Fairing's Question Bank: Methodologist-Written, Effective Survey Questions for Ecommerce

We're making our Question Bank publicly available! We've stewed on this decision for awhile, but realized that more people will benefit from our methodologist-written questions if we made it open to the public rather than available just within the Fairing post-purchase survey product.

This bank of 24 (and counting!) questions serves not just to answer the age old questions of "How to write effective survey questions?" and "How many questions should a survey have?", but to also help brands of all sizes begin to start collecting valuable zero party data at the point where customers are most willing to share—the post purchase order confirmation page! Clicking on the question should take you straight to your Fairing post purchase survey if you're logged in, and allow you to configure or go live with just a click.

So before we dive into these questions, here's some important background about ecommerce surveys and survey questions for the DTC marketer.

How to write effective survey questions?

Writing survey questions is hard! You're constantly having to ensure that your questions are succinct, are not leading questions, and aren't biased. Here's an example of a bad survey question: "How much do you love our new product?". It's a little on the extreme side, but this question suggests to the customer that they should like the product, regardless of what they think. Some survey respondents are also susceptible to bias in the options—the primacy bias is a well-known surveying phenomenon where the first option is picked more, not because the respondent agrees with it, but because it's simply the first. To write a good survey question, you have to balance these needs while drafting your question. Alternatively, rely on the 24 questions we have here—these were all written with and vetted with veteran survey methodologists from Meta, Unilever, and other great companies, and are an excellent starting point for any brand.

How many questions should a survey have?

Not our favorite answer to give, but it really depends. Fairing's Question Stream asks questions in, well, a stream. This ensures the respondent isn't overwhelmed, and we typically see response rates rocket up to 80% by the third question. A good ballpark is to aim for 3-4 questions for a start, and then optimizing as you see response rates change over time.

What are good survey questions to use?

You've come to the right spot. You don't need to worry about what are good questions to use, or how to write survey questions effectively, if you've got a professionally-written resource like this Question Bank. Having said that, it's just a good starting point, and each question is easily editable within the Fairing experience to match the needs of your brand.

We typically think of survey questions across four main use cases: attribution, personalization of marketing communications, conversion rate optimization (finding those little issues preventing people from buying on your site!), and customer research.

Ecommerce Attribution Questions

Our bread and butter here at Fairing. Most brands rely on first-party data sources (pixels and tracking links), but those don't account for offline, and unmeasurable data points like someone hearing about a brand from a friend, or an unsponsored mention on a podcast. Here are four great attribution-related questions to allow you to start collecting zero-party attribution data points.

Question	Question Type	Customer Type	Frequency	Answer Options
How did you hear about us?	Single Response	New Customers	Until Answered	Facebook Instagram TikTok Friend or Family Influencer Search Engine (e.g. Google) YouTube	👉 Add to Question Stream
What led you to our store today?	Single Response	Returning Customers	Until Answered	Facebook Instagram TikTok Friend or Family Influencer Search Engine (e.g. Google) YouTube Podcast Previous Purchases Email/Text	👉 Add to Question Stream
When did you first hear about us?	Single Response	New Customers	Until Answered	Today In the last few days Over a week ago Over a month ago	👉 Add to Question Stream
Where do you encounter our brand most often?	Single Response	All Customers	Until Answered	Social Media News or blogs TV Podcasts or radio In public	👉 Add to Question Stream

Personalization

We typically encourage our customers to save personalization questions for after the attribution question. Now that they're in the flow of answering questions, why not ask them more about themselves? Following that, pipe that data on to Klaviyo, Yotpo, or your other communications platforms to allow your brand to stop sending boring, generic messaging to your most engaged customers.

Question	Question Type	Customer Type	Frequency	Answer Options
Which of these best describes you?	Single Response	All Customers	Until Answered		👉 Add to Question Stream
Who is this purchase for?	Single Response	All Customers	Always	Myself Friend or family Coworker or client	👉 Add to Question Stream
Which of our benefits do you find most appealing?	Multi Response	All Customers	Until Answered		👉 Add to Question Stream
How will our product make an impact on your lifestyle?	Multi Response	Returning Customers	Until Answered		👉 Add to Question Stream
What occasion is this purchase for?	Single Response	All Customers	Always		👉 Add to Question Stream
When is your birthday?	Date	All Customers	Until Answered		👉 Add to Question Stream

Conversion Rate Optimization

CRO questions should come later in your Question Stream. You're most likely to get quality insights on what might've stopped customers from buying from your most loyal and engaged customers. Every DTC marketer is searching for the fine margins to improve the conversion rates on their shops, and customer feedback like "that button doesn't work well on Safari" could save precious time and money for brands.

Question	Question Type	Customer Type	Frequency	Answer Options
What other brands did you consider before purchasing from us?	Multi Response	All Customers	Until Answered		👉 Add to Question Stream
Did you encounter any issues in placing this order?	Single Response	All Customers	Always	Yes No	👉 Add to Question Stream
Was there any part of our store that was difficult to use?	Single Response	New Customers	Until Answered	Yes No	👉 Add to Question Stream
What phrase would you Google to find a brand or product like ours?	Open Ended	All Customers	Until Answered		👉 Add to Question Stream
What do you wish we offered more of?	Open Ended	Returning Customers	Until Answered		👉 Add to Question Stream

Research

Like CRO, we'd recommend saving research questions to the end. This ensures you get the most ROI for your post purchase survey (knowing where your growth is coming from, and maximizing LTV from converted customers!) At the end of the day, placing such a question in your post purchase survey will get you more answers, and faster, than sending out an email survey that gets lost in your customers' inbox.

Question	Question Type	Customer Type	Frequency	Answer Options
What is your age?	Single Response	All Customers	Until Answered	<18 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+	👉 Add to Question Stream
What gender do you identify with?	Single Response	All Customers	Until Answered	Man Woman Non-binary Prefer not to say	👉 Add to Question Stream
How important is fast shipping to you?	Single Response	All Customers	Until Answered	Very important Somewhat important Not important Not sure	👉 Add to Question Stream
How would describe the affordability of our products?	Single Response	All Customers	Until Answered	Very affordable Somewhat affordable Not very affordable	👉 Add to Question Stream
How does our pricing match up to your expectations?	Single Response	All Customers	Until Answered	Higher than expected Pretty much what I expected Lower than expected	👉 Add to Question Stream
Will anyone else in your household use this product?	Single Response	All Customers	Until Answered	Yes No	👉 Add to Question Stream
What's your favourite podcast?	Open Ended	All Customers	Until Answered		👉 Add to Question Stream
Are you switching from another brand?	Single Response	New Customers	Until Answered	Yes No	👉 Add to Question Stream

Customer Experience

Question	Question Type	Customer Type	Frequency	Answer Options
On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our product/company to a friend or colleague?	Net Promoter Score	Returning Customers	Until Answered		👉 Add to Question Stream