Pricing Survey: Types, Best Practices, and Examples
A pricing survey is the most surefire way to figure out an acceptable price range that maximizes profit without being prohibitively expensive — made possible through the power of user feedback. This guide will help you get to that optimal price point by conducting pricing surveys!
TL;DR
- A product pricing survey (also known as “pricing studies”) is a set of questions used to inform overall pricing strategy based on how much consumers within the target audience are willing to pay for the product or service being provided.
- The four types of pricing surveys are:
- Price rating scales which give customers a chance to express their definition of appropriate pricing in a scalar fashion.
- Van Westendorp pricing surveys which can be used to gauge multiple price ranges — rather than a single target price.
- Gabor-Granger pricing sensitivity surveys which ask respondents to choose from pre-set prices based on which price they would consider reasonable for a monthly subscription.
- Conjoint analysis surveys which ask respondents how much more/less they would be willing to pay for the product/service if it included a specific feature.
- There are a few best practices you should follow when conducting pricing surveys, such as:
- Setting clear goals.
- Avoiding leading questions.
- Choosing the right format.
- These three best practices will help you get the most accurate feedback from the largest number of respondents.
- Userpilot lets you build in-app surveys without writing a single line of code. Get your free Userpilot demo today!
What is a pricing survey?
A pricing survey is a method of research used to identify the right price for products or services. A price survey will ask your target market segments questions about exactly how much value they get out of each feature, the overall value of the product, and their willingness to pay for it.
Types of pricing surveys
While most pricing surveys share the same goal of informing pricing decisions, preserving customer satisfaction, and achieving the maximum price without suffering drawbacks, there are multiple ways to figure out what the best price for your product is.
Here are four different pricing surveys you can use to figure out what the highest price point should be:
Price rating scales
Similar to NPS or CSAT surveys, numeric rating scales give customers a chance to express their definition of appropriate pricing in a scalar fashion. This ensures you get quantitative pricing data that you can then apply to your pricing models.
When to use price rating scales?
Scalar types of survey questions are best used for measuring satisfaction rather than asking for actual dollar figures. You can use numbers, emojis, or stars to ask customers how satisfied they are with the current product pricing on a scale of 1-5.
Tip: You can also run the same survey across multiple segments to see how much customers are willing to pay across various price points and subscription tiers.
Van Westendorp pricing survey
The Van Westendorp pricing model for surveys can be used to gauge multiple price ranges — rather than a single target price — to see how different market segments and customers respond to each range.
When to use the Van Westendorp pricing survey?
The Van Westerndorp pricing survey is best used for products with high price elasticity since your customers’ purchase decisions won’t be as clear when they’re voting on ranges rather than a specific price point. This makes maintaining data quality and clarity more difficult with Van Westendorp surveys.
Gabor-Granger price sensitivity
The Gabor-Granger pricing method asks respondents to choose from pre-set prices based on which price they would consider reasonable for a monthly subscription. This allows survey respondents to offer specific feedback based on how customers perceive the value provided.
When to use the Gabor-Granger price sensitivity?
If you have existing market share but are concerned that you’ve mispositioned yourself on the demand curve, then asking survey participants to pick from a range of exact prices can help you achieve the maximum revenue potential of your product (at least if multiple factors remain equal).
Conjoint analysis
Conjoint analysis surveys take a different approach than other pricing models and surveys since they ask respondents how much more/less they would be willing to pay for the product/service if it included a specific feature.
When to use conjoint analysis?
Because conjoint analysis provides qualitative feedback rather than quantitative data, interpreting responses will be a more complex process. As such, this is best applied to early-stage SaaS companies that can rapidly implement new features upon extracting actionable data from the responses.
Examples of survey questions for pricing research
While maximizing revenue with informed pricing decisions is always the goal, it’s important to realize that some in-app survey questions may lead you to a lower price point — with the outcome of lowering the barrier to entry and getting more customers in the long run.
Here are examples of questions you can use in your price rating scale, Van Westendorp, Gabor-Granger, and conjoint analysis surveys:
Price rating scale survey questions
- On a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with the current pricing of our product/service?
- Please rate the perceived value for money of our product/service on a scale of 1 to 5.
- In comparison to similar products/services you have used, how would you rate our pricing? (Very Competitive to Not Competitive)
- How likely are you to recommend our product/service to others based on its price? (Very Likely to Not Likely)
Van Westendorp pricing survey questions
- At what price point would you consider our product/service as too expensive to consider buying it?
- At what price point would you consider our product/service so inexpensive as to question its quality?
- What price range would you consider reasonable for our product/service — neither too cheap nor too expensive?
- At what price would you feel the product/service provides a good balance between value and cost?
Gabor-Granger price sensitivity survey questions
- How likely are you to purchase our product/service at the following price points? (List a range of prices for evaluation)
- At what percentage increase in price would you find our product/service unreasonably expensive?
- If the price were reduced, how much more likely would you be to purchase our product/service?
- Please rate the perceived value of our product/service at different price levels.
Conjoint analysis survey questions
- Which combination of features and price points would you find most appealing when considering our product/service? (Present different scenarios for respondents to choose from)
- How important are each of the following features when considering the value of our product/service? (Rank features in order of importance)
- How much more/less would you be willing to pay for our product/service if it included a specific feature?
- Do you prefer a bundled pricing model where features are included in a package or a pay-as-you-go model based on the features you use?
Best practices when conducting surveys for pricing strategy
Whether you use the Van Westendorp price sensitivity meter, price rating scales, or conjoint analysis, there are a few best practices that you need to adhere to when conducting a pricing study. Here are the three most important tenets to keep in mind:
Make sure you have a clear survey goal
Before you start surveying customers on what an acceptable range would be for your product, you must first identify what the goal for your pricing surveys is. There are a few goals that a business might have when running a pricing survey, such as:
- A better understanding of pricing sensitivity
- Evaluating the perceived value of the product
- Optimizing pricing strategies to increase margins
Figuring out which of these goals best aligns with your desired outcome will help you choose the right type of pricing survey. Identifying your objectives early on will also make it easier to determine which advanced pricing analysis tools you’ll need to get the job done.
Avoid using leading questions
Asking bad survey questions could lead to multiple types of survey bias — both by the respondents and those interpreting the responses. As such, you should use neutral and unbiased language to avoid influencing the respondents in any particular direction.
You should avoid suggestive wording like “Don’t you agree that…?” or “Isn’t it true…?” as these leading questions will make respondents more likely to respond with a yes even if they don’t hold those beliefs.
Determine the best survey format for target customers
Finally, you’ll want to figure out how many pricing questions you want to ask your customers. Getting the survey length right is crucial to maximizing response rates without sacrificing clarity within the responses themselves.
You’ll also need to decide whether you want to ask open-ended, close-ended questions or a combination of the two. Lastly, you’ll need to pick the channel for this market research method — with the most common choices being in-app surveys, email surveys, or a combination of the two.
Conclusion
As you can see, conducting an advanced analysis of customer satisfaction, pricing sensitivity, and perceived value will help you get the most out of your product without sacrificing affordability or increasing churn rates.
If you’re ready to start collecting detailed user feedback through in-app surveys, then it’s time to get your free Userpilot demo today!
