Customer feedback questions to ask

Questions change with the stage

The customer feedback questions you ask should depend on where the customer is: a first visit, a repeat purchase, a problem, a cancellation. A first-time customer can tell you what drew them in and what nearly put them off; a long-standing customer can tell you what has changed. Asking everyone the same thing wastes both.

After a first visit or purchase

• "What made you choose us today?"
• "Was anything harder than you expected?"
• "Did you find what you came for?"
• "How did you hear about us?"

Repeat customers

• "What keeps you coming back?"
• "Has anything got better or worse recently?"
• "What would you miss if we closed?"
• "What do you buy elsewhere that you could buy from us?"

After a problem was resolved

• "Was your problem fully resolved?"
• "How easy was it to get it sorted?"
• "What should we have done differently?"

When a customer leaves or cancels

• "What is the main reason you are leaving?" (short list plus other)
• "Was there a moment you decided?"
• "What could we have done to keep you?"

Ask once, politely, and accept no answer.

Questions staff can ask in person

Spoken questions get different answers from forms: shorter, more polite, sometimes more specific. Train staff to ask one open question and listen.

• "Did you find everything today?"
• "Anything we could have done better?"
• "Is there something you wish we stocked?"

Give staff a simple way to record what they hear, such as a short shared log with date, store and theme.

Product questions

• "What do you use [product] for?"
• "What would make it more useful?"
• "What did you compare it with before buying?"

Why open questions matter

Closed questions only measure what you already thought to ask about. An open question such as "What is one thing we should change?" surfaces problems you had not considered, such as parking, signage or a confusing loyalty rule.

Record and count the answers

Feedback that stays in staff memories or scattered notes cannot be counted. Bring survey answers, counter notes and complaints into one place, tag them with the same themes, and review counts monthly.

Respond to what you hear

When a customer raises a problem, acknowledge it and, if you can, tell them what you will do. When you change something because of feedback, say so in store or in messages.

Examples by business type

• Restaurant: "Was there anything about your meal you would change?"
• Retail: "Was there anything you came for that we did not have?"
• Salon or clinic: "Did we explain the treatment and price clearly before starting?"
• Bank branch: "Did you get everything done in one visit?"
• Car service: "Were the charges what you expected when you collected your car?"

Common mistakes

• Asking every customer the same questions regardless of stage.
• Training staff to ask, but not to record.
• Only closed questions.
• Pushing leaving customers for reasons.
• Collecting answers nobody counts.

Common questions

Checklist

• Questions matched to stage.
• One open question in every set.
• Staff trained to ask and record.
• Answers in one place.
• Same themes across sources.
• Changes communicated back.

In short

Ask customer feedback questions that fit the stage of the relationship, include at least one open question, train staff to ask and record in person, and count answers under shared themes.

Doing this with Falcon

Falcon does not run surveys or feedback forms. It analyses the unprompted feedback customers already leave in Google Maps reviews of your locations and Google Play reviews of your app: each review is classified into themes, sub-themes and specific issues from your own taxonomy, with the sentiment of each mention and the exact quote behind it. Customers also answer questions you never asked, in Google reviews. Falcon classifies those reviews into themes by store and month, so you can see what customers raise unprompted next to what they tell you when asked.