Customer profile survey questions: who buys, why and how
Fifteen questions for people who already buy from you. About four minutes, every answer a fact you can count.
- 15questions
- about 4 minto answer
- 5short blocks
- no namesasked
The 15 customer profile survey questions
A customer profile survey asks the people who already buy from you who they are, what set off the purchase, how they buy and where to reach them. These fifteen questions load into the free questionnaire creator with every answer option in place, ready for your company name and price bands.
Which kind of buyer
Three facts that decide how every later answer reads.
- Which of these best describes how you buy from [YOUR COMPANY]?split every other answer by this one first.
- How long have you been buying from us?
- When did you last buy from us?with question 2, it finds customers who quietly stopped.
What they came for
The half no purchase record holds: what set the purchase off.
- What were you trying to get done when you first came to us?their own words, early while attention is highest.
- What was happening just before you started looking?
- What were you doing about it before you found us?shows whether you replaced a rival or a workaround.
How they buy
The block to keep if you cut the survey in half.
- Which way did you place your most recent order?the last order is a fact; a usual channel is a guess.
- How often do you buy from us?
- Roughly how much do you spend with us in a year?swap in your own currency and bands.
- Who else is involved in deciding whether to buy?for business buyers, this names who your marketing must reach.
Where to reach them
Three answers that turn a profile into a media plan.
- How did you first hear about us?
- Where do you look when you are deciding what to buy in this category?can name a channel your analytics has never seen.
- If we had something worth telling you about, where would you rather hear it?
About them
Last, and kept broad: a band and a country.
- Which age band are you in?
- Which country are you answering from?
Who gets it, and how to read fifteen answers
Send it to customers on the list you already hold, once a planning cycle, with one line at the top saying who reads the answers. No question asks for a name, and age and country stay broad. Asking them barely moves replies: in a trial of 4,448 mailed questionnaires, 33.0 percent responded with demographic questions included and 34.2 percent without.[1] Wording for extra fields is in the demographic answer options guide.
Split every answer by question 1 first, then read pairs: trigger by tenure, channel by spend. Long-standing customers who last bought over a year ago have likely left, and a cancellation survey asks them why. Your reps can check the buying-unit answers against a sales team survey.
Customer profile survey FAQ
What are customer profiling questions?
Questions about the customer, not about you: what kind of buyer they are, what triggered the purchase, how often and how much they buy, who else decides and where they look for information. Opinions belong in a customer feedback survey.
Can I use these as customer segmentation survey questions?
Yes. Segments come from the answers: group customers by buyer type, trigger, frequency and spend, then name each group. To size those segments among people who have never bought from you, run a market research survey with a screened sample.
What is the difference between a customer profile and a buyer persona?
A profile is what the counted answers say about a group of real customers. A persona is the named character somebody writes afterwards. Run the survey first, then write one persona for each of the largest groups.
Should a customer profile survey ask about income?
Ask what people spend with you, as question 9 does. Spend is the figure a seller can act on, and it comes with an answer for anyone who would rather keep it private.
Michael Hodge, survey methodology · Updated 2 October 2026 · How templates are reviewed
Sources (1)
- Ziegenfuss, J. Y., Easterday, C. A., Dinh, J. M., JaKa, M. M., Kottke, T. E. and Canterbury, M. "Impact of Demographic Survey Questions on Response Rate and Measurement: A Randomized Experiment." Survey Practice 14(1), 2021. surveypractice.org
Find out who is actually buying
Fifteen questions, about four minutes, and not one asks what they think of you.
Use this template