How to create a CRM questionnaire (examples included)

Researching customer relationship management (CRM) questionnaires opens a Pandora’s box of possibilities as there are a bunch of different types.

In this post, we’ll explain how to create a comprehensive questionnaire to gather insights from clients or customers. Whether you’re here to improve client interactions or streamline your sales process, we’ve got you covered.

Let’s take a look!

Types of CRM questionnaires

A CRM questionnaire is a data-gathering form for businesses to collect information about their prospects or target audience. It’s a pretty broad definition though because CRM questionnaires can have lots of different goals. Here are just a few possibilities:

• CRM implementation questionnaires: This type of questionnaire helps CRM providers or implementors understand the needs of their clients before creating a tailored offer.

• Audience research CRM questionnaires: In this case, companies create online forms to learn as much as possible about their target audience. 

• CRM data update questionnaires: Reports show that more than 90% of CRM data is incomplete, stale, or duplicated every year, so agile organizations make questionnaires to update customer-related information.

Now you know a few different purposes of using a CRM form, but how do you actually create it?

We’ll explain it in the following section. 

CRM survey questions to include in your form

We already mentioned that different types of CRM forms demand different types of questions. For this reason, we’ll create three separate lists of questions to include in your online form.

Questions for a CRM implementation questionnaire

• What industry does your business operate in?

• Can you describe your company’s products or services?

• How many employees does your company have?

• What challenges or pain points are you currently facing in your business?

• How do you currently manage your customer data and interactions?

• Have you used a CRM system before? If so, please specify.

• What specific features or functionalities are you looking for in a CRM system?

• Do you have any specific integration requirements with other software systems?

• What is your budget range for investing in a CRM solution?

• Who will be the primary users of the CRM system within your organization?

• Are there any regulatory compliance requirements (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) that the CRM system needs to adhere to?

• What is your timeline for implementing a new CRM solution?

Questions for audience research CRM surveys

• What is your age range?

• What is your gender identity?

• Where do you live (city, state, country)?

• What is your highest level of education?

• What is your employment status?

• What social media platforms do you use regularly?

• What types of products or services do you typically purchase?

• What factors influence your purchasing decisions?

• How do you prefer to communicate with brands (e.g., email, social media, live chat)?

• What are your favorite brands and why do you like them?

• What motivates you to recommend a product or service to others?

• What are your main frustrations when interacting with brands online?

Questions for updating your CRM software data

• What is your current residential address?

• Can you confirm your email address for communication purposes?

• Are there any updates to your preferences or interests that would help us personalize your experience?

• Have you recently purchased any products or services from us or engaged with our brand in any way?

• Are there any feedback or suggestions regarding our products or services that you would like to share with us?

• Would you like to opt-in or update your preferences for receiving marketing communications from us?

Practical tips for creating your questionnaire

All of the options suggested above provide a nice blueprint for kickstarting your questionnaire creation process, but it’s important to customize it to match the peculiarities of your project. 

These tips will help you with that.

1. Clearly define your objectives

We already explain three different types of CRM questionnaires, but there are many more. For instance, you could create one for understanding customer lifecycle, conducting product research, sales analysis, or customer satisfaction analysis. 

That’s why you must clearly outline the purpose of your questionnaire to know exactly what you hope to gather. Setting clear objectives will guide the design of your CRM form to make it much more effective. 

2. Speak your respondents’ language

The second tip is just as important as you have to write questions in an easy-to-understand language. This means avoiding everything that could confuse respondents — jargon, technical terms, ambiguous phrasing, or loanwords. For example:

• Replace the word “optimize” with “improve”
• Don’t write “pro bono” when you can write “free of charge” or just “free”
• Avoid “pivot” and use “change direction” 

These are only a few simple examples, but you’ll probably find lots of opportunities to simplify the language in your CRM questionnaire. 

3. Keep it as short as possible 

Another important tip is to respect your respondents’ time by keeping the questionnaire as short as possible. That’s because complex online forms often lead to respondent fatigue and decrease completion rates. 

One solution is to prioritize questions and eliminate any unnecessary fields. 

It’s also recommended to use a form-building tool that shows respondents how much work is left to do. For instance, Content Snare does a great job in this field with its progress bar:

4. Pilot test and iterate

The last tip is to pilot test your questionnaire with a small group of representative respondents before sending it out to a larger group. This helps identify any confusing or misleading questions, and assess the overall flow of your CRM questionnaire. 

Design a questionnaire with a professional form-building tool

We’ll give one last piece of advice instead of conventional conclusion — use a professional online form builder to design your questionnaire. This gives you all the features you’ll need to create an eye-pleasing survey with intuitive navigation and questions that perfectly suit your campaign.

Content Snare ticks all of these boxes and goes the extra mile to provide you with many other advanced form-building functionalities such as:

• Automated notifications and reminders
• A fairly simple drag-and-drop builder
• In-form instructions and conversations 
• More than 20 filed and question types
• Multiple security layers

The best part about Content Snare is that you can try right now by signing up for a free two-week trial.