Customer feedback form
A customer feedback form is a short set of questions you send customers after an order, a job or a visit, to find out how you did and what to change. This free Word template fits on one page: an overall satisfaction rating, ratings for the parts of the service customers notice, the question about recommending you, three open questions, and separate permission boxes for following up and for quoting their comments.
Running a company of 30 to 200 people? Documents like this are now worth money.
Print it, send it as a PDF or copy the questions into your online form tool. Its two scored questions match the customer satisfaction survey template, an Excel workbook that logs replies and works out CSAT and NPS.
What's in the template
Customer feedback form
Thank you for choosing [company name]. This form takes about two minutes. We read every reply and use it to keep doing what went well and to fix what didn't.
| Your order, job or visit | e.g. order number, job reference or date |
|---|---|
| Date |
1. How satisfied were you?
Tick one box per row: 1 = very dissatisfied, 5 = very satisfied.
| Please rate | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | N/A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall, how satisfied were you with [our service]? | ||||||
| Quality of the [work or product] | ||||||
| Keeping you informed | ||||||
| Doing what we said, when we said | ||||||
| Helpfulness of our staff | ||||||
| Value for money |
2. Would you recommend us?
How likely is it that you would recommend [company name] to a friend or colleague? Tick one number: 0 = not at all likely, 10 = extremely likely.
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3. In your own words
| Question | Your answer |
|---|---|
| What's the main reason for the scores you gave? | |
| What's one thing we could have done better? | |
| Is there anything else you'd like to tell us? |
4. Following up (optional)
- Yes, you may contact me about my answers
- Yes, you may quote my comments, with my first name and town
- Yes, you may quote my comments, but without my name
| Name | |
|---|---|
| Email or phone | Only needed if you ticked a box above |
Leave any box unticked if you'd rather we didn't.
Privacy line: in one or two sentences, say what you use feedback for, how long you keep it and who sees it, and link to your privacy notice.
Please return this form to [name] at [email address], or hand it to any member of our team. Thank you.
For office use
| Received and logged | Date and initials |
|---|---|
| Follow-up | Not needed / to do (owner) / done |
How to use the form
- Send it soon after the moment you want to hear about (delivery, the end of a job, the first month of a contract) while the details are fresh.
- Edit the rating rows to fit your service, but keep the overall and recommend questions word for word so scores stay comparable.
- Send it from a person, ideally the one who dealt with the customer, with a sentence on why you're asking.
- Read low scores the day they arrive. Call anyone who ticked the follow-up box, and put real complaints through your complaints process.
- Log every reply in the survey results workbook and review the themes monthly.
- Tell customers what changed because of what they said; it's the best reason to answer next time.
Writing questions that get honest answers
- One thing per question. "Were we quick and friendly?" can't be answered if you were quick but rude.
- Neutral wording: "How satisfied were you..." rather than "How much did you enjoy...".
- Same scale and order every time, or this quarter can't be compared with the last.
- Ask why after the score. The comment beside a low rating is usually the most useful line on the form.
Example: a fictional commercial printer
A fictional 50-person printing company emails the form two days after each delivery. One reply, from a client's marketing manager:
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Overall satisfaction (1 to 5) | 3 |
| Quality of the print | 5 |
| Keeping you informed | 2 |
| Likely to recommend (0 to 10) | 6 |
| Main reason for your scores | "The brochures were excellent but arrived a day late, and I only found out when I chased." |
| Permissions | Contact me about my answers: ticked. Quote my comments: both left blank. |
The account manager rang the next morning. Production had known about a paper shortage but hadn't passed it on, so the company added a step to its dispatch process: if a delivery date slips, the account manager calls the customer that day. The comment wasn't used in marketing, because neither quote box was ticked.
Permission, privacy and marketing (UK)
If the form collects names and contact details, UK data protection law applies. Three points from the ICO's guidance:
- Say how you'll use their details when you collect them (the privacy line): what for, how long you'll keep them and who you'll share them with, in plain language.
- Leave permission boxes unticked. The ICO says silence, pre-ticked boxes or inactivity don't count as consent, and consent should be separate from other terms, with separate options for separate purposes. Hence a box each for follow-up and quotes.
- Keep marketing out. Genuine market research isn't direct marketing, but the ICO says research messages that include promotional material, or that are carried out so you can market to people later, are. It treats even an email that only asks whether people want offers as sent for marketing purposes, and marketing emails and texts have rules of their own.
This summarises the ICO's guidance and isn't legal advice. US rules differ.
Common mistakes
- Too many questions, so the form gets abandoned or rushed.
- Sending it weeks later, when the customer has forgotten the details you need.
- A discount code in the request, which turns it into a marketing message under the ICO's guidance.
- Changing the scale between surveys, which breaks every comparison.
- No reply to unhappy customers. Silence after a low score tells them their answer didn't matter.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions should a customer feedback form have?
As few as you need to make decisions. This one fits on one page; cut any question you won't act on.
Should customer feedback be anonymous?
Let customers choose. Anonymous replies can be more candid but can't be followed up, so the form makes contact details optional and asks for them only if a box is ticked.
Can I add a newsletter sign-up to the feedback form?
It's safer not to. The ICO treats research carried out to send marketing later as direct marketing, so a sign-up box risks turning the feedback request into a marketing message. Ask for marketing permission separately, following the ICO's guidance.