The post-chat survey is a key part of the post-chat process. It’s an opportunity for you to collect customer feedback about your service and the chat experience.
It’s also fully customisable, allowing you to ask the questions you want, in the way you want.
But that means you need to put some thought into the metrics behind it.
There are many different metrics you can use to collect feedback in a post-chat survey. Deciding which one is right for you comes down to the kind of feedback and information that you want to collect.
So, to help, we’ve put together an objective guide. Here are the strengths and weaknesses of the different types of post-chat survey questions, and the information they’re good at collecting.
Yes/no Q&A
A yes/no Q&A in your post-chat survey is exactly what it sounds like. It comprises closed questions that ask customers for definitive yes or no answers.
Pros
- Yes or no questions give you clear, easy to measure responses. They don’t give room for irrelevant, long-winded or clouded answers. This means you can easily compare results between agents, days, time and so on.
- These closed questions are easy for customers to answer quickly, making them more likely to do so.
Cons
- They give no opportunity for exploration or detail. This means that you don’t get an in-depth explanation as to why a customer is or isn’t happy with their service.
- The lack of opportunity to explain answers can be frustrating for customers that want to give that insight. It also shuts you out from receiving praise from happy customers.
Takeway:
Yes and no questions are great for collecting agent performance feedback regarding the chat session from customers. They’re not useful for getting insightful answers into how a customer is feeling about the brand, chat session or service. (Or why they feel a particular way.)
Net promoter score question
Net promotor scores ask only one question to your customers: ‘How likely are you to recommend us to your family or friends?’ The answer to this question is collected with a scale from one to ten, with one being ‘not at all likely’ and ten being ‘extremely likely’.
Pros
- It’s a great way to identify customer advocates for your business, and even case study or review opportunities.
- It’s an easy, low barrier question for customers, meaning they can answer quickly without needing to think about their answer.
Cons
- There’s a small danger of confusion. Some customers may mistake ‘one’ as being the highest, particularly if the opposite is not made clear.
- You don’t get any detailed feedback — the customer may be happy to recommend you, but you don’t get information into what makes their experience good.
Takeaway:
NPS scores are great for giving you an understanding of how liked your brand is overall. However, an NPS post-chat survey metric is much less useful if you want information regarding each specific chat session.
Multiple choice system
Another way to collect information in a post-chat survey is with a multiple choice system. In this instance, you give customers a selection of pre-defined answers to choose from.
Pros
- Customers don’t have to spend time crafting an answer. They can simply choose the option most relevant to their experience and perception. Therefore, this is a low barrier method of collecting customer feedback.
- They give insight into how a customer feels about your service — but they’re also quantifiable. This means you can categorise and compare answers to other post-chat survey responses.
Cons
- Multiple choice systems can put words into customers mouths – encouraging them to express a sentiment they otherwise wouldn’t think of.
- In some cases, more than one answer might be true for a customer, making it difficult and confusing to answer.
Takeaway:
So, the multiple choice system is a useful post-chat survey metric for general questions about the chat session and customer experience. They are less useful for original insights and open feedback.
Visual indicators
Your post-chat survey can also collect customer feedback using simple visual indicators, such as smiley faces, star ratings or thumbs up/down icons.
Pros
- They provide a fun way to collect specific feedback – smiley faces are great for indicating mood, while stars can indicate satisfaction.
- Visual indicators are not only simple and low barrier but can boast eye-catching colours that entice customers to respond to your post-chat survey.
Cons
- Some of these visual indicators (namely the thumbs up options) are not suitable worldwide. Some cultures view the gesture to be rude and others simply will not understand it. So, if you are chatting with worldwide customers, this is not a culturally sensitive option.
- They are so simple that their value is also reined in in scope.
Takeaway:
Visual indicators are good for simple questions with limited answers. They are not useful for collecting detailed insight or for questions with more than three answers (good/bad/neutral).
Text-based Q&A
Text-based Q&A is a less confined post-chat survey method for collecting customer feedback. It uses open questions to gain subjective insight into the customer’s thoughts and experience.
Pros
- Text-based answers mean that customers aren’t restricted in their feedback, allowing them to give in-depth and honest comments on their experiences. This includes the opportunity for customers to offer praise or complaint within the post-chat survey.
- They allow you to ask questions and gain insight into the customer perception of key areas of your service and brand.
Cons
- Unlike the other post-chat survey metrics for collecting feedback, text-based answers are not easy to measure. Every answer will be different, making it difficult to compare the answers you receive without additional tools such as sentiment analysis.
- They can be time-consuming and therefore present a high barrier for customers to use. Customers must spend time crafting and typing their answers, which can deter those in a hurry from filling in your post-chat survey.
Takeaway:
Text-based answers are great for collecting insight into key areas of your service and giving an understanding of ways to improve. However, they’re not useful for general questions or giving measurable data.
Deploy a mixture of post-chat survey questions
It’s unlikely that just one feedback metric will be enough to collect the different types of information that you want from your post-chat survey. So, why not mix and match?
Ask a yes/no question, and then ask why with a text-based option. Give multiple choice answers about your service, and then ask for an NPS too.
When it comes to your post-chat survey, it isn’t about sticking to one metric, it’s about making sure each chosen metric fits the questions you’re asking.
Useful links
- - What questions should you ask in your pre-chat survey?
- - Beyond the [X]: exploring the post-chat process
- - Questioning techniques in customer service
- - Which chat KPIs should you monitor?
- - The 3 stages of chalking out the optimal live chat strategy
- - 8 probing questions to use in customer service conversations