Marketing surveys have played a pivotal role in shaping the way businesses understand and engage with their customers. From the early days of simple feedback forms to the sophisticated tools we use today, surveys like Net Promoter Score (NPS), Voice of Customer (VoC), and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) have evolved significantly. This timeline takes you through the history of these essential survey methods, exploring their development and impact on modern marketing strategies. 1750 BC Circa – A Babylonian merchant writes the first known customer complaint on a clay tablet. 1912 – Charles Parlin conducts the first large-scale consumer surveys in the

Marketers serious about understanding their customers can’t afford to treat surveys as a checkbox. Whether it’s Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), or broader Voice of Customer (VoC) programs, survey data should inform strategy — not just sit in a dashboard. Below are the essential KPIs and stats that reveal how real companies are collecting, using, and acting on customer feedback today. These aren’t vanity numbers — they’re backed by research and chosen for their direct marketing relevance. “39% of companies don’t regularly ask customers for feedback about their interactions.” That’s nearly 4 in 10 businesses missing a crucial

Customer satisfaction surveys are only as valuable as the insights you extract from them. While raw response data offers a starting point, visualizing that data—especially when segmented by customer type—can reveal patterns, pain points, and opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed. In this post, I’ll walk through a series of sample survey questions using fictitious data to demonstrate how visual analysis helps uncover deeper insights. In a previous blog post, I shared the nine best questions to include in your customer satisfaction survey. While three of those questions are open-ended and provide valuable qualitative insights, they aren’t ideal for traditional

In a previous blog post—Best Questions to Include in Your Customer Satisfaction Survey—I outlined the most effective questions to ask when measuring customer satisfaction. One of the most common and impactful questions is the Net Promoter Score (NPS) question: “How likely are you to recommend [Company/Product/Service] to a friend or colleague?” Since many businesses rely on NPS to gauge customer loyalty, it’s essential to move beyond just collecting responses and dive into analyzing the data for actionable insights. In this post, I’ll share 10 key insights you can uncover when you analyze your NPS survey data—and provide examples of how

To ensure your Net Promoter Score (NPS) process is valid, reliable, and capable of withstanding external stakeholder scrutiny, follow these best practices outlined by Fred Reichheld and other NPS experts: 1. Use the Standardized NPS Question The NPS methodology is built around a single question: “How likely are you to recommend [Company/Product] to a friend or colleague?” This ensures consistency and comparability across industries and organizations. 2. Follow the 0-10 Scale Use the 0-10 rating scale, where: This scale is critical for calculating the NPS score correctly. 3. Include Open-Ended Follow-Up Questions Ask respondents to explain their score with a