Helpdesk Surveys: Questions, Tools, Best Practices & More to Improve Customer Satisfaction

In today's highly competitive business world, providing exceptional customer service has become indispensable for success. According to a study conducted by Microsoft, a staggering 97% of customers consider customer service to be a critical factor in determining their loyalty to a brand. As businesses strive to meet and exceed customer expectations, the helpdesk plays a pivotal role in delivering outstanding support experiences.

Helpdesk surveys act as a powerful tool for gathering direct feedback from your customers such as insights about the interactions that they have with your customer service representatives thereby helping you capture the Customer Effort Score.

In this article, we'll explore all about helpdesk surveys - discussing their definition, significance, significant survey questions, and some best practices. So, let's get started!

TL;DR

• Helpdesk surveys are used to gather insights from customers about their experiences with customer support services, helping businesses improve service quality and meet the expectations of customers.

• Helpdesk survey questions can be created to gauge agent performance, get an idea about customer effort score, customer satisfaction with resolution and more.

• Some of the best practices for creating helpdesk survey questions include keeping them concise, avoiding double-barreled inquiries, and making them dynamic with skip logic and branching.

• Zonka Feedback is among the most effective customer feedback tools that can help you create helpdesk surveys and collect feedback to understand customer satisfaction levels. You can analyze results, take action and close the feedback loop effectively. Sign up for a 14-day free trial or schedule a demo to elevate your business performance now!

Collect & Measure Helpdesk Survey Feedback

Measure User Feedback regarding their experience with the Customer Support Team and use Insights to delight your customers.

What are Helpdesk Surveys?

A helpdesk survey is a customer feedback survey used to collect information and insights about the customer experience and satisfaction with the help desk or support service. The surveys aim to collect feedback from the customers who have interacted with the help desk, typically through various survey collection channels such as phone, email, chat, or self-service portals.

Helpdesk Survey Template

If you are looking to get started with help desk surveys right away, you can check out our help desk feedback survey template to collect customer insights and improve help desk performance and customer experience.

Why are Helpdesk Surveys Important?

Helpdesk experience is a crucial aspect of the overall customer experience with a business and it helps in collecting customer service feedback. Consider the below facts about the criticality of customer service in building customer experiences.

• Zendesk research shows over 50% cease business after one poor customer service experience, while 62% would recommend a brand with outstanding service.

• Harvard Business Review notes that customers with the best past experiences spend 140% more than those with the poorest.

Consider these reasons why you must incorporate help desk surveys into your routine.

• Gain Valuable Customer Insights: Understand what customers think about your support experience, identify areas for necessary improvements, and track progress over time to drive business growth.

• Measure Customer Satisfaction: Track key metrics like CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score), CES (Customer Effort Score) and NPS (Net Promoter Score) to gauge overall customer sentiment, effort, and loyalty.

• Improve Ticket Resolution Efficiency: Identify common issues and pain points to streamline workflows, optimize processes, and reduce resolution times.

• Boost Agent Performance: Monitor agent performance based on customer feedback, provide targeted training, and recognize excellence to improve agent morale and skillsets.

• Increase Customer Retention: Proactive measures to collect customer feedback and address concerns help build trust and loyalty leading to higher customer retention rates and bringing back customers who spread negative word.

• Benchmark Against Competitors: Compare your help desk performance to industry standards and competitor benchmarks to identify areas for continuous improvement and gain a competitive edge by acquiring some new client.

Helpdesk Survey Tools to Consider for Conducting Surveys

1. Zonka Feedback

Zonka Feedback is a powerful online survey tool that streamlines feedback collection, enhances customer satisfaction, and optimizes your support services seamlessly. You can collect CX metric surveys like CSAT, CES, and NPS surveys to gauge customer satisfaction using its customizable templates.

It also has real-time analytics and integration capabilities that let you analyze responses and
integrate seamlessly with your existing help desk platforms for a unified and efficient support ecosystem. With automated surveys, customizable templates, and multilingual support, Zonka Feedback is an ideal tool that ensures a user-friendly experience for both businesses and customers.

Key Features

• 30+ question types for creating microsurveys on CX metrics like Net Promoter Score, Customer Effort Score, and Customer Satisfaction Score to measure customer satisfaction.

• Tailor mobile-optimized survey templates like customer satisfaction survey templates, product feedback form templates, healthcare patient satisfaction survey templates, etc., crucial for capturing feedback on the go.

• Set up automated surveys triggered by specific help desk interactions or strategic touchpoints.

• Tag and categorize feedback for easy identification of common issues whether technical issues or any other using its workflow automation.

• Access instant data insights with real-time advanced reporting and analytics, facilitating prompt decision-making based on current information.

• Powerful integration with business tools like Salesforce, Zendesk, Freshdesk, Slack, Mailchimp, Webex, Google Analytics, AirTable, Intercom, Zoom, and more.

• Enhance engagement with multimedia elements (images, videos) within surveys, providing a dynamic and interactive feedback experience.

• Utilize dynamic survey features like survey logic and branching, answer piping, multilingual surveys and survey redirection for efficient data collection.

• Share unlimited forms across various channels, including email surveys, SMS surveys, website surveys, Android surveys, kiosk surveys and more for seamless distribution, customer journey mapping and accessibility for respondents across different touchpoints and devices.

2. Sogolytics

Sogolytics is another powerful help desk survey platform designed to streamline feedback collection, enhance customer satisfaction, and optimize support services through advanced survey capabilities.

Key Features

• Seamless deployment of customizable surveys for targeted feedback collection.

• Real-time analytics and reporting for actionable insights.

• Integration capabilities with major help desk platforms for unified support ecosystems.

• Automated surveys and multichannel distribution for efficient data collection.

• Advanced features like skip logic, branching, and multilingual support for tailored survey experiences.

3. QuestionPro

QuestionPro is a specialized help desk survey solution tailored to optimize customer support services, offering a comprehensive platform for targeted feedback collection and actionable insights.

Key Features

• Create surveys that are targeted help desk surveys for service satisfaction and issue resolution.

• Real-time analytics for swift decision-making in support service enhancements.

• Seamless integration with major help desk platforms for unified support ecosystems.

• Automated survey workflows and multichannel distribution for streamlined data collection.

• Unique features like skip logic and branching for tailored survey experiences.

Other Helpdesk Survey Platforms That Can Help You Create Helpdesk Survey Questions

Here are some more helpdesk survey platforms that you can look at if the above mentioned doesn't serve your purpose.

• SurveyMonkey: SurveyMonkey excels in user-friendly help desk surveys, providing a vast question library, powerful analytics, and seamless integration capabilities.

• Zendesk: Zendesk's survey tool simplifies feedback collection with automated surveys, customizable templates, and deep insights to enhance help desk performance.

• HappyFox: HappyFox stands out for its efficient help desk surveys, offering customizable forms, multi-language support, and actionable analytics for an enhanced support experience.

• Freshdesk: Freshdesk's survey tool streamlines feedback gathering with automated surveys, real-time reporting, and integration options, ensuring a comprehensive approach to help desk satisfaction measurement.

• Nicereply: Nicereply specializes in simplicity, offering easy-to-use helpdesk surveys with customizable templates, agent performance tracking, and seamless integration options.

Top 10 Helpdesk Survey Questions to Measure Customer Satisfaction

Let's explore the best helpdesk survey questions that you can add to your helpdesk feedback.

1. Do you agree that our customer support team helped you well to resolve your issues and concerns?

This is the popular CES question that is used by businesses to measure customers' effort to get their work done or issues resolved and calculate the Customer Effort Score. This question aims to assess the customer's perception of the help received from the support team and whether it effectively addressed their specific issues and concerns.

You can also alter the question and ask in the following manner-

To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement? “The company helped me enough to handle my issues and get my job done.”

2. How would you rate the responsiveness of the helpdesk towards your concern?

Timely responding to customers' queries and issues is more than necessary to provide a good helpdesk experience to your customers. Studies suggest that 71% of customers agree that a quick response from the customer service team can lead to a drastic improvement in their CX.

The above question helps you know how responsive your helpdesk is and how quickly your agents can resolve customers' concerns. The answers to this question reflect the speed and efficiency of the help desk's actions.

3. How would you rate the overall quality of support you just received?

This question seeks to gauge the customer's overall evaluation of the support they received, providing a general measure of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the help desk service. By eliciting a rating, organizations gain valuable feedback to assess service effectiveness, identify improvement areas, and make data-driven decisions for enhanced customer satisfaction.

When included in short surveys, this service satisfaction question provides a comprehensive understanding of satisfaction levels, allowing companies to analyze trends, patterns, and areas for improvement, facilitating informed decisions to enhance support services.

4. How easy was it to reach our helpdesk and contact our support team?

This question evaluates the customers' experiences in reaching out to the help desk and their ease of contacting the support team, providing valuable insights into the accessibility and availability of the helpdesk channels. It allows you to understand how easily customers can get in touch with your support team and whether there are any barriers or challenges they face in reaching out for assistance.

By asking this question, you can identify any potential issues or shortcomings in your helpdesk's communication channels, such as long wait times, difficulty in finding contact information, or limited availability of support agents. 

Additionally, it helps in evaluating the overall convenience and user-friendliness of helpdesk channels, assessing factors like website chat function effectiveness, clarity of contact information, and ease of navigating self-service options.

5. How would you rate the professionalism of our customer support agents?

This question focuses on assessing the customer's perception of the professionalism displayed by the customer support agents, reflecting on their demeanor, communication style, and conduct during the interaction. Including this question in the helpdesk survey helps you to improve customer support agent performance so that your support agents behave well with your customers and their conduct is up to the mark. 

6. How would you rate the knowledge and expertise of our customer support team?

This helpdesk survey question plays a crucial role in ensuring that your support agents possess the necessary knowledge and expertise to effectively assist customers in resolving their issues, queries, and concerns. By seeking feedback on this aspect, you gain valuable insights into the proficiency of your support team and identify areas for improvement.

If you receive negative feedback in response to this question, it is essential to take proactive measures to enhance your agents' knowledge and expertise before negative word gets circulated. This can be achieved through additional training sessions that focus on your products, services, and internal processes.

7. Do you agree that the customer support agent was able to understand your concerns well?

This question evaluates whether support agents understand customers' concerns well which is crucial for effective communication and personalized assistance. It assesses whether agents listen, empathize, and comprehend root issues.

Regularly asking this ensures ongoing improvement, identifying gaps in communication or training and enabling proactive measures for exceptional service and effective issue resolution.

8. How satisfied are you with the resolution provided by our Helpdesk?

This question plays a crucial role in determining the effectiveness of the helpdesk in resolving customer issues and meeting their expectations. It provides valuable insights into whether the service provided was satisfactory in addressing the specific concerns and problems faced by the customers.

Moreover, this helpdesk survey question helps in understanding the impact of the helpdesk's performance on overall customer satisfaction and is used in customer satisfaction surveys. If customers are satisfied with the resolution and services provided, it reflects positively on the helpdesk's ability to deliver effective solutions and meet customer needs.

9. Based on your recent experience with our helpdesk, how likely are you to recommend our brand to your friends and colleagues on a scale of 0 to 10?

The question, also known as the ultimate question, is a popular NPS survey question to measure customer loyalty by assessing their likelihood to recommend a brand to their friends and known ones. While answering this question, customers rate their likelihood on a scale of 0 to 10, with higher ratings indicating a greater likelihood to recommend.

This question is also considered a one-in-all question to gauge customer experience and is used in customer satisfaction surveys as well since customers will recommend a brand to their known ones only when they are satisfied with their experience with the brand.

10. Is there anything else you would like to share about your experience with our helpdesk?

This open-ended question provides customers with an opportunity to provide additional comments, suggestions, or any other feedback they wish to share about their experience with the helpdesk. It can also be used among follow up questions and allows for more detailed insights and valuable qualitative feedback.

All these questions cover a range of important aspects of the customer's experience with the helpdesk and provide valuable feedback for assessing performance and making improvements. Let's learn some best practices to conduct effective surveys to collect Helpdesk Feedback from your customers.

Best Practices to Conduct Effective Helpdesk Feeback Survey for Collecting Customer Feedback

Creating a helpdesk survey requires more than just asking the right questions. Here are some easy yet useful tips to consider while designing your helpdesk surveys.

1. Keep your Surveys Short and Concise

Keep surveys brief to prevent respondent overwhelm and ensure completion. Shorter surveys maintain engagement, preventing survey fatigue and promoting thoughtful responses, resulting in accurate and reliable feedback. Additionally, shorter surveys boost response rates by minimizing time and effort, encouraging wider participation and yielding more representative and valid results.

2. Do not Ask Double-barreled Questions

Avoid double-barreled questions as they merge multiple concepts, confusing respondents and hindering clear and accurate answers. For example, instead of a question like, "Are you satisfied with the communication skills of our customer support agents and the overall quality of support you received?" opt for two distinct questions:

1. Are you satisfied with the communication skills of our customer support agents?

2. How satisfied are you with the overall quality of support you received?

By asking focused questions, you enable respondents to provide specific feedback, facilitating a more precise analysis of their responses.

3. Prioritize Relevant and Actionable Questions

When designing your helpdesk survey, ask targeted questions addressing the customer experience and improvement areas. Utilize customer feedback software with ready-made templates for efficient survey design. The goal is to gather actionable insights that drive meaningful changes in your helpdesk service, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty through focused and relevant questions.

4. Include an Open-ended Question or Section

Include at least one open-ended question in your helpdesk survey to gather qualitative insights beyond closed-ended questions. This provides customers the chance to share detailed comments, suggestions, or additional feedback, offering a deeper understanding of their experiences and perspectives.

Open-ended questions unveil unexpected insights, allowing customers to express thoughts in their own words, enhancing decision-making and guiding improvements to helpdesk processes.

5. Make your Surveys Dynamic

Consider using features like Skip Logic and Branching in your survey design to tailor the survey experience based on respondents' previous answers. For instance, if a customer rates their overall satisfaction with the helpdesk as low, you can branch them to additional questions that delve deeper into the reasons for their dissatisfaction.

This ensures a more personalized and relevant survey for each respondent, improving engagement and data quality. By utilizing survey software that is powered with these features, you can create dynamic surveys that adapt to each participant's specific needs and preferences.

Conclusion

Conducting effective helpdesk surveys is crucial for gaining valuable insights from satisfied customers or unhappy customers into the customer experience. By incorporating the top questions mentioned in this article, you can gather actionable feedback to improve your customer support and provide your customers with great service.

Utilizing agent performance metric surveys like CES, CSAT, NPS can provide standardized frameworks for measuring customer effort, satisfaction, and loyalty. You can use an effective helpdesk survey software that helps you create powerful and dynamic surveys to collect actionable insights from your customers.

Zonka Feedback is one such tool that can serve the purpose. You can try the Helpdesk Feedback Survey Template offered by Zonka Feedback to get started with creating your surveys and distributing them right away. Further, you can create any type of survey, including metric surveys, to measure Customer Satisfaction, loyalty, and perceived efforts to get an issue resolved. The tool is powered by features like Skip & Hide Logic and Survey Redirection to let you create dynamic surveys for your customers. It also offers a free trial.

Try Zonka Feedback for free for 14 days and see how it works to optimize your Helpdesk services.