From profiling users and assessing their needs to evaluating product features, user surveys offer valuable insights that help you shape product development and experiences.

This article will set you on the path to success by sharing how to run effective user surveys. You will also discover:

• Different types of user surveys.
• Their pros and cons.
• Various survey use cases.
• How to increase survey response rates.
• And how to create in-app surveys in Userpilot.

What are user surveys?

User surveys are questionnaires used to gather user feedback. They’re a go-to tool when you’re trying to understand user needs, identify pain points, gauge satisfaction, or figure out the reasons for their behavior.

Imagine sitting down with each customer to chat about how they feel about your product. That’s what surveys aim to do — but at scale. With the right questions, they help you make informed decisions about product features, usability improvements, customer retention efforts, and more.

Are surveys better than other user research methods?

This is a how-long-is-a-piece-of-string kind of question. The answer depends on your circumstances and goals.

But the main strengths of user surveys include:

• Scalability: You can reach a large audience quickly and cost-effectively. It makes no difference if you send it to one user or thousands of them.
• Structured data: Quantitative surveys provide consistent data, making it easier to analyze trends and patterns over time.
• Flexibility: You can use them at any stage of the product lifecycle, from concept testing to post-launch feedback.
• Personalization: You can tailor them to specific user segments for highly targeted insights.

However, they have their limitations:

• Risk of bias: Poorly worded questions can return misleading data, and there’s no opportunity to clarify responses.
• Survey fatigue: Surveys that constantly pop up on the screen or hit inboxes can frustrate users, lowering response rates and the quality of the responses.
• Uncertainty in response rates: In-app surveys get a 15-30% response rate, while email surveys only get 2-4%. So, there’s always a big part of the user base that doesn’t contribute, leading to non-response bias.

Common types of user surveys you can leverage for valuable insights

The type of survey you choose depends on the insights you’re after. Here’s a quick rundown of the most popular ones:

• UX research survey: It helps you understand how users interact with your product. Use it to identify usability issues and inform design decisions.
• Welcome survey: Used to collect information about users at the beginning of their journey, it lets you segment them based on their needs and tailor their onboarding experience.
• Product-Market Fit (PMF) survey: Also known as the Sean Ellis test, it measures how well your product meets customer needs by asking them how much they would miss the product if they couldn’t use it again.
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) survey: A quantitative survey that tracks user satisfaction — at regular intervals or specific touchpoints.
• Customer Effort Score (CES) survey: Triggered contextually, it measures how easy it is for users to complete a task.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey: It measures customer loyalty by asking how likely they are to recommend the product.
• Exit survey: Used to capture insights from users who cancel their subscriptions.

How can companies leverage user surveys?

Let me take you through some survey use cases to illustrate how exactly they can drive your business growth.

Collect data to profile your users

To offer a personalized user experience, you need to know who your users are: their roles, JTBDs, pain points, desires, and preferences.

User surveys, like the welcome survey below, give you the necessary data to profile your customers and segment them for targeted engagement.

But wait — there’s more!

Such data, when cross-referenced with user behavior data, can help you refine your ideal customer profile. This is particularly useful for early-stage companies still looking for product-market fit and trying to figure out their target audience.

Improve product features for increased adoption

So, you’ve launched a new feature. Nice!

Use user surveys to make it even better. To offer true value, it needs to be optimized and bug-free. Otherwise, they won’t adopt it.

The drill is simple: When a user engages with a feature, trigger a CES survey to ask about their experience. Follow up with an open-ended question to ask for more details.

Such contextual surveys allow you to capture feedback when the experience is still fresh in users’ minds.

Identify friction points in the user journey

The survey above is very specific. It evaluates the user experience with a specific feature.

You can use such focused surveys to zero in on specific aspects of the user journey. For example, if funnel analysis shows that users drop off at a particular touchpoint, you could send them a targeted survey to clue you in on why it’s happening.

And when you cast the net a bit wider, it can help you identify issues and friction points that you never expected.

For example, in your survey, you could ask users if there are any features they find confusing or difficult to use. And use the opportunity to invite them to a follow-up interview, where you can explore the issue in more detail.

Prevent customers from churning

Using exit surveys will help you reduce churn rates. If you play it right, you might even stop the user completing it from leaving.

How so?

When a user hits the cancel button, it means the product doesn’t bring them the value they expect. In some cases, there is nothing you can do about it, but very often, a small adjustment can change their mind.

For example, if you ask a churning customer the reason behind their decision and they say your tool is difficult to use, you might salvage the situation by inviting them to a meeting with a customer success team member. But you will never know this if you don’t ask.

What if they are too frustrated to even consider that? It’s a shame, but at least now you know your onboarding process needs improvements.

Collect reviews and testimonials

Did you know?

86% of software buyers consider peer reviews when buying software. And adding a testimonial to your landing page can improve conversion rates by 34%. Social proof is priceless when it comes to turning eyeballs into coins.

The best part? Customers are usually happy to give them; they just need a bit of a nudge. And user surveys can help.

First, use them to identify the right customers to ask, like the NPS promoters.

When a customer gives you a 9 or 10 in the NPS survey or 3-5 in a CSAT survey, automatically send them an in-app message encouraging them to leave a review.

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How to create a user survey step-by-step?

Creating a survey shouldn’t feel like an obstacle course. If it takes more than a few minutes to build one, your team members might not bother. And you will miss potentially vital insights.

Userpilot survey builder requires no coding, so even non-technical colleagues will find it a breeze.

Let’s imagine you want to build a customer satisfaction survey.

Step 1: In the menu, navigate to Feedback and choose Surveys.

Step 2: In the top right corner, click on Create Survey to open the template library.

Step 3: Use the search bar to find a CSAT survey template (there are many more to choose from).

Step 4: Tweak the questions if needed or add additional ones. These could be the Likert scale, multiple choice questions if you’re after quantitative data, single input, text/URL prompts, and open-ended ones for qualitative insights.

Step 5: Head to the Style tab to customize the survey appearance. Choose the color pattern, fonts, border width, and all that jazz.

Step 6: In the Settings tab, select the target user segments.

Step 7: Decide where and how to trigger the survey. Do you want it out on a particular page or any page? On a specific day or when a user completes an action?

Great user survey questions to take inspiration from

Effective user survey questions are simple and clear. Check out these examples across various use cases to see what I mean.

Market research questions

1. What is the biggest challenge you face in [specific industry/role]?
2. What solutions or tools are you currently using to solve [specific problem]?
3. When evaluating SaaS tools, which features are must-haves for you?
4. What’s the one thing missing in your current SaaS toolset?
5. What would make you switch from a competitor to a new tool?

Usability and UX survey questions

1. Were there any features or tasks that felt difficult to use or understand?
2. What improvements could make our product easier to use?
3. Are there any features you feel are missing or underdeveloped?
4. Are there areas of the interface where you feel confused or overwhelmed?
5. How well does [specific feature] meet your needs?

Customer satisfaction and loyalty questions

1. How likely are you to recommend our product to a friend or colleague?
2. Do you feel you’re getting good value for the price of our product?
3. How satisfied are you with your overall experience with our product?
4. What do you like most about using our product?
5. If you could change one thing about our product, what would it be?

Customer support and service questions

1. Was your issue resolved during your first interaction with support?
2. How easy was it to find the support options on our platform?
3. What could our support team do better to improve your experience?
4. Do you prefer more self-service options (e.g., FAQs, videos) or direct contact with support staff?
5. How helpful was the resource center?

User survey design best practices to increase your response rate

As I mentioned above, non-response bias is a serious issue. If you don’t get responses from a representative user sample, the insights will be skewed, resulting in poor product decisions.

What can you do about it? Here are a few tried-and-tested tactics that will help you increase your response rates.

Segment your audience to send targeted surveys

One reason why people don’t respond to surveys is that they find them irrelevant. Asking users about a feature they’ve never used — or don’t need — is like asking a cat owner about the best dog treats. They can’t offer you anything of value, and it shows that you don’t understand them.

The solution? Segment your audience — based on their previous survey responses and in-app behavior — and send them targeted surveys.

Imagine you want to collect feedback about your onboarding. To do so, you must send it to new users who at least started it and ideally completed a major milestone, like a checklist.

Adopt a multichannel approach for user surveys

Survey personalization isn’t just about asking relevant questions but also using the right channel to reach your users. Meagan Glenn, the Senior Program Manager at Lavender, calls this meeting users where they are.

The most effective way we have found at Lavender is to meet users where they are. If your users are in-app, send in-app surveys. If your users are in the inbox, send email surveys.
– Meagan Glenn, Senior Program Manager at Lavender

This makes perfect sense: an in-app survey isn’t much use when trying to reach inactive users.

So, in your user listening strategy, use various survey methods. Send them by email, chat, SMS, or WhatsApp. Use whatever channels your users prefer.

Mix active and passive user surveys

Let’s face it: getting the survey timing right is hard. When you send it, the user could be in the middle of a very urgent project, and answering your questions wouldn’t be their priority, so they’ll just dismiss it.

It doesn’t mean they have no insights to offer, though, and you will miss them if you don’t give them an alternative way to share it.

So in addition to soliciting feedback actively via surveys, collect passive feedback. Enable a feedback widget and place it in the resource center or a visible place on the screen, just like Miro does.

This allows users to share their thoughts and requests whenever they need to.

Replace jargon with simple and familiar language

Avoid using jargon or slang — it will only confuse survey participants. Users may not understand the meaning of some words and, as a result, respond falsely or completely give up.

It gets worse: Seeing terms they don’t understand may make users feel like they aren’t smart enough for your surveys. That’s a recipe for disaster. It decreases the survey response rate and puts a strain on your relationship.

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Translate your surveys to appeal to different segments

If jargon is bad, imagine how confused users might feel when they get a survey in a language they don’t know well!

Even if they don’t dismiss the survey right away, there’s a risk you won’t get the quality insights you’re after. They might not understand your questions well enough or be unable to articulate their thoughts clearly in a foreign language.

And there’s no reason not to make your surveys more inclusive. Modern survey tools, including Userpilot, allow you to localize your surveys automatically.

Keep your surveys simple and focused

Refrain from bombarding users with several questions. Besides causing survey fatigue, too many different types of questions can also hurt the accuracy and quality of your data.

Rather than asking multiple questions at once, keep surveys short and focused on one theme. Ask 1-2 questions, three at most. Keep in mind this: it’s better to conduct several microsurveys rather than one long one.

Include a progress indicator for multi-step surveys

If you can’t avoid sending longer surveys, divide them into shorter multi-steps and make them more fun by adding gamification elements like progress indicators.

A progress bar is a visual cue that represents how a user is progressing within the survey.

This helps you manage participants’ expectations from the get-go and motivate them. As they’re getting closer to the end, the perception of progress drives users to carry on till the end. We call this the Zegairnik effect.

Offer incentives when collecting detailed feedback

Another way to make longer surveys more acceptable to busy users is by incentivizing them to complete them.

Think about it: if your customer makes $100 an hour and you ask them to spend 15-20 minutes of their time to complete a survey or take part in a 45-minute interview, they’re sacrificing their income. It’s only fair to compensate them for their time.

And if your survey questions are well-written, the value of the user insights for your business far exceeds the $50 you spend on a gift card. Don’t have the budget? Offer them a discount or access to premium features.

Don’t forget to close the feedback loop

Picture this: you spend 10 minutes crafting your survey responses, hit submit, and then nothing. Nada. Zilch. No “thank you” message, no acknowledgment. How likely are you to respond to another survey? Not very.

Don’t do it to your customers. Always close the feedback loop:

• Acknowledge feedback with an automated message or collect more insights if necessary.
• Implement changes based on collected feedback.

A huge mistake is not acting on the feedback or taking it as an insult to the product they have built. Feedback helps us improve, so we should consider it an opportunity to grow.
– Meagan Glenn, Senior Program Manager at Lavender

• Keep users up-to-date and let them know when you roll out the changes. If you decide not to use their suggestions, explain why.

Userpilot: The best user survey tool in the market

You already have a pretty good idea that Userpilot is a pretty amazing survey tool, so this is just a quick wrap-up of its feedback features:

• Template library: 14 ready-to-use templates, including industry-standard surveys like CSAT, NPS, or PMF.

• Granular triggering and audience settings for targeted engagement.

• Qualitative NPS response tagging for finding trends and patterns easier.

• Survey analytics so you can track user engagement.

Thanks to these features, Userpilot customers get higher than average response rates.

Conclusion

User surveys offer insights into your user’s problems, needs, and wants that inform your roadmap and improve the user experience.

However, their effectiveness depends on the relevance and quality of questions. Short, targeted surveys with simple questions delivered via the right channel will have better response rates and give you more valuable insights.

Want to learn more about how Userpilot can help you conduct user survey research? Book a demo!

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