Customer satisfaction survey questions: 60 examples by industry

You finish a job, a meal or a delivery, and you want to know how it went. So you send a survey with 25 questions about every part of the visit. Three people answer. Two of them were already happy.

Good customer satisfaction survey questions are short, they ask about one thing at a time, and each answer points to something you could change. This guide gives you 60 of them. Thirty work for any business and are grouped by what you want to learn: overall satisfaction, quality, speed, staff, value, ease, loyalty and open feedback. The other 30 are short sets for service and cleaning businesses, restaurants, real estate agents, builders and trades, and logistics, manufacturing and B2B suppliers. Each question comes with its answer scale, so you can copy it as it is. At the end there's a free question bank and a file you can import to build the survey in a few minutes.

CSAT, NPS and when to use each#

Most customer satisfaction surveys are built around one score. Two are common, and they answer different questions.

• CSAT (customer satisfaction score) asks how satisfied someone is with a recent visit, order or job. Use it right after the experience, when it is fresh. In HornetForms the CSAT question is a preset with five faces, from Very unsatisfied to Very satisfied. HornetForms works out the CSAT score as the share of answers that are 4 or 5 on the 5-point CSAT rating: satisfied answers divided by all answers, times 100, to one decimal.
• NPS (Net Promoter Score) asks how likely someone is to recommend you to a friend or colleague, on a scale from 0 to 10. It measures the whole relationship, not one visit, so it suits a survey you send every few months. The NPS score is promoters (9 to 10) minus detractors (0 to 6) as a share of all answers. Our guide on how to calculate NPS walks through the maths and where the question comes from.

If you can only ask one, ask CSAT after each job and NPS once or twice a year. Both are presets you add in the editor, and HornetForms scores them for you on the Summary tab and in the built-in analytics. You don't need a spreadsheet to get either number.

Where these questions come from#

Many of the customer satisfaction survey questions below are adapted from two public sources.

The US federal customer feedback survey. OMB Circular A-11, Section 280, tells federal agencies how to ask the public about a service they just used. The current edition says: "OMB provides the customer feedback survey guidelines and framework, including question wording, response architecture, and branching logic." (OMB Circular A-11 (2025), Section 280, read on 28 October 2026)

The 2024 edition prints that survey in full. After a first rating, it asks happy people "What about this interaction made the difference? (Tap/Select all that apply)" and everyone else "What could have been better? (Tap/Select all that apply)". It closes with "Anything else you want us to know about your experience? (Or similar.)" Each choice is a short statement such as "My need was addressed.", "It was easy to complete [the task/service/what I needed to do]." and "Employees I interacted with were helpful." (OMB Circular A-11 (2024), Section 280, archived copy, read on 28 October 2026) The 2020 edition adds the plain satisfaction statement "I am satisfied with the service I received from [program/service name]." (OMB Circular A-11 (2020), Section 280, read on 28 October 2026)

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The ACSI's model comes from the University of Michigan. Its methods page says the index "uses customer interviews as input to a multi-equation econometric model developed at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business", and that the score "is calculated as a weighted average of three survey questions that measure different facets of satisfaction with a product or service." (ACSI, The Science of Customer Satisfaction, read on 28 October 2026) The same page lists what drives satisfaction (expectations, perceived quality and perceived value) and what follows from it (complaints and loyalty). For the three questions themselves, we used the wording from a federal survey built on the ACSI method, E-Verify's customer satisfaction survey: "To what extent has E-Verify met your expectations?" and "Now, imagine the ideal online verification service. How well does E-Verify compare with that ideal?" (USCIS E-Verify, 2021 Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey Briefing, read on 28 October 2026)

We swapped agency names for "us" and "[business name]", shortened some statements and turned a few into single questions. The tables mark these as A-11 or ACSI. The rest are ours. We left out the published scores on purpose: a federal agency's average says little about your bakery.

60 customer satisfaction survey questions by goal#

These 30 questions work for any business. Pick the goal that matters most right now, take two or three questions from it, and add one overall score. Five to 10 questions is plenty for most surveys. Even the federal guide caps its survey: "Total survey length should not exceed 15 questions and five minutes of burden".

Overall satisfaction#

Use the first one as your main score. The three ACSI questions go together: ask all three, or none.

Quality#

The last two match the ACSI's two sides of quality: whether something fits your needs, and how often it goes wrong.

Speed#

Staff#

A matrix keeps three ratings on one screen. In HornetForms a matrix takes up to 20 rows and 10 columns, and the Summary tab shows the results as a table.

Value#

The ACSI calls this perceived value, "a measure of quality relative to price paid". That's why the second question names the quality first.

Ease#

Loyalty#

The price question is the ACSI's "price tolerance" in plain words. The complaint question matters more than it looks: a customer who complained and still scores you well tells you your fixes work.

Open feedback#

The two checkbox questions are the clever part of the federal survey. They turn "why" into something you can count, and each one only goes to the people it fits. The section on unhappy customers below shows how to set that up.

Customer satisfaction survey questions by industry#

Every industry has one or two things customers notice first. Here are six customer satisfaction survey questions for each of five kinds of business, ready to copy. Mix them with two or three from the goals above.

Service and cleaning businesses#

These customer satisfaction survey questions for cleaning services also fit lawn care, pest control and other home services. Swap "cleaning" for your own service.

• How satisfied are you with today's [cleaning or service]? (CSAT, five faces)
• Which areas did we miss or need to redo? (Checkboxes: Kitchen, Bathrooms, Floors, Dusting, Windows, Nothing, it was all done)
• Did our team arrive within the time window we gave you? (Yes, A little late, Very late)
• Our team treated your home or workplace with respect. (Strongly agree to Strongly disagree)
• How fair was the price for the work done? (Very fair, Fair, A little high, Too high)
• Would you book us again for your next [service]? (Yes, Maybe, No)

Send it the same day. A customer who finds a missed spot tomorrow is a customer you can still win back today.

Restaurants and food#

These customer satisfaction survey questions for restaurants also suit cafes, food trucks and caterers.

• How would you rate your meal overall? (Rating, 1 to 5 stars)
• How was the temperature of your food? (Too cold, Just right, Too hot)
• How long did your food take to arrive? (Faster than expected, About right, Slower than expected)
• How friendly was your server? (Linear scale, 1 to 5: Not friendly to Very friendly)
• How was the portion size for the price? (Too small, About right, Generous)
• How easy was it to order online or by phone? (Linear scale, 1 to 5: Very hard to Very easy)

A QR code on the receipt or the table tent works well here. The Share tab gives you one as a PNG or SVG.

Real estate#

• How satisfied are you with how [agent name] handled your [sale or purchase]? (CSAT, five faces)
• How well did your agent explain each step of the process? (Very well, Well, Not very well, Not at all)
• How quickly did your agent reply to calls and messages? (Same day, Within two days, It took longer)
• How well did the homes you saw match what you asked for? (Linear scale, 1 to 5: Not at all to Very closely)
• I understood the reason for each fee and document. (Strongly agree to Strongly disagree; adapted from A-11)
• How likely are you to recommend [agent name] to a friend or colleague? (NPS, 0 to 10)

Send customer satisfaction survey questions for real estate a week or two after closing, once the boxes are unpacked. For sellers, swap the homes question for "How well did we market your home?"

Construction and trades#

Use these customer satisfaction survey questions for a construction company, a remodeler or a single trade such as plumbing or electrical work.

• How satisfied are you with the finished work? (CSAT, five faces)
• Has anything needed fixing since we finished? (No; Yes, and you fixed it; Yes, and it still needs fixing)
• Did we finish on the date we agreed? (On time, A few days late, More than a week late)
• How well did we keep you updated during the job? (Very well, Well, Not very well, Not at all)
• How tidy did we leave the site each day? (Linear scale, 1 to 5: Very messy to Very tidy)
• Did the final cost match the quote? (Yes, It was a little higher, It was much higher, It was lower)

For a long job, ask the "anything needed fixing" question again a month after handover. It catches the problems that only show up later.

Logistics, manufacturing and B2B#

These customer satisfaction survey questions for logistics and manufacturing customers rate the account, not a single visit.

• Overall, how satisfied are you with [company] as a supplier? (Linear scale, 1 to 10: Very dissatisfied to Very satisfied; ACSI)
• How often do your orders arrive on time? (Always, Usually, Sometimes, Rarely)
• How often do orders arrive complete and undamaged? (Always, Usually, Sometimes, Rarely; ACSI)
• How easy is it to reach someone who can fix a problem with an order? (Linear scale, 1 to 5: Very hard to Very easy)
• Your account manager understands your business. (Strongly agree to Strongly disagree)
• How likely are you to reorder or renew with us in the next [12 months]? (Linear scale, 1 to 5: Not likely to Very likely; ACSI)

Business buyers answer for a whole account, so ask once or twice a year, not after every delivery. Add a hidden field called account and give each customer their own link, such as ?account=acme. Every response then carries the account name, and in Google Sheets it gets its own column.

How to word rating scales#

In customer satisfaction survey questions, the scale shapes the answer as much as the wording does. Four rules keep your answers honest:

• Label both ends. A bare 1 to 5 means different things to different people. In HornetForms you can label the ends of a linear scale (up to 100 characters each), such as "Very hard" and "Very easy".
• Keep one direction. If the good answer sits on the right in one question, keep it on the right everywhere.
• Use the same scale for questions you'll compare. The A-11 statements all use the same five agree points, so you can line them up side by side.
• Ask about one thing at a time. "How fast and friendly was our team?" is two questions. Split it.

For agree and disagree statements, our Likert scale survey guide shows how to score them. For wording, how to write survey questions covers leading questions and double questions with before and after examples. And our guide to every question type explains when a matrix, a rating or a checkbox list fits best.

Follow up when someone is unhappy#

A low score with no reason is a puzzle. The federal survey solves it with branching: one follow-up for happy people, another for everyone else. You can do the same with two show rules in HornetForms:

1. Put your CSAT question first.
2. Add "What about this visit made the difference?" and give it a show rule: show it when the CSAT answer is at least 4.
3. Add "What could have been better?" and show it when the CSAT answer is at most 3.
4. End with "Anything else you want us to know about your experience?" for everyone.

Now a happy customer never sees a question about problems, and an unhappy one gets a quick way to tell you what went wrong. Add "May we contact you about your answers?" with a Yes or No, and show an email question only for Yes. That's how our customer satisfaction survey template works: it opens with the CSAT question, shows "What went wrong?" to unhappy customers, and asks the NPS question on the second page.

Then reply. Turn on an email to yourself for each new response, or send answers to Slack or Discord, so a low score reaches you the same day. When a problem needs a proper record and an answer, a customer complaint form does that job better than a survey. Happy customers are another chance: ask the ones who score you 5 for a few words you can share, as our guide on how to ask for a testimonial explains.

Read the results#

Customer satisfaction survey questions only pay off when someone reads the answers. In HornetForms:

• The Summary tab gives each question its own breakdown: counts and shares for choice questions, charts for scales and a table for a matrix. Your CSAT and NPS scores sit there too.
• Response filters narrow the table to the answers you pick, such as every CSAT answer of 2 or less, or every response that ticked "It took too long".
• Google Sheets gets each new response as a row, if you'd rather work in a spreadsheet. Our guide on how to analyze survey data shows how to count, chart and report them.

Read the low scores first, sort the comments into three or four themes, and fix one thing at a time. Then compare next month's CSAT with this month's. If too few people answer for the numbers to mean much, our guide to survey response rate has ways to lift it. If teammates share your workspace (roles are on Pro and Business), each of them can read every response in it.

Free CSAT survey question bank and import file#

You get two free downloads:

• The CSAT question bank (Excel) holds all 60 customer satisfaction survey questions, and it opens in Google Sheets too. Each row has the goal, the industry, the question type, the answer options or scale labels, and the source. Filter by industry, mark Yes in the Use it? column, and the summary counts your picks by industry and goal. It warns you when you pass 15. There's also a CSV copy with the same 60 rows.
• The CSAT survey import file (CSV) is a ready 12-question survey you can turn into a form. It covers the visit, five A-11 statements, price, coming back, the two follow-up checkbox questions, how long someone has been a customer and an open question.

To use the import file, open the Import a form screen in HornetForms and drop in the CSV. HornetForms reads it in your browser and uses the 12 example rows to guess each question's type. The example rows only guide the types: they never become responses. We ran the importer's own code on this file, and every column came out as planned: nine multiple choice questions, two checkbox questions and one long answer.

The import creates the questions only. Then, in the editor, add a CSAT question at the top and an NPS question if you want one (the file leaves both out, because the importer would make them a plain rating and a plain scale instead of the scored presets), and set the two show rules from the section above. It takes a few minutes. For other kinds of feedback, such as training, events or a website, our feedback form questions has 70 more examples.

Build your customer satisfaction survey#

Pick five to 10 questions, start with one score and one follow-up, and send the link the same day as the visit. HornetForms takes unlimited responses within fair use on every plan, so a busy month won't run into a response cap halfway through. Compare plans on the pricing page, then sign up for free and send your first customer satisfaction survey this week.

Net Promoter®, NPS®, NPS Prism®, Net Promoter System®, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., NICE Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld. Net Promoter Score℠ is a service mark of Bain & Company, Inc., NICE Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.