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10 min

Top 9 categories for B2B survey questions

The top 9 categories for B2B survey questions explained

GrapeData
Jan 17, 2023
B2B market research

Introduction

To get the most out of your B2B survey, you'll want to ask questions that dig deep into what drives your customers' buying decisions and how they feel about your brand. Here are some of the best B2B survey questions categories to consider when crafting your next B2B survey:

What are B2B survey questions? 

B2B survey questions are questions asked to a respondent. The goal of a survey question is to get an answer from the respondent. Researchers can use these answers to learn more about the topic of interest. Survey questions are different from interview questions in that survey questions are generally aimed at collecting data from a large number of respondents. On the other hand, interviews tend to be more focused on one person's experiences or opinions.

Researchers typically conduct B2B surveys online and they may include multiple types of questions (e.g., multiple choice, open-ended). These surveys usually have a specific purpose. This purpose is to collect data from customers or potential customers. Companies can then use this data to improve their products or services.

Each type of survey question has its own unique purpose and design considerations. Some questions are designed to measure attitudes or beliefs; others ask for demographic information about respondents; some ask for factual information about events in respondents' lives; and others ask for suggestions about ways that the company could do something better (e.g., improve their product).

9 most frequently asked categories of B2B survey questions

Companies use B2B survey questions in a wide range of business scenarios. For example, a business might want to find out how satisfied their customers are with their customer service. In this case, they would create a survey asking their customers to rate how satisfied they were with their customer service on a scale from 1-10. This type of question would help them understand where their service needs improvement. In addition, it will help them know how well their current employees are doing in terms of providing good service.

Another way that B2B survey questions can be used is in market research. If a company wants to know what consumers think about their new product line, it could create a survey asking people what products they liked the most from the line and why. This would give them valuable information about consumer preferences so that they can improve upon those products in future designs. They can even discontinue those items if necessary for financial reasons (assuming there are no other factors at play like patent concerns). Having talked about how B2B survey questions are used, let's look at the top 9 categories of B2B survey questions.

1. Demographics

Demographics are the characteristics of a population. Researchers can segment customers using these characteristics. They give you more information about your target audience and allow you to better serve them. Market researchers use demographics to answer questions such as “How many women fall within our income range?” or “What percentage of our customers live in the Midwest?”

Demographics include things like age, education level, gender, and location. Good demographics are easy for respondents to provide concisely (e.g., age range), and easy for researchers to measure (e.g., income). They are also useful when segmenting customer groups (e.g., young professionals living in urban areas).

Companies can collect demographic data through surveys or by asking people to fill out forms. In either case, you should include a question at the start of your survey asking respondents who have not provided demographic information to do so. Discover 15 demographic questions for surveys in this post.

2. Perceptions and attitudes

When you ask your customers about their perceptions and attitudes, you’re gathering data that can help you better understand how they see the world. In other words, this category of questions will give you some important insight into what your customers think about your brand or product. In addition, perceptional B2B survey questions will tell you how that might affect their decisions to buy from your company.

These types of questions can help you identify how customers perceive the brand in the marketplace. They help you determine what customers think about your company. In addition, they can reveal problems that need to be addressed and opportunities for improvement.

The things you want to learn with these questions include:

• What are your customers’ perceptions of your brand or product?

• How do they describe your company, brand, or product?

• Is there any confusion about what you offer?

• Do customers have a clear understanding of the benefits of your offering?

3. Behavioural analysis focused B2B survey questions

Behavioural analysis is the study of how people act, not what they think or feel. This analysis can help you understand how customers interact with your product or service. Businesses also use it to understand what influences consumer behaviour, such as price points and promotional campaigns.

Behavioural analysts use their research skills in many industries including advertising, marketing, and public relations. As it is a growing field, you may find that it's easier to break into than other areas of study. If you're interested in learning more about behavioural analysis and how it can be used for marketing research, check out this resource.

4. Intentions

The key to any purchase is the buyer's intention. You can have all of the information in the world about their needs and desires, but if your product or service doesn't meet their intended result for how they are using it, then you might as well be selling something else entirely. To get a true sense of what your respondents’ intentions are, try asking a question like: “How do you plan on using this product?” or “What specific outcome are you hoping to achieve by purchasing this item?” The answers will tell you whether or not there will be a fit between what they want and what your company sells.

If they have no intention of using your product, then there’s really no reason to continue the conversation. You can politely end it by thanking them for their time and letting them know that you'll let them know when your company has something that might be a better fit for their needs.

You may also want to ask the respondent if they are interested in learning more about your company and its products. If they seem open to it, then take the opportunity to provide them with more information on what you have available (and what it can do).

5. Personal experiences

The best way to gauge how customers feel about a product or service is by asking them directly. You want to find out whether they've ever bought your product, what their experience with the sales process was like, how customer service responded when they had questions or concerns, and how likely they would be to recommend your company to others.

You can also ask them about their experience with competitors, and whether they think your product is better than theirs. This is a great way to get some honest feedback from customers who are more likely to be candid with you than if someone else were to approach them.

Another great way to get feedback from customers is by scheduling a focus group. This is a small meeting where you can ask people about their experience with your company and product. You want to choose people who have different demographics so that you can get an idea of how different groups react to what you're offering.

5. B2B survey questions that focus on priorities 

These types of questions are a great way to get a handle on what people think is most important. You can get very specific, or you can ask about general areas of focus like marketing, sales, or technology. You could ask both about their own personal priorities as well as their recommendations for improving society at large.

-What do you think is the most important thing I should be working on right now?

-Is there anything that you would recommend we change about our business or product?

-What do you think is the biggest challenge facing our company right now?

-How do you think we could improve our customer experience?

-If you had $10,000 to spend on marketing, what would be the best way to invest it?

-What would make us more competitive in the marketplace?

6. Satisfaction and preferences

Satisfaction and preferences are important to understand if you want to improve your product or service.

  • You can ask customers if they prefer a certain product, feature, or service.
  • You can also ask customers to rate their satisfaction with a specific product or service.

By understanding customer preferences and satisfaction, you can improve your product or service. You can also use this information to create new products that meet the needs of your customers.

You can also use this information to create new products that meet the needs of your customers. This is important because it helps you improve both your product and service offerings. Learn 10 ways to improve customer satisfaction in this post.

7. Product knowledge-based B2B survey questions

Let's see below how product-related questions help researchers in B2B surveys:

  • Product knowledge questions are a good way to learn more about the customer's experience with your product.
  • These questions are a good way to learn more about the customer's expectations for your product.
  • Product knowledge questions are a good way to understand more about the customer's future needs.

These B2B survey questions are a good way to learn more about the customer's goals. In addition, they are also a good way to learn more about what customers expect from your product.

8. Customer service

Market researchers use customer service questions to measure customer satisfaction. In addition, they can be used to assess how well a company is meeting customer needs and whether or not customers are satisfied with the company's response time.

These B2B survey questions can be used in a number of different ways. The most common way is to measure customer satisfaction with a product or service and see how likely customers are to recommend that product or service. Another way is to use the questions as part of an internal survey so that employees can provide feedback on their experience working with customers.

A third way to use the questions is to measure customer loyalty. This can be done by asking customers if they would recommend the company's product or service to friends and family.

9. Problem-solving feedback

Problem-solving feedback is a big part of B2B surveys and can be an excellent way to get information about what’s not working. You can ask respondents about problems encountered, solutions tried, and whether those solutions worked or not. If there was no problem in the first place, you might also want to ask them what they would do differently next time.

This is a great topic if you want to know more about your customer's pain points—the things that cause them stress or frustration when using your product or service. It's also useful if there are any issues with the quality of your product or service that need to be addressed before more serious problems arise.

This kind of feedback is especially powerful when you can tie it back to the results of other questions on your survey. For example, if a respondent has told you that they have problems using your product or service, ask them why and then compare their answer with the responses from people who don’t have this issue. It may be that there are differences between the two groups in terms of demographics or industry—or it might be an indication that there's something wrong with how your product works.

Get the most from your B2B surveys by asking these questions

You want your B2B survey questions to be a win-win: they should work well for you and your audience. That's why it's important to use the right question type and ask questions that are relevant to your audience, easy to understand, and easy to answer. We've created this template of the top B2B survey questions that we recommend using if you're looking for more information about what your customers really care about.

  • What do you think would be most helpful in terms of improving customer service?
  • How likely are you/are others in your organisation to buy from us?
  • What is most important when considering how satisfied or dissatisfied we are?
  • How likely are you to recommend us to a friend, family member, or colleague?
  • Are you satisfied with our products/services overall?
  • What is the likelihood of you recommending us to a friend, family member, or colleague?
  • On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with our products and services overall?
  • What's one thing we could do better at our company?

Conclusion

We’ve outlined 9 of our most frequently asked categories, but the list is by no means exhaustive. There are so many different types of questions that can be asked in a B2B survey, and we want to encourage everyone to think about what their next question should be! Don't know where to start? Check out our blog page for some top tips on how to get started with B2B survey questions. Or, contact us here to know more!

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