Customer Satisfaction Survey Template

A customer satisfaction survey (CSAT) is a structured questionnaire that measures how well a specific interaction or overall experience met a customer's expectations — typically using a rating scale anchored from very dissatisfied to very satisfied, supplemented by closed and open-text questions that capture the reasoning behind the score. It gives businesses a consistent, comparable metric for tracking satisfaction across touchpoints and time periods rather than relying on anecdotal impressions.

Send it within 24 hours of a defined interaction — a purchase completion, a support ticket closure, a delivery, or a service appointment — while the experience is specific enough in the customer's memory to generate a reliable score. For ongoing relationship measurement, a periodic survey sent every 90 days to active customers captures satisfaction trends independent of any single interaction. Avoid sending both simultaneously to the same customer, as interaction-specific and relationship-level scores address different questions and should not be conflated.

CSAT is calculated by dividing the number of satisfied responses — typically ratings of 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale — by the total number of responses and multiplying by 100. A score above 75 percent is generally considered good across most industries, with top-performing service organizations targeting 85 percent or higher. What matters more than the absolute score is the trend over time and how scores differ across touchpoints, customer segments, or team members — those comparisons reveal where improvement effort is most needed.

Keep post-interaction CSAT surveys to 3–5 questions — the rating scale, one or two closed follow-up questions on the specific aspect being measured, and one open-text field for additional context. Response rates for post-interaction surveys drop sharply beyond five questions because the customer has already moved on from the interaction. Periodic relationship surveys can extend to 8–10 questions since they are sent less frequently and customers have more context to draw on when responding.

A CSAT survey measures satisfaction with a specific interaction or experience at a defined point in time — it answers 'how well did this go?' An NPS (Net Promoter Score) survey measures overall loyalty and the likelihood of recommending the company to others — it answers 'how do you feel about us overall?' CSAT is a transactional metric best used close to a specific touchpoint; NPS is a relationship metric best used at regular intervals to track brand perception. Both serve different diagnostic purposes and work best when used together rather than as substitutes.