30+ market research questions to ask your customers

Market research is a goose that lays golden eggs. But only if you give it the right snacks.

Market research can bring you highly valuable information about your target audience’s needs and preferences—but to get this information, you need to ask the right questions in the right way.

You and your customers generally have aligned goals. You aim to provide tailored products and services that fulfill their needs while they seek solutions that are delivered in a convenient and appealing way. Understanding what to offer typically usually involves some digging.

Market research leverages targeted questions to help you understand what your customers need. In this article, we explore valuable questions to ask participants and how to ask them, helping you find the exact paint points to address.

At the start of any market research process, you’ll need to identify your target audience and set clear goals for your research.

Identifying your target audience

Defining your target audience is the first step in any successful market research project. Getting this wrong can, at best, make your findings less relevant and, at worst, make the entire process valueless.

Whether you already have a clear idea of who your target audience is or you are just starting to develop a buyer person, there are several things to consider about your audience:

• Demographics

• Location

• Interests

• Purchasing behavior

You may also want to segment your audience based on different criteria. For example, you may differentiate between new customers and loyal repeat buyers or between those who purchase online versus in-store. Here are some questions to consider:

• How do customers engage with your brand?

• Where do the customers live? Are they willing to travel to access your product?

• Why do customers use your brand?

• Why do customers use other brands?

Different segments may have different needs and require a different set of questions. For instance, you might ask your whole audience general questions and each segment targeted questions.

Setting clear goals

Market research is a must-do task when starting a business. However, you’ll likely need to do it at other stages of your company’s growth and development. Your goal may be different each time.

Here are some examples of research you may conduct as a more mature business:

• Exploring how to improve a product or service offering

• Identifying new market opportunities

• Assessing customer satisfaction

• Evaluating brand perception

• Forecasting market trends

• Optimizing pricing strategies

• Measuring demand for new ideas

• Understanding purchase decision drivers

• Validating business strategies

Setting clear goals for your market research is just as important as knowing who you are targeting. Without specific objectives, you won’t be able to conduct a proper analysis of the data you collect during the research. Having clear goals allows you to structure your questions in a way that truly addresses them.

Meanwhile, setting measurable goals, such as SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound), helps you track the success of your research efforts. Clear goals also ensure that you stay focused on what’s most important and avoid unnecessary data collection.

A market research survey aims to get high-quality answers that lead to valuable insights. Besides choosing the right audience to work with, you need to create a proper survey format. Here are the types of questions to consider:

Multiple-choice questions

Multiple-choice questions can be easy to answer, possibly causing less survey fatigue. However, there are drawbacks to this type of question. For example, it can be challenging to design response categories that capture the range of potential responses participants might give.

There’s also a risk of offering too many options. An ideal multiple-choice question has 4–6 answers. Too many options can make the question confusing or time-consuming. Too few may not cover the range of possible answers effectively.

Open-ended questions

These questions allow respondents to provide free-form, detailed answers. For example: “What features would you like us to add to this product?”

Long answers can provide more value to the researchers than multiple-choice answers. However, the responder may go off-topic when given a chance to answer in their own words. This type of question can also be time-consuming for the participant and take a long time for the researcher to code.

Rating scale questions

In these questions, you ask respondents to evaluate something on a numerical or descriptive scale, such as 1 to 5 or “very poor” to “very good.”

For example: “On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 means not satisfied and 5 means very satisfied, how satisfied are you with our customer service?”

These answers are easy to analyze. They can provide valuable insights even if you are surveying a large number of respondents.

Likert scale questions

Likert scale questions are a type of rating scale question. They typically measure levels of agreement, but they can be adapted to measure things like importance or frequency.

Here are some examples:

• Rate the following statement: “I find this product easy to use”: strongly disagree to strongly agree

• “How often do you use this product?” Never, rarely, sometimes, often, always

Answers to these questions provide more flexibility than “yes” and “no” questions and can demand less effort and thought from respondents than open-ended questions. This can make it more likely for respondents to complete the survey.

Demographic questions

Demographic questions collect background information, such as age, location, or income. They can be a useful addition to any survey as they allow you to conduct subgroup analysis of other questions. For example, you can use demographic questions to identify differences between older or younger respondents or men and women.

While these questions are easy to design and answer, independently, they may not provide a useful depth of insight.

Net promoter score (NPS) questions

NPS questions assess customer satisfaction with your product, service, or brand by asking how likely they are to recommend it to someone else. For example: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?”

These questions are standardized, making them easy to analyze and use for benchmarking your performance. However, their scope is limited (i.e., likelihood of recommendation). They don’t go deeper into specific customer issues.

Behavioral/scenario-based questions

These questions involve presenting a situation and asking how the respondent would react or make a choice. For example: “If you were shopping for a gift, which store would you visit first?”

This question style can help you assess customer behavior and gain insight into why they may be choosing a different product or service.

The questions you include in your market research survey depend on your goals. Try to create the best combination of question types to generate the most data possible.

Questions to help you improve your product or service

1. Which of the following features do you use most frequently? (Multiple-choice)

2. What improvements would you like to see in our product/service? (Open-ended)

3. On a scale of 1 (not satisfied) to 5 (very satisfied), how satisfied are you with the performance of our product/service?

4. Rate the following statement: “I find this product easy to use”: strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, or strongly agree.

5. On a scale of 0 (not at all likely) to 10 (extremely likely), how likely are you to recommend our product/service to a friend or colleague?

6. What additional features or services would make our product more valuable to you? (Open-ended)

7. How well does our product/service meet your expectations? (Open-ended)

Questions for identifying new market opportunities

8. Which of these products would you be most interested in purchasing from us? (Multiple-choice)

9. What issues or problems do you experience daily that you wish a product could address? (Open-ended)

10. On a scale of 1 (not likely) to 10 (very likely), how likely are you to try a new product from our company?

11. Rate the following statement: “I would consider purchasing from this company if they offered products in new categories”: strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, or strongly agree.

12. If a product with [specific feature] became available, how would it change what you buy? (Open-ended)

13. What things influence your decision when trying a product from a new company? (Multiple-choice)

14. What features or innovations would you like to see in a new product from us? (Open-ended)

Questions for assessing customer satisfaction

15. On a scale of 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied), how satisfied are you with the overall quality of our product/service?

16. Rate the following statement: “Our product/service meets your expectations”: strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, or strongly agree.

17. What is the most important improvement we could make to enhance your experience with our product/service? (Open-ended)

18. How often do you use our product/service? (Multiple-choice)

19. If you encountered a problem with our product/service, how did you resolve it? (Open-ended)

20. Which aspect of our service are you most satisfied with? (Multiple-choice)

21. On a scale of 1 (very difficult) to 10 (very easy), how easy was it to find the information you needed?

Questions for optimizing pricing strategies

22. Which price range feels most reasonable for our product/service? (Multiple-choice)

23. On a scale of 1 (poor value) to 5 (excellent value), how would you rate the value for money of our product/service?

24. What factors influence your decision to pay a higher price for a product? (Open-ended)

25. Rate the following statement: “I would pay more for this product if additional features were included”: strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, or strongly agree.

26. On a scale of 1 (very unlikely) to 5 (very likely), how likely are you to continue using our service if we raise our price by 10%?

27. How does our pricing compare to competitors? (Multiple-choice: much lower, slightly lower, same, slightly higher, or much higher)

28. On a scale of 1 (low value) to 10 (high value), how would you rate our product’s value for money?

Questions for evaluating brand perception  

29. When you think of our brand, which of the following words comes to mind first? (Multiple-choice: reliable, affordable, luxury, etc.)

30. What do you associate most with our brand, and why? (Open-ended)

31. On a scale of 1 (not at all) to 10 (exceeds expectations), how well does our brand meet your expectations?

32. Rate the following statement: “I trust this brand to deliver high-quality products/services”: strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, or strongly agree.

33. If you were recommending our brand to a friend, which reason would you highlight most? (Multiple-choice)

34. On a scale of 1 (very unlikely) to 10 (very likely), how likely are you to associate our brand with innovation?

35. Rate the following statement: “This brand aligns with my personal values”: strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, or strongly agree.

You need to put extra effort into the options you give the responder. Having a plan for analyzing this data can help you understand which types of responses can give you the best insights.

Consider multiple factors when creating questions for a market research survey. The goal is to get as much value as possible without overwhelming the participant.

These tips can help you design an effective survey:

Mix question types strategically

Use a combination of multiple-choice, open-ended, Likert scale, and other question types. This variety keeps respondents engaged while capturing diverse insights. You need to give the respondents a chance to express themselves while keeping them focused on specific areas.

Avoid bias in wording

Phrase questions neutrally to avoid leading participants toward a particular answer and avoid emotionally charged or assumptive language that might skew results. For example, instead of asking, “Why do you love our product?” (which assumes a positive opinion), ask, “What is your overall opinion of our product?”

Keep questions simple and focused

Avoid overly complex or multi-part questions. Each question should address one topic or idea. Otherwise, they will confuse the respondent. Clear and concise questions lead to more accurate responses and reduce survey fatigue.

Pilot test your survey

Test your questions with a small group (such as colleagues or family members) before launching your survey. Gather feedback on clarity, structure, and length.

Respect respondents’ time

Keep the survey brief and relevant. Long surveys may cause respondents to lose interest, impacting the quality and quantity of feedback. Worse, it may deter them from submitting answers. The goal is to find an optimal balance between depth and brevity.

Use visuals

Consider using images as answer options. This approach works well for visual feedback or product preferences. Using images in your questions can make the survey easier for the participant to digest.

Market research surveys can drive business success. However, the outcome depends heavily on the question quality. When designing business survey questions for market research, you need to consider multiple factors while keeping the participants’ needs in mind.

Crafting thoughtful and effective survey questions is a strategic investment that, if done properly, can yield actionable insights and drive meaningful business growth.