Short answer: run two things side by side. A private survey goes to every customer so you can learn what to fix, and a review request also goes to every customer, with the same link, whatever they put in the survey. The one thing you must not do is use the survey score to decide who gets asked for a Google review.
What a customer feedback survey is, and what it is for
A survey is a handful of questions. A customer tells you privately how it went, and you learn things you cannot see from behind the counter, the chair or the van.
Its job is learning. The useful answers are usually the small, quiet annoyances: the wait, the unclear price, the call back that never came. Customers rarely say these to your face, but many will tick a box or type a line.
You will see a couple of acronyms on survey tools. CSAT stands for customer satisfaction score, which is simply a rating of how happy someone was. A KPI (key performance indicator) is any number you decide to keep an eye on. Both are just labels, and a small business does not need either to get value from a survey.
Survey or review request: which one do you need?
Usually both, and they do different jobs.
- A survey is private and for you. It tells you what to improve.
- A review request is public-facing and for future customers. It invites people to say what they thought, in their own words, where others can read it.
One does not replace the other. Problems start when a business treats them as one step, with the survey acting as a filter in front of the review link. For how to word the review ask itself, see how to ask for an honest review.
Five questions that suit a small business
This is our own editorial advice, not a platform rule. Keep it short, one idea per question, plain wording.
- How would you rate your visit overall? A simple 1 to 5 scale is fine.
- How easy was it to book or get hold of us?
- Did we do what we said we would?
- What is one thing we could do better?
- Anything else you would like to tell us? Make this an optional comment box.
The scores tell you how it went. Questions four and five tell you why, and they are where most of the useful detail turns up.
Notice what is missing: no age, no address, no date of birth. If you will not use an answer, do not ask for it. Collecting less is quicker for the customer and leaves you less to look after.
How and when to send it (SMS, email, QR, in person)
Send it soon after the visit or job, while the details are fresh. Pick the channel your customers already use:
- Text suits cafes and salons, because it lands where people already look.
- Email suits clinics and trades, especially if you send an invoice or confirmation anyway.
- A printed card or QR code at the counter suits walk-in customers. Point it at your survey form.
- In person works too. Ask two or three of the questions at the till and jot the answers down afterwards.
Whatever you choose, send it to every customer, not only the visits you think went well.
Why you must not use survey scores to decide who gets a review link
This is the most common mistake, and it can feel sensible. Someone scores you 5 out of 5, so you send them to Google. Someone scores you 2, so you quietly do not. Some survey tools even offer this as a feature. It is review gating, and it is not allowed.
- Google says in its Maps content policy that merchants must not “discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers”. Offering incentives such as discounts or free goods for reviews is also banned.
- UK law covers it too. The CMA’s fake reviews guidance on the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 says that cherry-picking positive reviews can be done “by encouraging just those who are satisfied to leave reviews”, and that a trader may infringe the law by suppressing genuine negative reviews.
The compliant setup:
- The survey is for learning, and everyone gets it.
- The review request goes to everyone, with the same link, whatever they scored. If your survey ends with a thank-you screen, it is fine to show the review link there, as long as every respondent sees it.
- Low scorers also get a personal follow-up from you (next section).
The review request generator writes that message for SMS, WhatsApp or email. It is free and needs no account. If you also want a Google review QR code for the counter, the Google review QR code maker does that, and the same rule applies: it is for everyone. For the wider rules, see the rules on asking for Google reviews and fake reviews and UK law.
What to do with the answers, including unhappy ones
Read all of them, and look for anything that comes up more than once. One odd comment may be a one-off. The same comment from several people is a job to do.
When someone scores you low, get in touch personally with a short, human message: thanks for telling us, sorry it fell short, here is how we would like to put it right. Two things to avoid:
- Do not make the fix conditional on the review. The CMA guidance lists making an offer of dispute resolution contingent on a customer not leaving a negative review as something traders should not do.
- Do not ask them to change or remove a review in return for anything. Google bans incentives for revising or removing a negative review.
The follow-up is worth doing for its own sake, whatever happens on Google. If that customer does post a public review later, reply to it calmly; how to respond to negative Google reviews walks through it.
Keeping survey data tidy and private
Survey answers are private, so treat them that way.
- Limit who can see them to you and the staff who need to act on them.
- Ask before sharing. Do not post a customer’s survey comment on your website or social media without their permission. If you want public praise, ask for a testimonial separately.
- Tidy up. Once you have acted on a batch of answers, you probably do not need every name kept beside every comment indefinitely.
Because the survey asked for no unnecessary personal details in the first place, there is less to look after. That is the whole setup: five questions, one review link for everyone, and a real person getting back to the customers who were unhappy.
Questions people ask
What is a customer feedback form?
It is a short set of questions a customer fills in to tell you how their visit or job went. The answers come privately to you, and the point is to find out what to improve.
How do you create a customer satisfaction survey?
Keep it to about five questions: an overall rating, how easy you were to book or reach, whether you did what you promised, one thing to improve and an optional comment box. Use one idea per question and do not ask for personal details you will not use. A free form tool or a printed card is enough.
Can I send the Google review link only to customers who score me highly in a survey?
No. That is review gating. Google's policy says businesses must not selectively solicit positive reviews, and the CMA's fake reviews guidance says encouraging just those who are satisfied to leave reviews can be cherry-picking under UK consumer law. Send the same review link to everyone, whatever they scored.
How many questions should a customer feedback survey have?
For a small business, five is plenty. This is our own editorial advice and not a platform rule. A short survey is quicker to finish, and the open questions usually tell you more than the scores.
Is a survey the same as a review?
No. A survey is private and helps you improve. A review is public and helps future customers decide. Run them side by side, and never let a survey answer decide who gets asked for a review.