Customer Survey in Switzerland: Questionnaire, Sample Questions, and Sample Questionnaire

A customer survey will only yield useful results if the questionnaire is clearly structured and designed to achieve a specific goal. Many customer surveys fail not because of how they are conducted, but because the questions are too broadly worded or lead to unclear insights.

So before you launch your customer survey, it’s worth taking a step back. First, determine the key questions you want to answer with your survey. Is it about customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, or specific weaknesses in your offering?

Typical objectives of a customer survey include:

• Measuring customer satisfaction
• Understanding customers' willingness to recommend
• Identifying the causes of customer churn
• Receive feedback on products or services

If you clearly define the objective, the questionnaire will automatically become more precise. Your customer survey will be easier to understand and, at the same time, more meaningful, thereby gaining strategic significance.

Customer Survey: How the Questionnaire Should Be Structured

A well-structured questionnaire follows a clear logic. This structure not only helps you analyze the results, but also ensures that your customers can answer the survey intuitively.

Start with the overall rating

The customer survey always begins with an overall assessment. This first question gives you a general overview before delving into specific aspects.

Sample questions:

• “Overall, how satisfied are you with our collaboration?”
• “How likely are you to recommend us to others?”

These questions may seem simple, but they provide a key metric for your entire customer survey.

Topics covered in the main section of the questionnaire

The main section delves into specific service areas in greater detail. This reveals where your company excels from the customer’s perspective and where there is room for improvement. Typical topics in a customer survey include:

• Quality of products or services
• Consulting and Support
• Reliability and on-time delivery
• Communication and Availability
• Value for money

It is important that each question is clearly worded and focuses on a specific aspect. As soon as multiple topics and aspects are mixed together in a single question, the results lose their significance. This can even confuse the customer, causing them to abandon the survey.

Open-ended questions for further insights

At the end of the customer survey, you should give your customers space to provide their own feedback. Open-ended questions often yield exactly the insights that are missing from standardized questionnaire templates.

Examples:

• “What do you particularly appreciate about working with us?”
• “Where do you see the greatest need for improvement?”
• “What exactly should we change?”

These responses are often particularly valuable because they reveal connections that aren't captured in scaled questions.

Common Mistakes in Customer Surveys and How to Avoid Them

Many customer surveys provide little value, even though they were conducted at great expense. The reason often lies in the way the questions are worded. Four mistakes are particularly common.

Leading questions skew results

Leading questions subconsciously steer the answer in a certain direction. This results in a distorted picture. Examples:

• “How much do you value our expert customer service?”
• “How satisfied are you with our excellent selection?”

To put it neutrally:

• “How would you rate our customer service?”
• “How would you rate our offer?”

The rating should always be included in the response options, not in the question.

Double questions lead to unclear results

If you combine two aspects in a single question, you won't know later which part was evaluated.

Example:

• “How satisfied are you with the quality and price?”

Better:

• “How satisfied are you with the quality?”
• “How would you rate the value for money?”

Unclear questions lead to differing interpretations

Questions without a clear context are interpreted differently by customers. This makes it difficult to analyze the results. Example:

• “How satisfied are you with us?”

Better:

• “How satisfied are you with our collaboration over the past year?”

A good question always specifies the context and time frame.

Unnecessary questions make the questionnaire longer

Many survey templates include questions that serve no specific purpose. These questions reduce participation rates and response rates and offer little added value.

Typical examples:

• Information already available in the CRM
• Questions not related to specific measures
• Questions that will not be analyzed later

If you can’t draw a conclusion from a response, the question doesn’t belong in the customer survey. Think in advance about how you would interpret different responses and what strategic implications those responses would have.

Sample questions for your questionnaire

The following sample customer survey questions illustrate typical content. They are intended to serve as a guide for your own questionnaire.

A good questionnaire doesn't simply copy and paste questionnaire templates; instead, it adapts them to your specific situation.

Overall satisfaction and loyalty

• “Overall, how satisfied are you with our collaboration?”
• “How likely are you to recommend us to others?”
• “How has your satisfaction changed compared to last year?”

Product and Service Quality

• “How well does our offering meet your needs?”
• “How would you rate the value for money?”
• “How satisfied are you with the reliability?”
• “How would you rate the quality of our services?”

Consulting and Support

• “How competent do you find your contacts?”
• “How well do you feel supported?”
• “How proactively are you kept informed?”
• “How well do we understand your needs?”

Communication and Availability

• “How easy is it to reach us?”
• “How clear is our communication?”
• “How quickly are your inquiries answered?”
• “How well informed are you about the status?”

These questions are usually asked on a scale of 1 to 6 or 1 to 5. 5 is usually the highest rating (e.g., very satisfied), while 1 is the lowest (very dissatisfied).

Open questions

• “What do you particularly appreciate about working together?”
• “Where do you see room for improvement?”
• “What exactly should we change?”
• “What would it take for you to recommend us to others?”

Why it makes sense to use a professional provider for customer surveys

Developing a professional questionnaire requires experience. Many in-house customer surveys suffer from similar shortcomings, such as unclear questions or a lack of structure. An experienced Swiss provider of customer surveys offers two key advantages:

• methodological rigor in the design of the questionnaire
• Comparative data from other customer surveys in Switzerland

These benchmark figures will help you properly interpret your results and target specific areas for improvement. As the market leader in customer surveys, ValueQuest has been supporting companies in Switzerland for over 20 years with customer surveys and feedback initiatives—from questionnaire development to data analysis.

Sample Questionnaire for Customer Surveys in Switzerland

Many companies are looking for survey templates for their customer surveys. While these can be a good starting point, they are no substitute for tailoring the survey to your specific industry. The relevant topics vary significantly depending on the industry.

Typical focus areas of a customer survey by industry

Financial Services Providers and Insurance Companies

• Trust
• Transparency
• Quality of counseling

Industry and B2B

• On-time delivery
• technical support
• consistent quality

Retail and E-commerce

• Shopping experience
• Delivery
• Returns Process

Healthcare

• Quality of care
• Waiting times
• personalized support

IT and Software

• Stability
• Support
• Introduction

In addition to the industry, two factors play a particularly important role in Switzerland: multilingualism and the high value placed on personalized service. These aspects should be taken into account in every customer survey.

What Matters in a Customer Survey in Switzerland

A good questionnaire doesn't just happen by chance. It is based on clear decisions and a thorough understanding of the target audience.

Select relevant topics

Only ask about topics you can actually do something about. Anything else will lead to expectations you won’t be able to meet later on.

Use clear and understandable language

Avoid jargon. Your customers should be able to understand every question right away, without needing any further explanation.

Customize the questionnaire

Standardized questionnaire templates are often too general. It is crucial that you add industry-specific topics and tailor your questionnaire accordingly.

One aspect that is often underestimated is the timing of the customer survey. A survey conducted immediately after a project yields different results than one conducted several months later. It is important to maintain consistency in your approach.