VoC survey questions — NPS, CSAT, CES
The 4 VoC survey types every team should know — NPS, CSAT, CES, and the cancellation survey. When to send each, exact question wording, and response-rate benchmarks.
The pattern across all 4 surveys: one quantitative question + one open-ended follow-up. The number tells you what changed; the open answer tells you why. Without the open-ended, you have a metric but no insight.
NPS — Net Promoter Score
When: Quarterly relationship survey, or 90 days post-onboarding
Score (required)
"On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend [product] to a friend or colleague?"
Follow-up (open, required)
"What's the main reason for your score?"
Optional
"What's the one thing we could do that would make you a 9 or 10?"
Benchmarks:B2B SaaS: 30+ healthy, 60+ world-class. Consumer: 50+ strong. Below 0 = critical.
CSAT — Customer Satisfaction
When: Triggered per event: after support ticket resolved, after onboarding complete, after first feature used
Score (required)
"How satisfied are you with [specific event]? (1 = Very dissatisfied, 5 = Very satisfied)"
Follow-up if score ≤ 3 (open)
"What could we have done better?"
Follow-up if score ≥ 4 (open)
"What worked particularly well?"
Benchmarks:Support: 85%+ healthy, 95%+ world-class. Onboarding: 75%+ healthy. Below 70% = investigate.
CES — Customer Effort Score
When: After high-effort flows: signup, first feature use, support resolution, cancellation attempt
Score (required)
""[Specific task] was easy to do." Strongly agree (7) → Strongly disagree (1)."
Follow-up (open, optional)
"What made it easy / hard?"
Benchmarks:Sign-up: 5.5+ healthy, 6+ world-class. Support: 5+ healthy. CES is a strong predictor of churn — track trend.
Cancellation / churn survey
When: Triggered when customer cancels, unsubscribes, or downgrades
Required
"What's the primary reason you're cancelling? (Multiple choice + Other)"
Optional but most useful
"What would have to change for you to stay?"
Optional
"Where are you going next? (We won't be offended.)"
Benchmarks:Response rate is high (40%+) at cancellation — people want to vent. Treat the open-ended answers as gold; they're your strongest VoC signal.
Survey best practices
- Always include the open-ended follow-up. Without it, you have a number but no insight to act on.
- Max 5 questions per survey. Beyond 5, response rate drops below 5%.
- Send within 24 hours of the trigger event. Memory decays fast — Monday\'s onboarding doesn\'t produce useful Tuesday\'s feedback.
- Don\'t survey the same person more than once a quarter. Survey fatigue kills response rate across the entire program.
- Read every open-ended response within 7 days. Customers can tell when their feedback disappears into a black hole.
- Reply personally to detractors. NPS detractors who get a personal reply often convert to passives or promoters.
Survey design takes practice
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