Customer Service Survey Template (Post-Service)
A 10-question customer service survey you can take right now, sent after one help request: the ticket, the call-back, the repair, the visit. It asks whether the problem was fixed, how hard it was, and who to call back. Some teams call it a post-service survey. Read the customer service survey questions below, copy them, or open the template in the editor.
- 10questions
- About 2 minto complete
- 5-pointscale, 5 is easy
- No name askedunless they leave one
What this customer service survey measures
One help request, from the moment someone asked to the moment it was over. Every number on this page is about that request and nothing wider.
This survey is about one help request: the ticket, the call-back, the repair, the visit. It asks whether it was fixed, how hard it was to get there, and whether you may call back. For a score across everything you sell, use the customer satisfaction survey template. For what people would change, in their own words, send the customer feedback survey. For whether the relationship is good enough to recommend, that is the NPS survey, which is why no recommend question appears below.
Three things, in this order. Whether the problem was resolved, asked first as a plain choice. How easy it was to get there, with the frictions behind the answer: transfers, repeating yourself, switching channel, waiting, not knowing what came next. And the person who helped, asked about understanding rather than charm, and rated last.
What it leaves out. No age band, no how-did-you-hear, no recommend question, no grid. The customer service survey questions sit on one 5-point scale, and the only open answer is eighth, not last.
All ten are already built, so you can create a free survey from them in one click and change any wording before it goes out.
The customer service survey questions, with swap-in blocks for a visit and a delivery
Every question, its scale, and what a low answer is telling you. Copy one block or the whole set, or use the template and skip the retyping. The last two blocks are alternative wordings for a visit and a delivery.
Why there is no grid. Our own earlier version of this page was a five-row agreement grid. On this platform a matrix or grid question reached by a respondent is answered 77.4% of the time, in a median 19.9 seconds, across 23,579 askings.[1] A multiple choice question is answered 86.0% of the time in 4.9 seconds, across 2,301,606 askings. So this survey opens on a multiple choice, asks every statement on its own, and never shows a grid.
Resolution
Ask it first. A "no" needs a person, not a chart.
- Was the issue you contacted us about resolved?The share at "yes, completely" is your first number.
- Is the problem you contacted us about still happening?Catches the ticket closed but not fixed.
- If it is not fixed, what is still missing or wrong?Ask it of everyone; read it only against a "no" or "partly". The text goes with the call-back.
Ease and friction
The effort question and the reasons behind it.
- How easy was it to get this sorted out?The effort question. Share at 1 or 2 is the friction rate; the mean is the trend.
- How many times did you have to contact us about this?Repeat contact is the largest source of effort.
- Which of these happened, if any?Read as counts per item. The top item is the first fix.
Speed
Waiting is the friction people remember longest.
- How long did you wait for the first reply?Compare with your logged first-response time.
- How do you feel about how long the whole thing took?Felt time, not clock time.
The person who helped
Two in the survey, one more here.
- The person who helped me understood the problem.Understanding, not courtesy. Repeat contacts start with a misread problem.
- How would you rate the person who helped you, on this occasion?The closing rating.
- If more than one person helped, did each know what the last one had done?Handovers: why people repeat themselves.
Channel
Ease differs by channel more than by agent.
- How did you contact us this time?The segment every other answer is split by.
- Did you try to solve this yourself first, on our website or app?Tried and failed is a self-service gap.
The whole occasion
Satisfaction with this help request, kept apart from the ease number.
- Overall, how satisfied are you with the help you received on this occasion?Read as a share; the arithmetic lives on the customer satisfaction page.
In their own words
One in the survey, one more here. Never required, never last.
- What would have made this easier?Asks for a fix, and gets one more often than "any comments" does.
- What did the person who helped you do well?Praise you can pass on by name.
Swap in: a field visit
In place of the channel and speed items when someone came to the home or site.
- Did the technician arrive within the time window you were given?The top complaint after any visit.
- Was the job finished on this visit?The third option is a call-back.
Swap in: a delivery or an installation
In place of the channel and speed items when something arrived or was fitted.
- Did it arrive on the day you were told?Kept dates drive everything else.
- Was it working before the person left?A "no" is an open case, not a survey answer.
Where these come from. The wording is ours; nobody owns "how easy was it". Copy, edit and translate every line, then lock it: a changed question is a new trend line.
The effort question, and how to score it
Three numbers per week, all about the requests you handled that week. No index, no band.
| Number | How to get it | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Share resolved | Question 1: "yes, completely", over everyone who answered, leaving out "I did not contact you about an issue". | A "no" with a contact detail goes to the call-back list the same day. |
| Found it hard | Question 3: answered 1 or 2, over everyone who answered and had an issue. Your friction rate. | Read it with the question 5 counts. The most-ticked item is the first fix. |
| Mean ease | Question 3: the average, 1 to 5. | The trend line. Act on two low weeks in a row, not one. |
The direction, stated once. On this survey 5 means very easy. Put that in the chart title and never flip the scale; a flipped scale reads as a collapse or a miracle. Customer Effort Score is the name given in 2010 to a single question about how hard a request was to handle; the effort question here is that idea in our own words, scored as ease.[4]
Why the friction checklist is a standing question. In the 2010 study of more than 75,000 customers, 62% said they had to contact the company repeatedly, 59% were transferred and 56% had to re-explain, all self-reported.[4] Question 5 asks everyone which of those happened, so the count per item is a list of fixes in order.
The satisfaction number is a sibling's. Question 2 gives you one: the share who picked 4 or 5. The formula, the benchmarks and what a percentage means at twenty answers are on the customer satisfaction survey template linked above.
Cuts need thirty answers. Show a team, channel or person only on thirty or more answers, and prefer fifty before ranking anyone; below that, use a longer rolling window.
When to send a post-service survey, and how often one person can get it
Three requests, three timings, and the cap that stops one customer with three tickets getting three surveys. The general send mechanics, a link, a follow-up, a stated length, a closing date, are in the survey research guide.
| The request | Send it | Cap |
|---|---|---|
| A support ticket | When it is marked solved, not closed. The same day. | One per person per week, however many tickets they open. |
| An on-site or in-home visit | One to three hours after the job is marked complete, by text message. | One per customer per month. |
| A delivery, an installation or an appointment | The same day, within a few hours of completion. | One per customer per week, and none while a case is open. |
Solved, not closed. Zendesk, by default, sends one survey per solved ticket, a day after the solve.[5] Trigger yours on the solved status and bring it to the same day: memory of a routine service contact drifts within months,[8] and what people report feeling shifts within ten minutes of an event.[7] For a phone call or a chat specifically, the post call survey is worded for that channel and its queue.
Per person, not per ticket. One survey per person per week, however many requests they open. The mechanism is a field on the customer record that the survey sets and a timer that clears it after the hours you set, 168 for a week.[6]
What share will answer. One public programme publishes its arithmetic: one city's 311 line sent 90,040 survey invitations by email or text in 2024 and got 6,478 back, about 7 in 100.[2] Vendor claims of 20 to 40 percent carry no method. Plan for the 7.
For a contracted or scheduled service delivered over weeks, the service delivery survey asks about the arrangement rather than one visit.
Six steps, in the order they go wrong
Decide who the survey grades
Process or person. If the person, the agent must not own the survey; the owner sees every response row.
Trigger on solved, the same day
From the ticket status, never the agent.[3]
Cap it per person, with a reset
One a week, one field, one timer.[6] Test it with a customer who opens three tickets in a day.
Put the resolved question in the closing message
One visible question, was it fixed, three tappable answers; the tap opens the survey.
One request, one survey, no chasing
Zendesk leaves its survey open 28 days after a solve;[5] silence waits for the next solved ticket.
Route a "not resolved" the same day
Every "no" with a contact detail goes to a named person by a stated time.
Who is this survey grading: the person, or the process?
A survey sent after a help request is read two ways: as a report on the process, and as a score on the person. Decide which before the first one goes out.
What the people who receive the scores say. Agents describe a zero for refusing to waive a fifth late fee, and a rule where anything under 9 out of 10 counts the same as a 1.[10] One wrote: "they don't show us the bad customer surveys that are people being angry because we did our job correctly." A survey used that way stops measuring the request and starts measuring who was allowed to be surveyed.
The design answer. One council's phone line offers its survey at the start of the call, so that agents cannot pick who gets it.[3] Triggering on the ticket status does the same. One support team that publishes its method sends a single ease question on solve, routes every low answer to the engineer's manager within seven days, and reviews the numbers monthly by region, not by name.[9]
Read the first three questions as process signals. Resolved, ease and repeat contacts are about the system the person worked inside. The two person items never carry a bonus on their own.
No name asked, and who sees the rows. The survey asks for no name, email or ticket number; the only place one can be entered is question 9, which is optional. Whoever owns the survey in the editor sees every response row, with the answer to question 9 against it. That is why the survey belongs to the manager, never to the agent being rated.
From a "not resolved" answer to a call back
A "no" that nobody acts on teaches the customer that the survey was decoration.
The call-back list. Every "no" or "partly" on question 1 that comes with a contact detail goes to one named owner, with a stated time. One working day is the promise the thank-you screen makes, so keep it.
The friction counts. Sort the question 5 ticks by count each week. The top item is the fix; the open answers will usually name the same thing. Change one thing, say what it was in the next closing message, and watch whether the count falls. A low rating on everyone is a process problem wearing a person's name.
Customer service survey FAQ
What is a customer service survey, and how is it different from a customer satisfaction survey?
A customer service survey is sent after one help request and asks about that request: was it fixed, how hard was it, who helped. A customer satisfaction survey rates an experience of what you sell and turns the answers into one percentage, which this page leaves to the customer satisfaction survey template.
How do I score the effort question, and what is a good score?
The share who answered 1 or 2 out of 5 is your friction rate; the mean is your trend. No published good score comes with a method, so compare each week with your own last four.
What do I do with a "not resolved" answer?
Call them back within one working day if they left a way to reach them; if not, count it and review the count weekly.
Should the survey be anonymous if I want to follow up?
Ask for no name by default. The only identity on the form is the optional contact question in the middle, and the survey owner sees every response row with that answer against it, so the owner is the manager, not the agent.
How do I stop customers getting a survey after every ticket?
Cap it per person, not per ticket: one survey a week however many requests they open.
Is this the same as a post-service survey?
Yes. Post-service, after-service and post-interaction survey are names for the same instrument.
Methods and sources
What this template is based on
No grid, per the SuperSurvey Response Benchmark;[1] friction items from CEB's 2010 study;[4] send timing from vendor documentation and two delay studies.[5][7][8]
Question licensing
The effort question follows Dixon, Freeman and Toman (HBR 2010, revised 2013), reworded. The 2010 trademark filing was abandoned in 2011; the name is used descriptively. Nothing licensed; edit freely.
Limits and disclosure
Visit and delivery windows are unstudied convention; delay studies show only that delay alters answers; 7 in 100 is one programme, not a benchmark; 2010 obstacle percentages are self-reported; thirty per cut is our working rule.
SuperSurvey makes the editor this template opens in. Everything here is free to use with or without it.
References
- SuperSurvey Response Benchmark, 16 September 2023 to 25 August 2026: 25,112 analysed surveys with 998,864 completed responses, out of 2,274,520 responses platform-wide. Method note.
- NYC311. 2024 Call Center Customer Satisfaction Survey, Final Results. City of New York, 2024. nyc.gov (PDF)
- Argyll and Bute Council. Telephony Satisfaction Report, FQ3 2025-26. 2026. argyll-bute.gov.uk (PDF)
- Dixon, M., Freeman, K. and Toman, N. "Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers." Harvard Business Review, July-August 2010. hbr.org
- Zendesk Help Center. "Customizing when your customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey is sent" support.zendesk.com; "About CSAT ratings" support.zendesk.com
- Simplesat. "How to send a customer a survey once per week maximum in Zendesk." Simplesat Help Center. help.simplesat.io
- Eisele, G. et al. "Reported Affect Changes as a Function of Response Delay." Frontiers in Psychology 12 (2021). pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Brusco, N.K. and Watts, J.J. "Empirical evidence of recall bias for primary health care visits." BMC Health Services Research 15 (2015). pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- GitLab Support Handbook. "Satisfaction (CES) review and responding." handbook.gitlab.com
- r/talesfromcallcenters. "A 0 survey I was happy to take." Reddit, 15 December 2019. reddit.com
Send it after the next solved ticket
Ten questions, about two minutes, one 5-point scale, no grid. Open it in the editor, change any wording, and trigger it on solved.
Use this template