Survey · Customer success
Customer needs survey template
Starts from the customer's goal instead of your feature list, then asks what slows them down, how much each quality matters and which improvements they would rank first. Customers who say current options only partly work, or not at all, are asked what's missing before anything else.
Try it live
Try it as a respondent
Every question, and where it leads
The conversation
What a respondent is asked, in order.
Help us understand what you need from us. It takes about three minutes.
What are you trying to get done when you come to us?
How often do you need to do that?
What gets in the way most often?
Tell us about the last time something slowed you down.
How much does each of these matter to you?
Which improvements would help you most? Put the best first.
How well do the options available to you today meet your needs?
What's missing? What would a good solution do that nothing does now?
Could we contact you to hear more?
What email should we use?
Ends with
Thank you
The flow
Where each answer leads. Every route here is editable once the form is yours.
Long text
Single select
Multi select
Long text
Matrix
Ranking
Single select
Long text
Yes / No
What this template uses
- Long text
- Single select
- Multi select
- Matrix
- Ranking
- Yes / No
- 3 branches
Questions to consider
- Which decision are these answers meant to inform, such as a new service, a product change or better support?
- Are the improvements in the ranking ones you could actually deliver?
- Do you want to compare needs across customer types, and if so, which question tells them apart?
- Who will follow up with customers who agree to talk?
How to use the responses
Group the goals people describe in their own words before you look at anything else, because customers with different goals will rank improvements differently. Then compare the ranking with the importance grid: an improvement ranked first by people who say price is essential means something different from one ranked first by people who care most about speed. The customers who said their needs are only partly met, or not at all, wrote the most useful answers, so read every one.
How to customize and share it
- 1Rewrite the improvements in the ranking to the options your team is weighing up.
- 2Adjust the rows in the importance grid to the qualities your customers compare you on.
- 3Send it to a mix of new and long-standing customers, and export the answers to CSV if you want to sort them by goal.
Frequently asked questions
What is a customer needs survey?
It asks customers what they are trying to achieve, what gets in their way and what would help. It is used before deciding what to build, change or offer.
What should a customer needs survey include?
A question about the customer's goal, one about obstacles, a way to weigh what matters to them and a way to prioritise improvements. An open question about what is missing catches needs you had not thought of.
How do I avoid leading questions in a needs survey?
Ask about goals and recent experiences before naming any solution, and keep options neutral. Include a choice like "Nothing really" so people are not pushed into complaining.
How is this different from a satisfaction survey?
A satisfaction survey looks back at how you did. A needs survey looks forward at what customers are trying to do and where the gaps are.