How to structure a customer satisfaction survey for a retail store

Receipt links and post-purchase emails reach only people who bought something and gave you an address — and only a small share of them answer. An in-store tablet catches everyone walking out, including the people who didn’t buy, which is often the group with the most useful feedback. And because each tablet is tied to one store, you get a score per location instead of one blended number for the whole chain.

Pick from these. Every statement is answered on a 0–10 scale from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”; the first is a Net Promoter Score question.

Rules that keep answers honest: one topic per statement, positive wording, no jargon, and the same wording in every store so the results compare.

The three-question survey — for a single shop or a first rollout:

1. How likely are you to recommend this store to a friend? (0–10)
2. I found what I came in for today.
3. Paying was quick and easy.

This covers the headline, the purpose of the visit, and the moment that most often goes wrong. Swap question 3 for whatever you suspect is your weak spot.

The seven-question survey — for chains or when you want the full picture: the whole question bank above, in that order.

On a feedback kiosk, people answer for as long as they’re willing and then walk away. With Sensa, each tap is saved immediately, so a customer who answers two questions and leaves still counts — and after about a minute the tablet resets to the first question for the next person. That means:

• Put the question you’d report upward first. It will always have the biggest sample.
• Put what you can act on next, and the “nice to know” at the end.
• Compare averages, not counts — later questions simply get fewer answers.

An illustrative month at one store:

Checkout is the clear outlier. If the per-day view shows the dip concentrated on Saturdays, that’s a staffing answer, not a systems one. Prices at 6.8 are worth watching but are harder to move; staff and the store itself are strengths worth telling the team about.

1. Wait for about 30 answers per question before reading averages.
2. Start with the lowest average that you can realistically influence.
3. Look at time patterns — weekday vs weekend, morning vs evening — before deciding on a fix.
4. Compare stores. The best-scoring store on a question is your internal playbook.
5. Change one thing, keep the survey identical, and watch that score for four to six weeks.

1. Choose your survey — three questions to start, or the full seven.
2. Create one location per store so every answer is tied to where it was given.
3. Place the tablet past the checkout, on the way out, at chest height and in the walking line — not on the counter where it competes with paying.
4. Add a short sign: “How did we do? One tap, anonymous.”
5. Lock the tablet to the survey (see our iPad kiosk mode guide) and keep it plugged in.
6. Review weekly for the first month, then monthly.