On average, customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than companies not focused on the customer.
But how do you find out what your customers really want, especially when people are often too busy to respond to survey requests?
With the right questions and a best practice-led survey invitation email template, you can collect valuable, actionable feedback. We’ve got 10 of the best ready-to-use templates, with tips to boost your response rate for a more profitable, lasting business.
Postal and in-person surveys may have been effective in the past. But today, consumers expect the process to be quick, easy and convenient.
Here’s why email surveys are a leading choice:
Do your response rate a favor by including the following elements in your email surveys:
Insider tip: There’s a clever tool available that helps you nail your email structure every time. An email builder is a drag-and-drop design tool anyone can use to build highly engaging, professional emails (even if you have zero design or coding knowledge!)
Email builders come pre-loaded with hundreds of templates, including customer survey email templates, that you can customize in minutes with your content and survey details.
They work with over 50 email service providers, including Outlook and Gmail, so you can export your design to your ESP of choice, where you can send it to your audience.
As a marketer or business owner, you make decisions that shape the business every day. Wouldn’t it be nice to know if you’re on the right track, straight from the mouths of your customers?
You can send customer surveys for a variety of purposes. In this section, simply find the best survey invitation email template for your goal. Click ‘Use This Template’ and customize it with your content and branding.
Whatever insights you want to gather from your customer base, this survey invitation message is for you.
This template uses a generalized message you can customize to suit your brand and the survey goal. Be sure to provide clarity about the survey, so readers know what to expect when they click on the link.
For example, what’s the focus of the survey, and how long will it take to complete?
Check in on the people who recently interacted with your customer service team.
This survey invitation email is designed to make sure you’re providing the best support possible. If the customer still has some concerns, they should feel free to voice them here.
If you’ve just announced a new product or feature, you’re probably itching to find out how it’s faring in the hands of your customers.
Distribute a survey to find out. To encourage more responses, remind recipients of the benefits of answering your survey.
Usually, this can be as simple as knowing you’ll keep improving the product to better suit their lives and needs.
Customers aren’t the only people businesses should survey.
You can also send email surveys to your employees to find out how they feel about working with you. This is a smart way to measure and improve employee satisfaction. When the workplace meets their needs, your top talent is likely to stick around for longer, reducing turnover rate and increasing productivity.
Aim to send employee survey emails regularly; monthly or quarterly surveys usually work well.
Your initial survey invitation, no matter how polite, won’t always get the response you hope for.
If that happens, send a survey follow-up email.
This is a gentle nudge for recipients who missed your first survey invitation – or just forgot to share their answers. Send a follow-up email 48-72 hours after the first survey invitation.
Interactive emails with embedded surveys are likely to boost your response rate. That’s because it removes a step, since respondents don’t need to click a link in the email to get to the survey.
You can easily create this type of survey using an email builder. Simply drag and drop your chosen survey style (poll, star rating or NPS) into your newsletter, and your readers can respond directly in the email.
Your email builder collects all the data and presents it in a handy dashboard, so you can clearly see the results without using any third-party tools.
Sometimes, the promise of a better product isn’t enough to convince customers to respond to your survey invitation.
Consider sweetening the deal with a discount code, voucher, or free entry into an upcoming competition.
Give a heartfelt ‘Thank you’ when customers (or employees) complete your survey.
Simply use and customize this template. You can then save it in your email builder library and reuse it for future thank you emails. Since you can organize all templates into folders, finding the one you need is easy.
Now you have the tools to save time designing emails, you can spend more time writing the perfect message and refining your product or services based on what your customers want.
Send a quick survey invitation email to new customers for a pulse check on their experiences with your product or service.
Keep this short and simple, and don’t forget to use open questions (e.g. “Let us know if you have any suggestions!”) to invite the customer to share their opinions without holding back.
Satisfied customers can do a lot of selling on your behalf.
If a customer has a great experience with your business, take the opportunity to get that in writing. Invite them to complete a survey or simply leave a public review.
Consider creating a survey with a mix of ratings (e.g. how satisfied were you with our product from 1 to 10) and full responses (e.g. how has our product improved your workflows?).
With a great survey invitation email template to hand, you’re halfway to creating the best email surveys.
Follow these four simple tips to maximize engagement and ensure your survey is the success you want it to be.
Show you respect your customers’ time by keeping surveys short and focused.
Decide what the goal of the survey is and let this dictate the questions you ask. This should help avoid any unnecessary questions that lead to overly long surveys.
Short, simple surveys are less overwhelming, which increases the likelihood of completion.
Adding simple polls and ratings to your ongoing communication means you can regularly get feedback from customers, without it feeling like they are having to make a time commitment to give you the insight. An email builder can make adding these elements really easy.
Use the email body to let recipients know what the purpose of the survey is, and how long it will take to complete.
When customers understand why their feedback matters, they’re usually more motivated to share it. Plus, transparency throughout the process is always recommended.
With the help of an email builder, you can spend less time trying to design emails, and more time crafting effective surveys that drive your business forward.
As well as hundreds of beautiful, professional templates, email builders are loaded with time-saving features that also take your designs up a level. For example, you can discover fresh content, including over 2 million royalty-free GIFs, images and videos, without leaving the editor. This adds visual interest to help you design emails for maximum engagement.
Plus, you can add polls or surveys to collect the data you need quickly and easily. Simply drag your chosen poll into your newsletter, and style it to suit your brand! From choosing from multiple icons in your rating scale, to adding your brand colors, your survey instantly becomes a cohesive part of your overall email.
Did you know email builders also let you track the performance of your emails with powerful analytics? Knowing how your emails are performing is the only way to optimize them and continually get better results (read: more responses!). Email builders let you track engagement, such as click-through rate and open rate, even when you send emails via Outlook, Gmail, or over 50 other ESPs.
Honest customer feedback is golden for business growth.
After thanking respondents for taking part, assure them you’re taking all survey responses on board. Act on the advice and concerns wherever possible.
It is also really powerful if you update customers when you have actioned the feedback, showing them that their voice has been heard, and you’ve done something about it.
One wrong step with your survey invitation emails could seriously damage your response rate.
Avoid these common mistakes to encourage responses and protect your brand:
Asking your customers what they think is a route to a business with staying power. When you can shape your products and services around what people want, you’re onto a winner.
Of course, people aren’t always receptive to surveys, because of busy inboxes and busier schedules. Cut through the noise with an email builder. They offer clear, engaging survey invitation email templates with the ability to directly embed surveys, making the response process simple for your audience. So, you can sit back and watch your responses skyrocket.
All the templates from email builders already follow best practices, so you know your survey invitations will be highly engaging and enjoyable to read. Save time and money with easy drag-and-drop editors - there’s no need to learn how to code or hire a designer!