or a campaign—i.e., actionable outcomes from a well-run survey.
Ask yourself:
- What is the goal of your survey?
- Why are you running it?
- What do you want to achieve?
- How will you use the data, and what decisions do you hope to make from it?
Practical tips for better surveys
Sell your survey
Write a compelling intro. Explain why people should respond and how their input will improve your product, workplace, or support.
Speak the same language
As with marketing, match your tone to your audience. Avoid jargon and internal lingo. Recognition goes up, and so does answer quality.
Let’s try that again, the wrong way:
“Analogous to market nomenclature optimization, it’s essential to modulate the semantic register per cohort. Eschew technocratic argot and clan-speak.”
Don’t do that. Do it the lynes way.
Ask direct, intentional questions
Make sure each question supports your goal. Include an “Other” option so respondents aren’t forced into a nearly-right answer.
Make it accessible
Ensure people can respond on any device—mobile, tablet, or browser.
What question types should you use?
Good tools offer a whole range—from radio buttons to Likert scales. The key is consistency. If you start with a Likert scale, try to stick with it to avoid confusing respondents. Mix question types when it makes sense, but don’t blend near-duplicates (e.g., Likert vs. semantic differential). Pick one.
Multiple choice
Probably the most popular type. People select one or more options from your list. Easy to answer, easy to analyze. Include an “Other” option.
Rating scales
Also called ranking/rating questions—on a 1–10 or 0–100 scale. Great for NPS. Provide context so numbers mean something (“How much do you enjoy traveling for vacation?” with clear anchors).
Likert scale
Named after Rensis Likert—one of the most reliable ways to measure opinions and attitudes (“Strongly disagree” → “Strongly agree”). Often used for customer satisfaction.
Visual Analog Scale (VAS)
Common in healthcare to self-assess experiences like pain, by dragging a marker along a line between two anchors.
Survey your surveys
Running surveys regularly paves the road to success. You get to know your market, your customers, and your people. You stop guessing—and stop deciding by gut.
Surveys aren’t new to many—but they might be to you. Take Apple: they’ve stated that in-store NPS has generated an extra $25 million in annual sales (!!!). And nearly 60% of consumers say they’re willing to switch providers due to poor customer service. If you haven’t started surveying yet, now’s the time.
How
lynes Survey
helps
If you’re thinking, “That doesn’t seem hard,” you’ve got it—because it’s lynes.
We built our own survey service right into the same app where you chat, call, and meet on video.
We use surveys daily—especially our support team—which has helped us achieve 97.5% customer satisfaction, and 8 out of 10 customers stay with us after 24 months.
Those numbers are flattering, sure—but behind them is hard work, commitment, and a world-class customer experience.
Want to try being one of our happy customers for 30 days? It won’t cost you a thing.
